Comment on Pharmacokinetics and Urine Metabolite Identification of Dehydroevodiamine in the Rat: From Boymia ruticarpa A. Juss. to Tetradium ruticarpum (A. Juss.) T.G. Hartley

摘要

Editor: this letter replies to a query from a reader with taxonomic knowledge in Asian floras, who has written to me regarding a statement made in our paper (J. Agric. Food Chem, 2012, 60, 1595-1604). The problem that the reader has raised is that Evodia rutaecarpa does not exist. According to the reader, the sole possible plant that could be used here is Tetradium ruticarpum (A. Juss.) T.G. Hartley (Rutaceae Juss.) Our response is that in the botanical field, the original name is sometimes assigned without sufficient knowledge of the plant's characteristics; thus, a change of plant name is sometimes inevitable. Botanists studying a particular group of plants will often find that the relationships between individual species are different from what has been previously published. For instance, the name of Douglas fir, an evergreen coniferous tree, was changed to Pseudotsuga menziesii over 150 years, leaving 19 different names in history. X. ruticarpum (A. Juss.) T.G. Hartley also serves as an example. The vernacular names for T. ruticarpum are Evodia and Wu-Zhu-Yu. Although the correct generic name is spelled "Euodia", Evodia is also considered as an orthographic variant of the original spelling, Euodia. The very first publication was found in 1825, where it was first named Boymia ruticarpa A. Juss. in a French journal, Memoires du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. Later, in 1861, a famous British botanist, George Bentham, renamed this plant Euodia ruticarpa (A. Juss.) Benth. Finally, in 1981, due to a revision of the genus Tetradium, necessary name changes were performed. Upon its official introduction to the Western botanical society, this plant's official name was changed to Tetradium ruticarpum (A. Juss.) T.G. Hartley.