The Amazon Plant with a Thousand and One Uses!
Couma utilis (Mart.) Müll. Arg. - sorva, sorveira, or sorvinha.
CRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
Ingrid Koch & Fernando B. Matos
Couma utilis (= Collophora utilis) (November 14, 2021) by Renato GoldenbergCRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
The sorveira has been used by indigenous people and inland and riverside communities in the Amazon for a long time. It is a tree with beautiful pink flowers, rounded fruits with a sweet pulp, and sweet latex, used in food and for various other purposes.
Vol. I, Part I, Fasc. See Urban Plate 1 (1906)CRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
It is a plant native to the central Brazilian Amazon, Colombia, Guyana, and Venezuela, in dryland forests, fields, or meadows. It is often grown in urban areas and sites on the outskirts of Manaus. It is also called sorva-pequena, sorvilha, cumã, or sorva da mata.
The original name of the species, Collophora utilis Mart., and its popular name 'sorveira', are mentioned three times in the work ‘Travels in Brazil’ by Spix and Martius, highlighting its uses as an anthelmintic, in the composition of sealants for stilt houses, and in dyes.
“Among the useful plants that contain latex, I mention here the sucuúba. Internally, this latex serves for the expulsion of worms; externally, it is applied for the cleaning of malignant ulcers, impinges, and warts. The latex of the sorveira is also prescribed in the same measure against worms.”
The use as an anthelmintic is confirmed in the work ‘Plants used by Brazilians and their medicinal substances.’ Here, Martius reports the consumption of two to three drams of latex and castor seed emulsion. He also reports the use of latex as a varnish on household items by indigenous people.
Later reports inform us that the latex from sorvas (commercially known as “pendare”) was widely exploited as a raw material for the manufacture of chewing gum, exported in compact solidified blocks.
Couma utilis, branch with fruits (September 23, 2008) by André Olmos SimõesCRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
Its fruits are highly prized by inhabitants of the Amazon region for being sweet and tasty, as well as very nutritious, calorific, and rich in vitamin C. There are reports that sorva is the daily nutritional source for rubber tappers when they go out to work in the forest.
Couma utilis, tree (September 23, 2008) by André Olmos SimõesCRIA - Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
In early 2022, it was reported that two children aged seven and nine had been lost for 27 days in the forest, in the Manicoré region, state of Amazonas, but survived by eating sorva.
Porto dos Miranhas, Rio Japurá (1823) by Johann Baptist von Spix, Carl Friedrich Philipp von MartiusOriginal Source: Wikimedia Commons
“The floor is covered with brick or beaten earth [...]. The walls are whitewashed in white or yellow with tabatinga, taken from huge deposits in the rivers. To better bind this material, it is kneaded not only with water but also with a part of the viscous milk of the sorveira.”
Spix Reiseatlas original 61 by Johann Baptist von Spix, Carl Friedrich Philipp von MartiusOriginal Source: Wikimedia Commons
Cavalcante (1972) adds that “the coagulated latex is used in the caulking of boats, also consumed with coffee or in the form of porridges, mixed with other ingredients”.
Indian tools (1823) by Johann Baptist von Spix, Carl Friedrich Philipp von MartiusOriginal Source: Wikimedia Commons
“The task at which the Indians prove most industrious is that of painting the dishes. A paint made with oca or tabatinga, finely pulverized, or also with the red carajuru, mixed with water, sometimes bound with the milky resin of the sorveira, forms the base.”
Over it are applied many patterns of curved and straight-line figures, interspersed with flowers and animals or arabesques in various colors.” (Martius, Travels in Brazil, vol. III).
Fridericia chicaOriginal Source: Plants of the World Online, Kew
The name "Tabatinga" refers to the white-colored clay and the "carajuru" (a.k.a. chica, cipó-cruz, guajuru, guarajuru-piranga) refers to Fridericia chica (Bonpl.) L.G.Lohmann (Bignoniaceae), a vine plant from which a reddish dye is extracted.
Tukano bench made with Sorva by Federação das Organizações Indígenas do Rio NegroOriginal Source: FOIRN - Federação das Organizações Indígenas do Rio Negro
Sorva wood is used for construction and carpentry, such as making the Tukano stool (kumurõ), the production of which is being collaboratively monitored in order to draw up a management plan for this raw material.
In Flora Brasiliensis, sorveira is treated by Muller-Argovensis as Couma utilis (Mart.) Mull. Arg., its valid name until then.
Research and writing: Ingrid Koch (UNICAMP) & Fernando B. Matos (CRIA)
Assembly: Fernando B. Matos (CRIA)
Review: Fernando B. Matos, Renato De Giovanni (CRIA)
References: Flora Brasiliensis (http://florabrasiliensis.cria.org.br/opus); Travels in Brazil (https://www2.senado.leg.br/bdsf/handle/id/573991); Cavalcante (1972). Frutas comestíveis da Amazônia. Pub. Avulsas Mus. Pa. Emilio Goeldi 17: 1-84. (https://repositorio.museu-goeldi.br/bitstream/mgoeldi/896/1/P%20Avul%20n17%201972%20CAVALCANTE.pdf)
Additional information: http://florabrasiliensis.cria.org.br/stories
Acknowledgments: All the authors of the images and characters in the story
*Every effort has been made to credit the images, audio, and video and correctly recount the episodes narrated in the exhibitions. If you find errors and/or omissions, please email contato@cria.org.br
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