Malpighia is a genus of flowering plants in the nance family, Malpighiaceae. It contains 108 species of shrubs or small trees, all of which are native to the American tropics, ranging from Texas through Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean to Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. The generic name honours Marcello Malpighi, a 17th-century Italian physician and botanist. The species grow to 1–6 m (3.3–19.7 ft) tall, with a dense, often thorny crown. The leaves are evergreen, simple, 0.5–15 cm (0.20–5.91 in) long, with an entire or serrated margin. The flowers are solitary or in umbels of two to several together, each flower 1–2 cm (0.39–0.79 in) diameter, with five white, pink, red, or purple petals. The fruit is a red, orange, or purple drupe, containing two or three hard seeds. M. emarginata, the acerola, is cultivated for its sweet and juicy fruits, which are very rich in vitamin C.
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The acerola cherry — a tropical fruit you might find at a Latin market or growing in a warm-clima...
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Scientists harvested tiny bubble-like particles naturally produced by the acerola fruit and used them to deliver CRISPR gene-editing tools into the brains of living animals via a nose spray. The plant-derived particles successfully edited a gene linked to ALS and frontotemporal dementia, suggesting a noninvasive route around the brain's toughest biological barrier.
