A shrub or small tree reaching to 7–8 m high in the west (Senegal, 26) to 20 m in the east (Nigeria, 21) of the Region, and to 2.70 m in girth (S. Leone, 35); shrubby, or erect with vertically ascending branches, of wooded savanna and deciduous forest, occurring across the Region and into the Congo basin.The plant has shiny dark green leaves and bears large showy terminal purple flowers. It is often grown as an ornamental and is easily propagated by cuttings. It is a familiar live-fence and boundary-tree throughout its distribution (13, 36; Senegal, 26; Sierra Leone, 14, 35; Nimba Mt. Guinea/Liberia, 37; Ivory Coast, 2, 4; Ghana, 16, 18–20; Nigeria 8, 9, 40; Gabon, 42; Zaïre, 29). When planted as a fence, it is often permitted to grow into a stockade. In Ijo custom the tree is used to mark the territorial boundary between non-relatives (45), Erythrina senegalensis (Leguminosae — Papilionoiideae) being used between relatives (44).
On the Benue Plateau, the Tiv use it commonly as a screen to give privacy around the washing areas (40).
To the Igbo, it is more or less a sacred or symbolic tree, often planted in small groves in front of a chief’s house (13).
To the Efik, Ekoi and Ibibio it is a symbol of the deities: it is found in Efik and Ibibio graveyards and sacred places (32) and when Efik and Ibibio set up a new settlement a cutting or sapling is always brought from the old one (13).
In Gabon (42) and in Ivory Coast (36), a tree is planted near to tombs and in villages as a protective talisman.
The Mende name meaning ‘corpse drive on’ derives from the use of leafy branches of the tree being used to fan a corpse to help its spirit on its way, and to keep off flies (13, 35).
In both Yorubaland and Hausaland the tree is held in regard: a leaf is placed on the head of a new chief, and cutting the tree with an axe or burning as fuel is avoided
(13).The wood is pale brown (Nigeria, 21) or yellow or yellowish-pink (Ghana, 20), even-textured, moderately hard and durable. The wood when cut remains alive and does not decay for a long time so that it is often used for posts, bridges and out-of-doors woodwork in Ghana (19, 20), fence (38) and house posts (39), and stakes for yams
(8) in S Nigeria. The wood is used for knife-handles (13), and in Sierra Leone to make specifically round machete-handles (35).
It makes a good firewood.In Sierra Leone the dried bark and young twigs are pounded up with spices (Xylopia (Annonaceae), etc.) are given in decoction or infusion for such complaints as uterine colic, dysmenorrhoea, etc.
(13). A decoction of the bark is given to children in Ivory Coast (27, 28) and Nigeria (33) for epilepsy and convulsions. The bark is used in Ghana as a stomachic and in the form of an enema for constipation and piles; the bark is also said to cure septic wounds (19, 20).
The bark is used in Guinea to treat snake-bite (36), while in Ghana the chewed-up leaves are applied to the wound which is then sucked to draw out the venom (19). Analgesic properties are said to reside in the bark. One or two sniffs or a snuff made of the sun-dried bark ground up with palm salt (K2CO3) or ‘sel de Taoudenit’ and the fruits of Piper guineense Schum. & Thonn. (Piperaceae) are taken for headache, sinusitis, head-colds, etc. in Ivory Coast, and will dispel the most obstinate migraine (27, 28). Perhaps similar use as snuff accounts for the Krio name ‘snuff-leaf in Sierra Leone.
In Gabon bark heated in a little boiling water is patted on the head for headache (10). Bark pulped up to a paste is used in Casamance (Senegal) on rheumatism, especially painful arthritis in the knee. In some cases a plaster is applied after massage, and in refactory cases where walking has become impossible various parts of Trichilia prieuriana (Meliaceae) are added to an aqeous infusion of N. laevis roots for internal and external use (23, 26).
A bark-decoction is taken in Nigeria (3), and Togo (43) for dysentery. The outer bark is decocted with chilis in Ghana and the liquor drunk for chest-pain (19, 20) and the inner soft bark is put into the ear for earache (13).
In Gabon a preparation (? infusion) is used in lotion for headache and in a gargle for toothache (41). A decoction of stem and root barks was in the past used with some success in Sierra Leone for acute malaria with splenic enlargement, by application of the crushed leaves with fruits of Xylopia aethiopica in poultice over the spleen, for dysenetry and post-partum and other forms of passive bleeding (15).
Bark boiled in water or palm-wine is commonly used in Congo for cough and diarrhoea (5).
Bark-preparations are also considered healing. In Ghana they are applied to sore feet and septic scores, and as a poultice to aching limbs (13).
In Ivory Coast the bark is used to make washes and hip-baths for chancres, and the liquid obtained by beating the bark in a little water upon a copper coin is used to wash the sore (2).
In Casamance (Senegal) preparations are topically applied in dracontiasis and snake-bite, and to abscesses and ulcers (22, 26).
It is used on breast-tumour in Ghana (17), and in Nigeria the bark and roots grounded up and mixed with oil and human faeces have been applied as an ointment on wounds (3).
The plant (part not stated, but probably the bark) is used in Upper Guinea sometimes against leprosy, and then is said to be some benefit (36).
In Congo the chest is rubbed with sap obtained by pounding the bark with leaves of Kalanchoe sp. (Crassulaceae) for pulmonary affections (5).
As a veterinary medicine, bark is fed to horses in Senegal to improve their appetite (13).The roots and leaves are often used together.
They are a familiar remedy for scrotal elephantiasis, or for any form of orchitis, a decoction being drunk or the materials pounded up together and applied hot.
They are also credited with aphrodisiac properties (13). In Nigeria they are boiled together for administration as a febrifuge (3).
The roots alone are pounded up with Lophira (Ochnaceae) in Senegal for massaging onto areas of oedema arising through dietary deficiency (25, 26), and a macerate or decoction of the roots is taken by mouth as a vermifuge for roundworm in Senegal (23, 24, 26), and in Guinea (13), and to treat hernia in Senegal and syphilis in The Gambia. The treatment is purgative and is regarded as more or less toxic. The roots are used in Senegal (22) and in The Gambia (13) against dysentery and for rheumatic swellings. They are also used in Nigeria as a roundworm vermifuge and stomachic, and for migraine and earache (33).
In Liberia root-scrapings mixed with chili are put into a carious tooth (13). A plaster is made from the roots for treating bad feet in The Gambia (34).
Stem-bark is used by herbalists in Nigeria for treating skin-infections. Examinations of boiled water extracts showed some activity against Gram +ve Sarcina lutea, but no action against Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacerium phlei, nor against Gram –ve organisms; nor was there any anti-fungal activity (30).The leaves are used in decoction in Nigeria as an eye-wash in conjunctivitis, ophthalmia etc. (3; 31);
they are cooked in palm-oil soup in Ghana and taken by pregnant women in order to effect easy delivery, and after parturition to promote a rich milk supply (19, 20). Belief in the facilitating of childbirth pertains also in Ivory Coast (7).
A decoction of the leaves with those of Psidium guajava (Myrtaceae) is taken in Ivory Coast for diarrhoea and dysentery (2).
In Sierra Leone leaf-ash mixed with salt is taken as a remedy for pain over the heart (13-? heartburn).
Leaves are used in Sierra Leone as a wrapper to hold tobacco snuff (12). It is said that stains on the hands can be removed by the leaves (20).Tannins are present in the bark of Nigerian material (1) and in plants from Guinea-Bissau and Congo (26). Screening of the roots for antimalarial activity has shown no action against avian malaria (11). Action of extracts of roots and leaves as an antidysenteric and antihaemorrhagic is said to be due not to astringency but possibly due to tonic effect on involuntary muscle and mucous membrane (15). Physiological action on muscle tone of the duodenum and ileum of the rabbit and guinea-pig is reported (26).
Comments
Post a Comment