Common Name:

General Information

Myrianthus arboreus is a shrub or tree with a spreading, many-branched crown growing 10 - 20 metres tall[]. It has stilt roots up to 60cm long and a short bole up to 1 metre in diameter that is often divided and branched from low down near the base[, ].
A true multipurpose tree, providing a range of foods, medicines and other commodities for the local people. The leaves are particularly highly valued as a food and are sold in local markets[]. Although not usually cultivated, the tree is valued enough that it is usually protected when forests are cleared for farming[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Tropical Africa - Guinea to Central African Republic and Uganda, south to Angola, DR Congo and Tanzania.

Habitat

Secondary vegetation; more or less open places in rain-forests; damp places in forest; forest gallery and clearings; stream or lagoon and lake sides; flooded ground; sometimes in villages[]. At elevations from 700 - 1,200 metres in Tanzania[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Tree
Height	15.00 m
Self-fertile	No
Cultivation Status	Semi-cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

A plant of moderate elevations in the moist tropics, being found from 700 - 1,200 metres. It is found in areas where the mean annual temperature is in the range 16 - 26°c and the mean annual rainfall is 1,400 - 4,000mm[].
Prefers a damp soil[].
Young plants can begin producing fruit when 4 - 5 years old from seed[].
The plant has mycorrhizal associations, thus helping to enrich the soil with nitrogen[, ].
A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required.[, ]

Edible Uses

Young leaves - cooked[]. They are commonly eaten in a vegetable-soup - the soup being so highly considered by the local people as to evoke the saying that 'one will kill his child for the sake of ibishere soup'[].

Fruit - raw[, ]. The fruit contains 5 - 15 seeds, each surrounded by a sweet or acidulous pulp which is generally well-liked and commonly eaten[, , ]. The fruit is heart-shaped and may attain 10 - 15 cm in diameter, it is very hard and green when unripe, but turns yellow and soft when mature[].

Seed - cooked[]. The seed contains about 45% oil, of which linoleic comprises about 93% of the whole[]. The kernel is about 10mm long by 5 - 7mm wide, it is enclosed in a woody pericarp amounting to 60 - 65% in weight of the whole[]. The seed also contains about 19% sugars and 30% proteins[]. The protein is unusually rich in cystine, which is of potential value to a population suffering from a chronic deficiency of sulphur-bearing amino acids[].

Medicinal

The bark is said to be antidysenteric, cholagogue and taenifuge[]. It is used in the treatment of chest-complaints[]. Scrapings of the bark, cooked in palm-oil, are taken to relieve sore-throat[].

The leaves are chopped up small are eaten raw with salt for treating heart-troubles; pregnancy complications; dysmenorrhoea; and incipient hernia[]. An extract of the leaves, combined with Alchornea spp., is used in the treatment of dysentery, and the leafy shoots are chewed for this same purpose[]. The liquid in which young leaf-flushes and a peeled green banana have been boiled is a medicine taken little and often to stop diarrhoea and vomiting[, ]. The leaves are an ingredient of a febrifuge given to small children[, ].
The leaf or leaf-petiole is beaten into a plaster for application to boils[]. Sap from the young leaves, or the terminal buds, is applied topically to toothache; applied to the chest to treat bronchitis; or is used as a throat-paint for laryngitis or sore throat[]. It is used as an analgesic for muscular pains, and is put into enemas for haemorrhoids[]. When combined with the leaves of Holarrhena floribunda and a chilli, it is used in an enema to relieve pain in the back and loins[].

The aerial roots yield an abundant amount of sap when cut up. This is drunk as an anti-tussive and anti-diarrhoeic, and as a remedy for haematuria and blennorrhoea[].
A vapour-bath made from the diced roots, combined with maleguetta pepper, is used in the treatment of headache[].

The whole fruit is boiled in sap from the tree or in palm wine or other fruit ferments to take as an emeto-purgative[]. It is preferred to the less active bark or leaves which may also be used for the same purpose[].

Several pentacyclic triterpenoids have been isolated from the wood and the roots[].
Euscaphic acid, myrianthic acid, tormentic acid, ursolicacid and a derivative of ursenoic acid have been isolated from stems[].
Myrianthinic acid was isolated from the bark[].
The wood also contains myrianthiphyllin, a lignan cinnamate[].
Bark extracts of Myrianthus arboreus have shown antiplasmodial, antimycobacterial and antitrypanosomal effects in vitro, which supports some of its uses in traditional medicine, e.g. To treat malaria[].

Agroforestry Uses:

The leaves are enormous, to 70 cm across, digitately compound of 7 - 9 leaflets, the largest attaining 50 cm length by 25 cm breadth. When they fall and lie on the ground they form a good groundcover retaining moisture and rotting down to form a thick humus[].

Other Uses

Lye can be extracted from the ash of the wood and this is used in making soap[, , ].

Extracts of the plant have been shown to deter the termite Reticulitermes lucifugus[, ].

The yellowish-white wood is moderately light, soft, fibrous and difficult to work[, ]. It is used to make domestic utensils[]. Though perishable it is also used for fencing[].
The wood is used for fuel[, ].

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe[]. About 40% of the seed germinates within 1 month, but this rate can be improved by soaking the seed for 12 hours in warm water prior to sowing[]. The seed also germinates better if it has passed through the gut of an animal[].
Bud grafting and stem cuttings have been successfully used for propagation in experiments[].

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