Common Name:

General Information

Ricinodendron heudelotii is a deciduous tree with a fairly open, spreading, rounded crown; it can grow up to 50 metres tall. The straight, cylindrical bole ca be up to 120cm in diameter, it has a short buttress that often extend into heavy, superficial roots[, , ].
A multipurpose tree, providing food, medicines and a wide range of commodities to the local population. The tree is harvested from the wild, encouraged to remain when land is cleared and also sometimes cultivated. It also appears to have a good potential for use as a pioneer species. Products from the tree, especially the seeds, are sold in local markets, and the seeds are sometimes exported to Europe[]. The tree is planted as a roadside tree in parts of Africa[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Tropical Africa - Senegal to Sudan and Kenya, south to Angola and Mozambique.

Habitat

Fringing, deciduous and secondary forests, common throughout the semi-dry wooded-savannah zone[]. Rain forests, but is typical of the more open, secondary formations and is common on abandoned farmland[, ].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Deciduous Tree
Height	40.00 m
Growth Rate	Fast
Self-fertile	No
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Ornamental, Semi-cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

A plant mainly of the tropics, where it can also be found at elevations up to 2,000 metres. It grows best in areas where the mean minimum and maximum temperatures are within the range 20 - 30°c, but can tolerate 14 - 34°c[]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 800 - 4,000mm, but tolerates 500 - 5,000mm[].
Grows best in a sunny position[, ]. Prefers a medium textured, freely draining, acidic soil[].Prefers a pH in the range 5.5 - 6.5, tolerating 5 - 7[].
A very fast-growing tree, in open light spaces it will bear fruit in its seventh to tenth year of growth[].
The tree responds well to coppicing and pollarding, regenerating readily from the stump[, ]. Some reports suggest the tree does not alwyas coppice well[].
The tree grows spontaneously from seed and is often preserved in the neighbourhood of forest villages[].
A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required.

Edible Uses

Seed - cooked[]. Although edible, they are not everywhere valued as food[]. The kernels are eaten boiled in water or in sauce, or mixed with fish, meat and other vegetables[]. They can be roasted and made into a paste, which can be stored and used for making porridge in times of food shortage[, ]. In many areas the seeds are regarded as a famine food, for use when other foods are not available[]. The black fruit is a 2 - 3-lobed drupe 25 - 30mm long and 40 - 50mm wide, containing 2 - 3, globose seeds around 15mm in diameter[].
Fallen fruits are collected from the ground. After collection, the fruits are left to rot in big piles. Once the fruit pulp is rotten, the stones are extracted by washing and boiling the fruits vigorously. Then the stones are removed from the hot water, put in cold water and left overnight. They are boiled vigorously once more until the shells crack. Shells are then removed using a knife. After extraction, the seeds are dried[].

The seed contains about 47% by weight of a light yellow oil with a sweet taste[, ]. The seeds are pounded, boiled in water and then allowed to cool. The floating oil is skimmed off, boiled then filtered and used for cooking[]. The oil consists of the following fatty acids: eleostearic 44%; oleic 16%; plus 10% each of palmitic; stearic; linoleic; and linolenic[].
Leaves - cooked and eaten as a protein-rich vegetable[].

The ash of the wood is used as vegetable salt in cooking[].

Medicinal

The stem-bark is taken by enema to prevent abortion[].
A decoction of the stem bark is used externally to wash and cicatrize sores[].

A decoction of the root bark is considered a powerful anti-dysenteric[]. The root bark is ground up into a powder then mixed with pepper and salt and used for treating constipation[].

A decoction of the bark is used in the treatment of blennorrhoea, cough, painful menstruation and as an antidote to poison[]. A bark-liquor is taken by pregnant women to relieve pains and to prevent miscarriage. It is also taken by women 'to kill a worm which is in the bowels and which prevents them from breeding'[].
Externally, the bark is used in lotions and baths to strengthen rachitic children and premature babies, and to relieve rheumatism and oedemas[].
The pulped bark (also the leaves) is applied externally to treat fungal infections, to maturate abscesses, furuncles and buboes[]. The bark is beaten and warmed, then tied to the body in the treatment of elephantiasis[].

The expressed sap is instilled to the eye in the treatment of filaria and ophthalmia[].

The leaves are used to treat dysentery, female sterility, oedemas, and stomach-pains[].
A leaf decoction is taken by draught and in baths as a febrifuge[].

The roots in Ivory Coast are considered aphrodisiac[].

Examination of various sources of the bark have found no active principles[].
Leaves and stems have been reported to contain an unnamed alkaloid.
The traditional use of the seed, husk and latex as a remedy for gonorrhoea and diarrhoea may rest on the action of a resin found in the seed, as also the use for treating amoebic dysentery[].

Agroforestry Uses:

The roots reach deep into the soil and cause little competition for nutrients and water in the upper soil layers with adjacent crops[]. It is a popular shade and shelter tree in smallholder cocoa plantations[]. There is a belief that 'collar-crack' disease will occur on a cacao farm if the tree is cut down[].
When not grown in pure stands, this species has always been intercropped with coffee, cocoa or bananas[].
The seed contains small amounts of toxic substances, said to be a resin, which renders the residual cake unfit for use as a cattle-food though the cake should be a good nitrogenous agricultural fertiliser[].
The tree is used as a live fence and for erosion control[].
The tree could be very useful as a pioneer species - it is very fast growing, often found in secondary formations and commonly invades old farmland in its native range[].

Other Uses

The ash of the wood is used as a source of potash for the preparation of a vegetable-salt in soap-making and in indigo dyeing[, ].

The seed contains about 47% of a light yellow drying oil with a sweet taste[]. It is usable in varnish and to make soft-soap, and it has industrial application in making water-proofing materials[]. Decortication, however, is not easy, and as the shell amounts to 37% of the weight of the seed the total amount of oil may be as low as 14% of the whole seed[]. The seed contains small amounts of toxic substances, said to be a resin[].

The seeds are used in rattles and as counters in games[, ].

The leaves areused as wrapping material[].

The sawdust is extraordinarily light and is suitable for use in making life-saving belts[].
The wood is currently recommended for use in insulation and the sawdust is no doubt suitable for sun-helmets[].

The heartwood is dull white to pale yellow, darkening once exposed to light; it is not clearly differentiated from the sapwood. The grain is straight to interlocked, sometimes slightly wavy; the texture coarse and even. The wood is very light in weight; very soft; fibrous; brittle; not very durable, being liable to attack by termites, powderpost beetles and marine borers. It dries rapidly with little or no degrade; shrinkage rates are low; once dry the wood is moderately stable to stable in service. The wood saws and works easily with ordinary tools - there is a great tendency to woolliness, however, and tools need to be kept very sharp; it nails and screws without splitting, but holding properties are poor; gluing is correct; turning and planing are difficult. The wood is considered to be a good substitute for balsa wood (Ochroma pyramidale); it is very buoyant and is used for fishing-net floats and rafts for heavy timbers, because of its ease of working it is carved into fetish-masks, spoons, ladles, plates, platters, bowls, dippers, stools, etc; it is also used for rough planks and coffins[, , , ]. The wood is used for making drums which are said to be very sonorous, and it is carved to make the whole or the resonant parts of musical instruments in various parts of Africa[]. The wood is perhaps suitable for paper-pulp[].
The wood is indifferent as a fuel, since it burns with great rapidity[].

Propagation

Seed - it has a hard seedcoat and may benefit from scarification before sowing in order to speed up and improve germination. This can usually be done by pouring a small amount of nearly boiling water on the seeds (being careful not to cook them!) and then soaking them for 12 - 24 hours in warm water. By this time they should have imbibed moisture and swollen - if they have not, then carefully make a nick in the seedcoat (being careful not to damage the embryo) and soak for a further 12 hours before sowing. Sow in a nursery seedbed in a fairly open position. Germination of treated seed commences about 3 - 6 weeks after sowing[].
Fairly large cuttings root easily[].

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