Common Name:

General Information

Cyphostemma adenocaule is a herbaceous, perennial, climbing plant producing stems 1.5 - 7.5 metres long from a tuberous rootstock. The stems scramble over the ground, climbing into the surrounding vegetation where they support themselves by means of tendrils[].
The plant is a popular vegetable in parts of Africa, where it is commonly harvested from the wild for local use. It is also used medicinally and is the source of a fibre, insecticide and construction material. There are reports that the plant is cultivated in Ethiopia[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Tropical Africa - Senegal to Eritrea, south to Angola, DR Congo, Malawi and Mozambique.

Habitat

Fringing forest; clearings in evergreen forest; bushland; thickets; grassland with or without scattered trees; abandoned cultivations; fallows; secondary forest; sandy river-banks; granitic rocks; rain-forest; savannah; at elevations to 2,650 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Perennial Climber
Height	5.00 m
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

Not known

Edible Uses

Leaves - cooked and eaten as a vegetable or added to soups[]. The leaves are boiled with beans, pigeon peas, cowpeas, groundnut or sesame[]. Both fruits and leaves contain oxalic acid, which gives them their acid, slightly acrid taste[].

Fruits - raw or cooked[]. They can be eaten as a vegetable or added to soups[]. An acid, slightly acrid taste[].

Roots - cooked. They can be boiled. The roots are sometimes sliced, dried and pounded roots, then stored for famine periods[].

The stems are cut to obtain drinking water[].

Medicinal

The leaves are chewed as a remedy for a sore throat, whilst the macerated leaves are mixed with honey as a cough treatment[]. An infusion of the leaves is taken as a purgative and to treat swollen abdomen[].
The leaf sap is used to cure ophthalmia, and is also applied to cuts[]. Heated over a fire, the leaves are applied as a compress to reduce swellings and to the chest to cure pneumonia[].

The roots contain tannins and are astringent. They are macerated and used as a treatment for tapeworms[]. The root has been used to treat malaria[]. Water in which roots have been boiled is drunk to treat syphilis, abdominal pain (related to pregnancy or not) and to prevent abortion[].
A paste made of the roots is applied topically to draw abscesses and reduce swellings[].

Root and leaf are prescribed against diarrhoea with blood[].

Other Uses

A fibre obtained from the bark is used to make string[].

Leaves crushed in water are used as an insecticide against chicken lice[]. Field tests were carried out in Uganda using the plant as a trap crop for Taylorilygus vosseleri, an insect pest of cotton. When treated with insecticide to prevent the development of large populations of the pest, Cyphostemma adenocaule gave considerable protection to the cotton crop[].

The dried stems are used for hut building[].

Propagation

Seed -

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