Common Name: Bush Butter Tree

General Information

Bush butter tree is an evergreen tree with a deep, dense crown; usually growing up to 20 metres tall in cultivation, but specimens up to 40 metres are known in the wild. The straight, cylindrical bole is often shallowly fluted and branching from low down; it can be up to 90cm in diameter[, ].
A major fruit crop in parts of Africa, where the tree is widely utilised as a local source of food, medicine and other commodities. It is both harvested from the wild and also often cultivated[, , ]. It is also grown as a shade and ornamental tree[]. The tree has been introduced to Malaysia and is also cultivated in Honduras[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Southern and western Tropical Africa - Ghana to the Congo.

Habitat

Swamp forest[]. Evergreen forest[]. A shade-loving species of non-flooded forests in the humid tropical zone[]. Where there is a well-marked season, it is found only in gallery forest and on swampy ground[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	20.00 m
Pollinators	Bees, Insects
Self-fertile	No
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Ornamental, Wild

Cultivation Details

A plant of the relatively dry tropical savannah, where it is found at elevations up to 1,000 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 18 - 28°c, but can tolerate 14 - 35°c[]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 1,200 - 3,000mm, but tolerates 1,000 - 5,000mm[]. The plant can be cultivated in a wide range of areas, since it adapts well to differences in day length, temperature, rainfall, soils and altitude[].
Seedlings can thrive in quite dense shade, but older trees grow well in partial shade or full sun[]. Grows in a wide range of soils, even succeeding in leached, infertile ferrallitic soils and swampy soils[, , ]. Prefers a pH in the range 5 - 6.5, tolerating 4 - 8[].
Seedling plants can commence fruiting when about 5 - 6 years old[].
Flowering time and duration depend on latitude and genotype. Some trees flower early, while others flower late and may produce blossoms continuously for several months[].
Yields of 20 - 50 kilos of fruit can be expected from each tree, with reports of 110 kilos from 20 year old trees[].
The flowers open in the morning and pollen is shed within 1 - 2 hours, so pollination has to be effected quickly[].
Trees can be male, female, or hermaphrodite[]. Male trees may produce a limited number of female flowers, and thus some fruit[].

Edible Uses

Fruit - raw or cooked[]. A pleasant, subacid flavour[]. The leathery shelled stone is surrounded by a pulpy, butyraceous pericarp about 5 mm thick which is the portion eaten, either raw, or cooked to form a sort of 'butter'[]. When placed in hot water it softens and swells and all the flesh then slides easily off the seed[]. The fruit flesh is softened by cell-wall-degrading enzymes. At temperatures of 60 - 85°c this is accomplished in a matter of minutes; at room temperature it takes 7 - 10 days, with bruising and microbes reducing this period to 3 days[]. Boiling inactivates the enzymes so that the pulp hardens[]. The fruit is usually salted and tastes like a warmed ripe avocado with a slightly sour flavour[]. It has a mild smell of turpentine and is oily with palmitic acid 36.5%, oleic acid 33.9 %, linoleic acid 24.0% and stearic acid 5.5%[]. The fruit contains 7% protein, which is very high for a fruit[]. The fruit is up to 70mm long and 30mm wide[].

The seed kernel is also rich in oil of the same fatty acids and approximately in similar amounts[].

Medicinal

The resin from the bark is used to treat parasitic skin diseases, jiggers etc[, ].

A bark-decoction is taken powdered with maleguetta pepper as an anti-dysenteric, and for anaemia, spitting blood and as an emmenagogue[].
The decoction is also used for making gargles and mouth-washes, for treating tonsillitis[].
The pulped-up bark is used as a wound cicatrizant[]. Combined with palm-oil, it is applied topically to relieve general pains and stiffness and to treat cutaneous conditions[].

The leaves are eaten raw with kola nut as an antiemetic[].
The leaf-sap is instilled into the ear for ear-trouble[].
A leaf-decoction is prepared as a vapour-bath for treating feverish stiffness with headache[].

Agroforestry Uses:

The leaves and the remains of the fruits can provide considerable quantities of biomass to improve soil fertility. Research carried out in the forest humid lowland of south Cameroon, showed that the peasant farmers use the tree as a good indicator of soils fertility[]. The plant's canopy can allow its integration into the traditional farming systems involving food crops, mainly shade tolerant species such as Xanthosoma saggittifolium, Colocosia esculenta etc[].

Other Uses

The bark is aromatic and on injury yields a resin[, ]. This is used in various ways - in perfumery; as an adhesive for mending broken earthenware; as a waterproofing the inner surface of calabashes; it can also be burnt as a primitive lamp-oil or bush-candle[].
The resin, under steam distillation, has been reported to yield a peppery essential oil rich in sabinene, β-phellandrene and limonene, and a non-volatile fraction of crystalline canaric acid, a keto acid and the corresponding hydroxy acid[].
The fruit contains about 1.5% essential oil. Its main constituents are: myrcene (45%), alpha-pinene (9%), alpha-terpineol (8%) and germacrene-D (4%); minor compounds include: E-alpha-cadinol, sigma-cadinol and βbeta-udesmol[].

The wood contains an oil that on petrol-ether extraction has been found to be composed of fatty acids and their esters[].
The fresh pulp is rich in lipids (35-65%) with a considerable amount of palmitic and linoleic acid. The tree can produce 7 - 8 t/ha of oil[].

The leaves are the source of a dye[].

The heartwood is greyish white to pinkish; it is not clearly demarcated from the sapwood. The wood is moderately heavy and elastic, the texture moderately coarse[, , ]. It is somewhat difficult to work due to the presence of silica, rapidly blunting tools during sawing; planing may be problematic due to the interlocked grain; staining, polishing and gluing properties are good, it can be peeled satisfactorily. It is used for axe-handles, occasionally for mortars, and is suitable for carpentry, etc[, ].
The wood is used mainly for fuel[].

Propagation

Seed - it has a short viability, its germination rate drops sharply unless its water content (42% of fresh weight) can be maintained. Unless sown within a week, germination and vigour are greatly reduced[]. Sow the seed in light shade in a nursery seedbed or in individual containers. Germination starts about 2 weeks after sowing and is epigeal. Early growth is vigorous - the seedlings growing rhythmically, extending by flushes. During a flush, the leaf form changes abruptly from cataphylls (0 - 3 per flush) to normal leaves (with 11 - 19 leaflets). The flush is usually brought to an end by the sudden transition from normal leaves to severely reduced leaves in which only one or two basal pairs of leaflets are extended[].
Cuttings have proved difficult[].
Air layering. Up to 80% success has been reported. It takes 4 - 6 months before the layer is ready to remove from the parent, and this should be done when the plant is not in active growth[].

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