Common Name:

General Information

Erythrophleum couminga is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree growing up to 20 metres tall[].
The tree is sometimes gathered from the wild for medicinal use.

Known Hazards

The bark is used as an ordeal poison[].
The leaves are toxic to cattle, but the bark and flowers are even more poisonous[]. The odour of the flowers is said to cause violent headaches and to kill birds[].
The alkaloid content of the bark is 0.3 - 0.5%[].

Botanical References

Range

Africa - western Madagascar.

Habitat

Deciduous woodland on sandy soils near sea-level and in wooded grassland in association with palms[].

Properties

Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Tree
Height	15.00 m
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

Found in the wild on sandy soils[].
The plant can survive bush fires[].
This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria, these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby[].

Edible Uses

None known

Medicinal

The stem and leaves are used as a cardiac tonic[].

The powdered bark is used in minute doses as a purgative and laxative[].

The bark contains several complex diterpenoid alkaloids, which are esters of tricyclic diterpene acids, with as main components alkaloids of the dimethylaminoethylester type, e.g. Coumingine[].
The alkaloids have a stimulant effect on the heart like the cardiac glycosides of Digitalis, but the effect is very short-lasting[].
Coumingine has similar effects as cassaine and cassaidine, which are major components in other Erythrophleum species. They have strong anaesthetic and diuretic effects, and increase contractions of the intestine and uterus[].
Apart from an increase of heart contraction in systole, the alkaloids also demonstrated an increase in diastole. In addition, coumingine caused depressive effects. Coumingine produced severe and long-lasting diarrhoea when given orally[].
In higher doses, the bark extract is an extremely strong, rapid-acting cardiac poison, in warm-blooded animals causing shortness of breath, seizures and cardiac arrest in a few minutes[].

Other Uses

The wood is hard, durable and resistant to decay[]. The branches are used as fence posts but the wood is hardly used otherwise[].

Propagation

Seed -

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