Common Name:

General Information

Stephania dinklage is usually a climbing shrub with twining stems, though sometimes it has a more scrambling habit. The stems can be 15 - 20 metres long, twining clockwise into the surrounding vegetation[, ].
The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a medicine and source of tying materials.

Known Hazards

The pounded stems are used in the preparation of a fish poison[].

Botanical References

Range

Tropical Africa - Guinea to Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Congo, northern Angola, DR Congo, Uganda, Tanzania.

Habitat

Dense humid rainforest and riverine forest, and in old clearings, at elevations up to 1,500 metres[].

Properties

Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Climber
Height	12.00 m
Self-fertile	No
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required[].

Edible Uses

None known

Medicinal

The fresh plant sap is mixed with water or maize gruel and other ingredients and taken to treat dysentery or diarrhoea[].

A fresh infusion of young leaves is given to children with stomach-ache; the infusion is given immediately as it thickens on standing[]. The leaves are used as an aphrodisiac and to treat impotence in men. In Liberia women who wish to become pregnant eat the leaves cooked with rice, and wrap the tender stem around the hips[].

A plant extract is taken as a cough remedy[]. A decoction of the plant is used to induce menstruation[].

The stems are taken as a sedative and analgesic[].

Scrapings of the fresh root are applied in a hot poultice to the ribs to relieve pain in the sides. The root is also used against internal parasites[].

The seeds are used against leprosy[].

The leaves, stem and roots are used to treat profuse menstruation and complaints following childbirth[].

A large number of alkaloids have been isolated from the plant, including the aporphine alkaloids corydine, dinklageine, stephalagine, steporphine, roemerine, dicentrine and N-methylglaucine, the oxoaporphine alkaloids liriodenine (spermatheridine), N-methylliriodendronine, atherospermidine and oxodicentrine, and the proaporphine alkaloid stepharine. Of these, corydine is present in the highest concentrations. The anthraquinone aloe-emodin has also been isolated[].
An infusion of the roots exhibited antispasmodic activity in vitro[].
A methanol extract of the leaves and stems demonstrated antiprotozoal and cytotoxic properties in vitro[].
The alkaloids liriodenine and N-methylliriodendronine have shown significant activity against Leishmania donavani, and liriodenine the highest activity against Plasmodium falciparum[].
The anthraquinone aloe-emodin was active against Trypanosoma brucei[].
An ethanol extract of the stems showed cytotoxic and DNA-damaging properties in a bioassay with several strains of yeast. Liriodenine inhibited the growth of all yeast strains tested, but did not show DNA-damaging activity, while corydine did indicate DNA-damaging properties[].
Corydine has mild sedative properties and a depressant effect on the cardiac and respiratory systems, and a stimulatory effect on the central nervous system[].

Other Uses

Strong rope made from the stem is known in Sierra Leone as ‘Government rope’ owing to its official use as such in the past[].

Propagation

Seed -

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