Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
running through the entire length. The seeds are 15-20 per fruit, somehow resembling cola nuts.
Each seed is about 2.5 cm in diameter, obliquely ovoid with flattened surfaces, reddish-brown, and
have a thick, woody, oily kernel.
Habitat and Distribution —
This is a lowland rainforest plant; it occurs in Ghana, Ivory Coast,
Nigeria, Cameroon, Zaire, and Tanzania.
Ethnomedicinal Uses —
The seeds yield fat that is used for skin and hair and for treating sores,
burns, rheumatic pains, insect bites, jiggers, eruptions, ringworm, and yaws. It is also used as a
vermifuge for both tapeworms and roundworms.
Constituents —
The plant contains fatty acids, triterpenes, and a bitter principle, tulukinin.
82
Pharmacological Studies —
The extract was shown to be apparently devoid of any activity
against malaria. The LD
50
of the root bark extract in mice was determined as 1.2 g/kg.
CARICA PAPAYA
L.
Botanical Name —
Carica papaya
L.
Synonyms —
C. hermaphrodita
Bianco,
C. mamaya
Vellon.,
Vasconcellea peltata
(Hook. &
Arn.) A. DC.
Family —
Caricaceae
Common Names —
Pawpaw, papaya
African Names —
Arabic: anbah hindi, babaya, babog fruta bomba; Hausa: gwandu; Igbo:
okworo-beke; Efik: etighi-mbakara; Swahili: papaya; Yoruba: ibepe, sayinbo
Description —
This is a small tree with a weak soft-wooded stem and palm-like appearance.
The stem is usually unbranched and hollow; the bark is gray and visibly marked by the numerous
large orbicular leaf scars. The leaves are dark green, very large, and crowded on the upper part of
the tree, each borne in a long, hollow, and cylindrical petiole. They are suborbicular, 20-60 cm
wide, usually palmately lobed, with each lobe pinnatilobulate, obtuse or acute. It is usually dioe-
cious, with male and female inflorescences borne on different plants, although rarely some plants
bear bisexual flowers. The male inflorescences are carried in the axils of the upper leaves, a long
pendulous raceme carrying the numerous sessile male flowers on the branches. The male flowers
are usually very fragrant. The female flowers are remarkably much larger than the male and more
or less without stalks (sessile) and are borne on the main axils.
