Compilation
Marsdenia latifolia

A climber from a tuberous base, of deciduous and secondary forests from Guinea-Bissau to W Cameroons, and widely dispersed elsewhere in tropical Africa.The stems are soft and pliable. They are used in Sierra Leone as chew-sticks (2), and cut up and boiled with lime juice (2), or infused in water over three days (3), the liquor is taken as a purge for colic and stomach-pains, and symptoms connected with worm-infection (1). The infusion is taken as a cleansing purge by Mohammedans during Ramadan (3). It is given to a newborn baby in the Joru area of Sierra Leone to make it grow rapidly (4). In Ghana the leaves are rubbed on the joints of small children to help them to walk (5), and in S Nigeria the leaves serve as a vegetable (7, 8).The bark contains a quantity of latex and though it has been viewed with potential interest for its rubber (10), it has apparently never been exploited. A closely related species M. reichenbachii Triana in Ecuador and Columbia is the source of cundurango bark containing glycosides cundurangin and cundurit and from which cundurago wine is prepared. This is used as an aromatic bitter and stimulant in treatment of dyspepsia (9, 11, 12). The bark of G. latifolium merits examination as an official dyspeptic.In Ghana the boiled fruits are put into soup as a laxative (6).