Description

An annual herb of great variability, decumbent and sprawling or laxly erect and scandant to over 1 m long; a weed of cultivation and waste places in the savanna and forest zones throughout West Africa, and widespread in eastern and central Africa, Madagascar and Arabia.Though the leaves are bitter they are eaten as a vegetable in many parts and may even be grown for this, but more especially the plant is a famine-food. The leaves are used in soups, sauces and seasonings, and they are sometimes sold in West African markets (9). Consumption ‘in error’ (whether in excess or at the wrong stage of growth is not stated) is reported to cause vertigo and delirium (12). All stock is recorded as grazing it in Senegal (1), though in Sudan there are opposing statements on its acceptability (2).The leaves have a widespread reputation as an anthelmintic, particularly for children and to be especially effective against tapeworm (4, 7–9, 12, 20–23). In Ivory Coast the sap is administered to infants for this (7, 15). The plant is reported to contain kosotoxin which accounts for its anthelmintic action (7, 22). Its use requires caution and a common method is to take it in a draught of water in which unboiled husked grain has been soaked (9).In Sierra Leone the leaf is eaten raw for heart complaints (11). The leaf is applied to pustular skin eruptions in N Nigeria (17), to sores in S Nigeria (19), and to sores and boils in Ghana (13), and to skin-diseases generally, and sometimes by warm poultice to rheumatic conditions (9). In Congo the pulped leaves are applied over scarifications to relieve costal pains (5), and in Ghana in cataplasm for chest troubles, and by mouth for stomach, liver and urethral disorders (14). The plant is said to be diuretic and haemostatic (7) and to be used in West Africa to hasten child-birth (22). In Ivory Coast it is known as ‘medicine for wives’ (16), perhaps, as in Congo, to treat ovarian trouble (5), and in Ethiopia for excessive menstruation (22). The leaves and flowers are used in Ethiopia in enemas and to treat diarrhoea (22), and in enemas in Ivory Coast (16), and the powdered leaves are taken in Sudan for diarrhoea (3) and in Tanganyika for sharp stomach-pains (18).Leaf-sap is prepared as a collyrium in several areas for treating ophthalmias (7, 12, 14). In northern Ghana the pounded seed is also used in lotion (10).A dye reported as red (Zaïre, 12) or black (Tanganyika, 23) is obtained from the plant which in Tanganyika is used to dye leather.The seed contains a fatty oil and a quantity of potassium nitrate (15). The whole plant is rich in saponins (7) and a trace of flavones have been recorded (6).The Mandinka name in The Gambia meaning death grass refers perhaps either to the use of the plant in death ceremonies, or on account of its smell (Hayes fide 9). The Yoruba name, eat and break plate, raises the conjecture that this is another example common throughout anthropology of breaking eating utensils after use described in detail by Sir James George Fraser in his classic study of religion and magic, The Golden Bough. Vernaculars in Zaïre (12) especially corroborate the diversity of usages this plant has been put to that the plant merits careful screening.