Description

A scandent shrub or lofty climber of transition forest, dry deciduous forest and in thickets of savanna country throughout the Region from Senegal to N Nigeria, and occurring in Camerouns to Congo and Cabinda.The plant has glabrous foliage; the flowers are white to mauve, turning yellow, or are markedly red, funnel-shaped with long yellow tails to 8 cm long. The Yoruba name, ilagbá o#mo#de, ‘little child’s horsewhip’, perhaps refers to the tails. The flowers are showy and open mostly while the plant is leafless. It has been brought into cultivation in other countries. It is common throughout the bush in West Africa and in clearing land for habitation it is conserved, and, though not cultivated, is tended.The stems are used in N Nigeria for reed-screens in houses (3). The Igbo of S Nigeria use the wood to make bows, calling the plant ọta nta, ‘bow for hunting’ (12). The sap has been used for coagulating Funtumia latex in Ghana, under which usage the plant has been called diecha-juice plant, a case perhaps of misidentity for dietwa is the Twi name for S. preussii (4, 5). A leaf-decoction is used in Ivory Coast by the Senufo for conjunctivitis and trachoma giving rapid relief and cure. The Baule take a twig-decoction for arthritic rheumatism, and the Akye give leaf-sap by mouth and a bark-macerate in enema for urethral discharge. The action is said to be diuretic and soothing (9). A macerate of pounded roots is taken on an empty stomach in Senegal for treatment of pains in the joints, and also for hernia (6, 8). A leaf-decoction is considered in Ivory Coast to be emetic and antidiarrhoetic (9), and in Senegal a decoction of leaves and roots is used to treat infantile diarrhoea (7, 8). A macerate of the roots is taken by draught and in baths as a vermifuge and invigorator, and to treat sleeping-sickness (7, 8). The powdered roots cooked with [the grain of] Digitaria exilis (Graminae) are taken in Senegal for abdominal flatulence with constipation giving rapid relief without painful purging (8). The leaf-sap or latex is held to be cicitrisant in both Ivory Coast (9) and in Senegal (6, 8), and is used on sores and wounds to give rapid healing, and for this reason in some villlages of Casamance it is considered a fetish of the circumcision ceremony.The plant has a strong reputation amongst Senegalese medicinemen specializing in the treatment of syphilis and associated complications. It is used in conjunction with other drug plants. The roots enter into a treatment for leprosy. It is also used for insanity (8).The bark is fibrous and a cordage can be made from it (Moor fide 2, 5). Hats and mats are said to be made from it (Dalziel fide 5).The seeds are widely recognized as highly poisonous and are used in various parts of Africa for making arrow-poison as well as in medicines. There appear to be variations however in potency of the prepared poison. Material from Nasarawa, N Nigeria, is said to be so highly toxic as to be unusable because it causes meat to rot too quickly. While material from Lagos area produced from plants introduced from inland is recorded as being not poisonous if used alone, and having to be mixed with seeds of S. kombe to produce an arrow-poison (10).The seeds have attracted commercial interest as a starting-point for the preparation of cortisone, a drug that has raised considerable medical attention in treatment of arthritis, cardiac rheumatism, etc. The seeds contain a cardiotonic glycoside sarmentocymarin which in hydrolysis yields sarmentogenin of very close physical structure to cortisone and into which it can be converted Physico-chemical and microbiological manipulation has shown the possibility of producing other corticosteroids and sex-hormones (8). Variation noted in the preceding paragraph has been observed in varietal differences of the species affecting both qualitatively and quantitatively the glycosides present the plants richest in sarmentocymarin coming from the drier northern region and those from the more humid south being poorest in glycosides. Medical expectations however, at one time high, are now abated somewhat and interest in the plant is more historic than practical. (8, 9, 11).