Description

A tree to about 15 m high, with an enormous squat trunk to 20 m girth or more (2, 11), occurring in the soudano-sahel savanna, rarely in the guinean wooded savanna, across the Region from Senegal to W Cameroon, and in a discontinuous belt across Africa north and south of the Equator (9, 12, 27). Such is the diverse utility of the tree to man and animals by which agencies its dispersal has been augmented that its original habitat is no longer clear. It is thought not to be native to Sierra Leone (36), nor to The Gambia (35) for it is found only around habitations. Its presence in Senegal is disjuncted and is mainly around villages or old village sites (27). The name baobab arises from the Arabic bu hibab meaning fruit with many seeds. Its first mention in European literature is in Alpino (Venice, 1592): De Plantis aegypti liber, as ba hobab, referring to the fruits commonly sold in Egypt for their edible pulp (1, 27). From this it must appear to have entered western European languages as baobab, though to Adanson (1727–1806), whose name the genus bears and by whose work so much has been learnt of West African botany, it was known as arbre aux calebasses (calabash tree).The wood is light and spongy. It is not durable and is easily attacked by fungi with the result that local uses are rare. Furthermore the shape of the tree does not make felling easy: an axe is more likely to bounce off the wood than to cut into it and in clearing trees for the Kariba Dam tractor-drawn wire-hawsers were used. A Hausa epithet for the wood, fanko, means ‘good for nothing.’ The wood makes poor firewood unless thoroughly dried out. A large amount of mucilage present, which enables the tree to withstand desiccation, obstructs the drying process. It is not good for cutting into planks, but wide and light canoes can be made, and wooden plates, trays, floats for fishing-nets, etc. The wood can be pulped for paper-making, but quality is doubtful (12, 39). It can be turned into a poor quality charcoal, sometimes used for want of better (1), and burnt to yield a vegetable salt (21, 39). Wild animals are said to chew the wood (39) perhaps to obtain the salt from the sap.The tree living in very dry situations with its enormous trunk of spongy wood carries a great quantity of water. A good tree may hold as much as 1,000 gallons (39), and girth may vary according to weather conditions. Man has undoubtedly planted trees to be able to tap the aqueous sap as well as for its other multifarious uses. Hollows may be carved out from a small hole which is then corked so that the liquid may collect and be readily drawn off, or even the whole tree hollowed out to form a tank though medical officers may view this with disfavour as furnishing mosquito breeding sites. In E Africa the trunk may be hollowed out to provide shelters and form storage rooms (39). Livingstone in his explorations in Mozambique recorded use as dwellings. The fabled longevity of the tree is not satisfactorily confirmable, but the age of a tree cut down for the Kariba Dam project was determined by C14 dating as 1010 ± 100 years old, with an inference that really large individuals could, indeed, be several thousands of years old (37). The odd appearance of the tree has resulted in magical and superstitious uses. In Upper Volta it is left standing when clearing the bush as a fetish tree (28). Primitive tribes of N Nigeria reverence it by cutting symbols in the bark (29). The hollowed-out trunk has been recorded as used as tombs (1), and a place where a body denied burial may be suspended between earth and sky for mummification (12). In places it is worshipped as a fertility symbol. Rock-art in the Limpopo Valley depicts women’s breasts as baobab pods (39). In Upper Volta children of the Ela born under the sign of this tree (kukulu, Lyela) are given the patronymic kukulu, boys, or ekulu, girls (32).The bark is fibrous. It is commonly stripped off the lower bole. The tree appears to be able to survive considerable rough treatment and to regenerate the bark. Fibre from the inner bark is particularly strong and durable. It is commonly used to make rope and cordage, harness-straps, string for musical instruments, baskets, nets, fishing-lines, etc. It lacks tenacity and fineness for spinning, and loses strength on drying. The bark can be dried and beaten to yield a crude bark-cloth usable as aprons and loin-cloths, fishing-nets and as sacking and packing material for local trade. (1, 6, 12, 14, 21, 26, 31, 33–35, 38, 39, 41–43.) At one time the bark was exported to Europe to make a strong packing paper (12). In N Nigeria flat pieces serve as the soles of sandals threaded with baobab fibres as toe thongs (43).Reports that the bark is eaten in Senegal (19, 20, 39) are not corroborated by other authors. At any rate the bark contains a quantity of edible, insoluble, acidic tragacanth-like gum (18). This is used for cleaning sores. The bark has medicinal properties as a febrifuge in West Africa and in other parts of the world. It has been used as a quinine-substitute (5, 12, 21). It has been imported to Europe as cortex cael cedra. It is diaphoretic and anti-periodic. Its benefit as a febrifuge has not been detected in experimental malaria (10, 39). It has a bitter taste. An unnamed alkaloid is recorded present (40), and also the presence of the alkaloid, adansonin, but examination of Nigerian material gave inconclusive results on the presence of alkaloids (4). Adansonin has a strophanthin-like action, yet in E Africa the bark is said to be antidotal to Strophanthus arrow-poison (1, 12, 39). These anomalies clearly merit further examination. In some countries the bark is used for tanning (12, 15). In Congo the bark-decoction is used to bathe ricketty children (7), and in Tanganyika as a mouth-wash for toothache (16). A soap-lye can be made from the bark-ash (1), and the ash of all parts has value as a fertilizer (21).The leaves, and especially the young leaves, are a popular item of diet as a spinach or to make soups and sauces. In some parts the trees are pollarded so as to produce an abundance of young leaves. In Senegal leaves of a glabrous form are preferred, tomentose forms being considered unsuitable. In Mali the leaves of a variety called mǒlódo (Bambara) are not eaten, and in Zaria, N Nigeria, two forms, jar kuka and maiwa (Hausa), are recognized (12), but the distinctions are not stated. In N Nigeria the first leaves are said to be unfit for use till they have been washed by the rains (43). The most common use of the leaves is to dry and powder them into an article known throughout much of W Africa as lalo. The leaves are rich in mucilage containing uronic acids, rhamnose and other sugars (9, 27, 33, 39). Tannins, potassium tartrate, catechins and a flavonic pigment, Adansonia flavonoside, are also present (33). On alkaline soils at least, if not on others, the leaves contain a high calcium content. It is said that the Dakaroise consume 35–49 gm of lalo daily providing an adequate calcium intake (1). The fresh leaf is rich in vitamin C but this is lost on drying in producing lalo (1, 9). Lalo is a term applied to other similar ingredients used as food, condiment and seasoning. It is also used to denote medical preparations based on the dried leaf. The leaves have hypotensive and antihistaminic properties (28, 33). They are diaphoritic and promote sweating, but are recorded also as used to treat excessive perspiration (12, 33, 39). General applications of the leaf are for kidney and bladder diseases, asthma, general fatigue, tonic, blood-cleanser, prophylactic and febrifuge, diarrhoea, inflammations, insect bites, expulsion of guinea-worm, internal pains and other affections. (1, 5, 6, 8, 12, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 33.) Dysentery is treated by mouth or in hip-baths, and asthma, sedation, colic, fevers, inflammations, diseases of the urinary tract, ear-troubles, backache, ophthalmias, wounds and tumours, respiratory difficulty, etc., are treated by lalo by mouth or in liquid preparations (1).The leaves are browsed by stock, and are fed to horses (1, 22, 33). In Nigeria the leaves are the most usual ingredient of a horse-food (chusar doki, Hausa) which given in large quantities is said to keep a horse in good condition on a journey. Given in smaller amounts it is tonic, blood-making, and good for subcutaneous swellings caused by insect-bites (12).The roots may be cooked and eaten as a food (1). It is said by the Temne of Sierra Leone that a root-decoction taken with food causes stoutness hence their vernacular name for the plant, an-derẻbai meaning ‘The Chief’s Body’ (13). The dried powdered root is prepared as a mash which is taken for malaria (16), perhaps as a tonic. The roots are used in E Africa to yield red dye (15).The earliest European name for the seed pods is that of the French travellers in Senegal, calabasse du Sénégal. The pods, or more correctly the mealy fruit pulp within them, are the Monkey Bread or Pain de Singe (French). They are of variable shape, subspherical to ovoid, 15 to 35 cm long by 7–15 cm in diameter. The husks are good for burning and a potash-rich vegetable salt may be obtained from this ash which is usable for making soap (1). The powdered husk or the powdered peduncle may be smoked like tobacco (1). The whole husk can be used as a dipper or to hold liquids and is sometimes fashioned into snuff-boxes (39, 42). Fibres lining the inner surface of the husk are given in decoction to treat amenorrhoea (1, 27, 33).The seeds are embedded in the dry acidulous, mealy pulp which is rich in mucilage, pectins, tartrates and free tartaric acid (9). The presence of tartrates gives rise to the name Cream of Tartar tree. Calcium and, when eaten raw, vitamins B, and C are abundant (1). It is important in diet as a seasoning and appetiser, and in time of dearth it is eaten as a foodstuff. It can easily be made into a gruel with water, with millet, or milk which it curdles, etc., and provides a refreshing drink (1, 9, 12). It has medicinal uses as a febrifuge and antidysenteric. It appears in small-pox and measles treatments as an eye-instillation (1, 5, 6, 12, 27). At one time the pulp was exported to Europe as an imposture of terra Lemnia, or terra sigillata, a medicine of the Ancients mined from the Island of Lemnos in the Aegaean (12). It has been used in West Africa as a coagulant for latex resulting in a good quality coagulum (12, 14). It has been used as a coagulant for Ceara latex in E Africa (39), The pulp burns with a smoke which can be used for preserving and drying fish. Its acrid smell is also useful to drive away stinging insects troublesome to stock (1, 21).The seed-pods are burnt as a fuel in N Nigeria and the ash is used to make soap and for curing an illness known as dankanoma (? Hausa). Water which has been filtered through the ash is sometimes added to soup in the belief that it will kill germs, e.g., those on unwashed baobab leaves (see above), and will cure stomach troubles (43). The white mealy substance surrounding the seeds is chewed by children and animals. When soaked in water it produces a milky solution which is taken as a milk-substitute (43). The seeds have a relatively thick shell which is not easy to separate from the kernel. This shell is recorded in a Dakar sample as 55–46% of the whole. The kernel is edible but the difficulty of decortication limits its usefulness. It is rich in protein and thiamine, 100 gm daily being adequate to supply an adult’s requirement (1). Oil-content by ether-extraction is recorded as 68% of the kernel. The oil is non-drying and consists of stearic, palmitic and oleic acids (27). The kernel is free of starch, alkaloid and cyanogenetic glycosides (39). Parching and crushing can be practised to decorticate the seed. The oil can be obtained by boiling it off (12) and this has uses for gala occasions in Senegal (1). Roasted seeds are crushed to a paste which is applied to diseased teeth and gums. When burnt, a potash-rich salt can be got from the ash suitable for soap-making (1).The white shoot of the germinating seed and the roots of very young seedlings are edible (12).

Description

A tree to about 15 m high, with an enormous squat trunk to 20 m girth or more (2, 11), occurring in the soudano-sahel savanna, rarely in the guinean wooded savanna, across the Region from Senegal to W Cameroon, and in a discontinuous belt across Africa north and south of the Equator (9, 12, 27). Such is the diverse utility of the tree to man and animals by which agencies its dispersal has been augmented that its original habitat is no longer clear. It is thought not to be native to Sierra Leone (36), nor to The Gambia (35) for it is found only around habitations. Its presence in Senegal is disjuncted and is mainly around villages or old village sites (27). The name baobab arises from the Arabic bu hibab meaning fruit with many seeds. Its first mention in European literature is in Alpino (Venice, 1592): De Plantis aegypti liber, as ba hobab, referring to the fruits commonly sold in Egypt for their edible pulp (1, 27). From this it must appear to have entered western European languages as baobab, though to Adanson (1727–1806), whose name the genus bears and by whose work so much has been learnt of West African botany, it was known as arbre aux calebasses (calabash tree).The wood is light and spongy. It is not durable and is easily attacked by fungi with the result that local uses are rare. Furthermore the shape of the tree does not make felling easy: an axe is more likely to bounce off the wood than to cut into it and in clearing trees for the Kariba Dam tractor-drawn wire-hawsers were used. A Hausa epithet for the wood, fanko, means ‘good for nothing.’ The wood makes poor firewood unless thoroughly dried out. A large amount of mucilage present, which enables the tree to withstand desiccation, obstructs the drying process. It is not good for cutting into planks, but wide and light canoes can be made, and wooden plates, trays, floats for fishing-nets, etc. The wood can be pulped for paper-making, but quality is doubtful (12, 39). It can be turned into a poor quality charcoal, sometimes used for want of better (1), and burnt to yield a vegetable salt (21, 39). Wild animals are said to chew the wood (39) perhaps to obtain the salt from the sap.The tree living in very dry situations with its enormous trunk of spongy wood carries a great quantity of water. A good tree may hold as much as 1,000 gallons (39), and girth may vary according to weather conditions. Man has undoubtedly planted trees to be able to tap the aqueous sap as well as for its other multifarious uses. Hollows may be carved out from a small hole which is then corked so that the liquid may collect and be readily drawn off, or even the whole tree hollowed out to form a tank though medical officers may view this with disfavour as furnishing mosquito breeding sites. In E Africa the trunk may be hollowed out to provide shelters and form storage rooms (39). Livingstone in his explorations in Mozambique recorded use as dwellings. The fabled longevity of the tree is not satisfactorily confirmable, but the age of a tree cut down for the Kariba Dam project was determined by C14 dating as 1010 ± 100 years old, with an inference that really large individuals could, indeed, be several thousands of years old (37). The odd appearance of the tree has resulted in magical and superstitious uses. In Upper Volta it is left standing when clearing the bush as a fetish tree (28). Primitive tribes of N Nigeria reverence it by cutting symbols in the bark (29). The hollowed-out trunk has been recorded as used as tombs (1), and a place where a body denied burial may be suspended between earth and sky for mummification (12). In places it is worshipped as a fertility symbol. Rock-art in the Limpopo Valley depicts women’s breasts as baobab pods (39). In Upper Volta children of the Ela born under the sign of this tree (kukulu, Lyela) are given the patronymic kukulu, boys, or ekulu, girls (32).The bark is fibrous. It is commonly stripped off the lower bole. The tree appears to be able to survive considerable rough treatment and to regenerate the bark. Fibre from the inner bark is particularly strong and durable. It is commonly used to make rope and cordage, harness-straps, string for musical instruments, baskets, nets, fishing-lines, etc. It lacks tenacity and fineness for spinning, and loses strength on drying. The bark can be dried and beaten to yield a crude bark-cloth usable as aprons and loin-cloths, fishing-nets and as sacking and packing material for local trade. (1, 6, 12, 14, 21, 26, 31, 33–35, 38, 39, 41–43.) At one time the bark was exported to Europe to make a strong packing paper (12). In N Nigeria flat pieces serve as the soles of sandals threaded with baobab fibres as toe thongs (43).Reports that the bark is eaten in Senegal (19, 20, 39) are not corroborated by other authors. At any rate the bark contains a quantity of edible, insoluble, acidic tragacanth-like gum (18). This is used for cleaning sores. The bark has medicinal properties as a febrifuge in West Africa and in other parts of the world. It has been used as a quinine-substitute (5, 12, 21). It has been imported to Europe as cortex cael cedra. It is diaphoretic and anti-periodic. Its benefit as a febrifuge has not been detected in experimental malaria (10, 39). It has a bitter taste. An unnamed alkaloid is recorded present (40), and also the presence of the alkaloid, adansonin, but examination of Nigerian material gave inconclusive results on the presence of alkaloids (4). Adansonin has a strophanthin-like action, yet in E Africa the bark is said to be antidotal to Strophanthus arrow-poison (1, 12, 39). These anomalies clearly merit further examination. In some countries the bark is used for tanning (12, 15). In Congo the bark-decoction is used to bathe ricketty children (7), and in Tanganyika as a mouth-wash for toothache (16). A soap-lye can be made from the bark-ash (1), and the ash of all parts has value as a fertilizer (21).The leaves, and especially the young leaves, are a popular item of diet as a spinach or to make soups and sauces. In some parts the trees are pollarded so as to produce an abundance of young leaves. In Senegal leaves of a glabrous form are preferred, tomentose forms being considered unsuitable. In Mali the leaves of a variety called mǒlódo (Bambara) are not eaten, and in Zaria, N Nigeria, two forms, jar kuka and maiwa (Hausa), are recognized (12), but the distinctions are not stated. In N Nigeria the first leaves are said to be unfit for use till they have been washed by the rains (43). The most common use of the leaves is to dry and powder them into an article known throughout much of W Africa as lalo. The leaves are rich in mucilage containing uronic acids, rhamnose and other sugars (9, 27, 33, 39). Tannins, potassium tartrate, catechins and a flavonic pigment, Adansonia flavonoside, are also present (33). On alkaline soils at least, if not on others, the leaves contain a high calcium content. It is said that the Dakaroise consume 35–49 gm of lalo daily providing an adequate calcium intake (1). The fresh leaf is rich in vitamin C but this is lost on drying in producing lalo (1, 9). Lalo is a term applied to other similar ingredients used as food, condiment and seasoning. It is also used to denote medical preparations based on the dried leaf. The leaves have hypotensive and antihistaminic properties (28, 33). They are diaphoritic and promote sweating, but are recorded also as used to treat excessive perspiration (12, 33, 39). General applications of the leaf are for kidney and bladder diseases, asthma, general fatigue, tonic, blood-cleanser, prophylactic and febrifuge, diarrhoea, inflammations, insect bites, expulsion of guinea-worm, internal pains and other affections. (1, 5, 6, 8, 12, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 33.) Dysentery is treated by mouth or in hip-baths, and asthma, sedation, colic, fevers, inflammations, diseases of the urinary tract, ear-troubles, backache, ophthalmias, wounds and tumours, respiratory difficulty, etc., are treated by lalo by mouth or in liquid preparations (1).The leaves are browsed by stock, and are fed to horses (1, 22, 33). In Nigeria the leaves are the most usual ingredient of a horse-food (chusar doki, Hausa) which given in large quantities is said to keep a horse in good condition on a journey. Given in smaller amounts it is tonic, blood-making, and good for subcutaneous swellings caused by insect-bites (12).The roots may be cooked and eaten as a food (1). It is said by the Temne of Sierra Leone that a root-decoction taken with food causes stoutness hence their vernacular name for the plant, an-derẻbai meaning ‘The Chief’s Body’ (13). The dried powdered root is prepared as a mash which is taken for malaria (16), perhaps as a tonic. The roots are used in E Africa to yield red dye (15).The earliest European name for the seed pods is that of the French travellers in Senegal, calabasse du Sénégal. The pods, or more correctly the mealy fruit pulp within them, are the Monkey Bread or Pain de Singe (French). They are of variable shape, subspherical to ovoid, 15 to 35 cm long by 7–15 cm in diameter. The husks are good for burning and a potash-rich vegetable salt may be obtained from this ash which is usable for making soap (1). The powdered husk or the powdered peduncle may be smoked like tobacco (1). The whole husk can be used as a dipper or to hold liquids and is sometimes fashioned into snuff-boxes (39, 42). Fibres lining the inner surface of the husk are given in decoction to treat amenorrhoea (1, 27, 33).The seeds are embedded in the dry acidulous, mealy pulp which is rich in mucilage, pectins, tartrates and free tartaric acid (9). The presence of tartrates gives rise to the name Cream of Tartar tree. Calcium and, when eaten raw, vitamins B, and C are abundant (1). It is important in diet as a seasoning and appetiser, and in time of dearth it is eaten as a foodstuff. It can easily be made into a gruel with water, with millet, or milk which it curdles, etc., and provides a refreshing drink (1, 9, 12). It has medicinal uses as a febrifuge and antidysenteric. It appears in small-pox and measles treatments as an eye-instillation (1, 5, 6, 12, 27). At one time the pulp was exported to Europe as an imposture of terra Lemnia, or terra sigillata, a medicine of the Ancients mined from the Island of Lemnos in the Aegaean (12). It has been used in West Africa as a coagulant for latex resulting in a good quality coagulum (12, 14). It has been used as a coagulant for Ceara latex in E Africa (39), The pulp burns with a smoke which can be used for preserving and drying fish. Its acrid smell is also useful to drive away stinging insects troublesome to stock (1, 21).The seed-pods are burnt as a fuel in N Nigeria and the ash is used to make soap and for curing an illness known as dankanoma (? Hausa). Water which has been filtered through the ash is sometimes added to soup in the belief that it will kill germs, e.g., those on unwashed baobab leaves (see above), and will cure stomach troubles (43). The white mealy substance surrounding the seeds is chewed by children and animals. When soaked in water it produces a milky solution which is taken as a milk-substitute (43). The seeds have a relatively thick shell which is not easy to separate from the kernel. This shell is recorded in a Dakar sample as 55–46% of the whole. The kernel is edible but the difficulty of decortication limits its usefulness. It is rich in protein and thiamine, 100 gm daily being adequate to supply an adult’s requirement (1). Oil-content by ether-extraction is recorded as 68% of the kernel. The oil is non-drying and consists of stearic, palmitic and oleic acids (27). The kernel is free of starch, alkaloid and cyanogenetic glycosides (39). Parching and crushing can be practised to decorticate the seed. The oil can be obtained by boiling it off (12) and this has uses for gala occasions in Senegal (1). Roasted seeds are crushed to a paste which is applied to diseased teeth and gums. When burnt, a potash-rich salt can be got from the ash suitable for soap-making (1).The white shoot of the germinating seed and the roots of very young seedlings are edible (12).