Origin

Africa

Folk medicinal uses

The bark is boiled for 30 minutes and the decoction drunk as a remedy for stomachache and for tapeworm; or the bark may be boiled in soup and the soup given to small children with diarrhoea. For the latter treatment it is recommended that the children should eat nothing else when the remedy is taken, particularly in cases where the diarrhoea is accompanied by bleeding. The bark can be boiled to make a form of soup which is mixed with milk and given to children as a tonic. Pounded bark is mixed with water and the decoction given to cattle to treat snoring (Kokwaro, 1976).

Root---- Pounded or powdered root is mixed with ghee and rubbed into the scalp to cure headaches. A decoction of roots is drunk to cure aching joints in the body. The Shambaa use the root as a remedy for severe epigastric pain and apply it to scalp for the reliet of headaches. In both East and West Africa the root is used as a purgative (Watt and Breyer - Brandwijk, 1962). A decoction of root is drunk as a purgative, anthelmintic and antidote for poison. In the latter case the decoction causes vomiting or diarrhoea to get rid of the poison.

The leaf sap of B. micrantha is used by Hava as an application to sore eyes and in West Africa the plant is used with a number others in a decoction for the treatment of conjunctivitis.

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Origin:
Northern sector of Kibale National Park, Uganda
Disease treated:
Hernia, malaria: DSB

1) Some medicinal forest plants of Africa and Latin America 67/ FAO. – FAO: Rome, 1986. – p. 74.

2) Jane Namukobe; et al. / Traditional plants used for medicinal purposes by local communities around the Northern sector of Kibale National Park, Uganda. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2011(136) p. 238.