plant Medicines: generally healing leaf bark Medicines: pain-killers bud-sap Medicines: eye

treatments plant Medicines: pulmonary troubles bark Medicines: skin, mucosae leaf bark
Medicines: laxatives, etc. plant Medicines: kidneys, diuretics leaf bark Medicines: fabrifuges
plant Medicines: dropsy, swellings, oedema, gout bark Phytochemistry: tannins, astringents
Agri-horticulture: ornamental, cultivated or partially tended Agri-horticulture: bee/honey
plants, insect plants Products: carpentry and related applications bud wood Products:
pastimes-carving, musical instruments, games, toys, etc. Social: religion, superstitions, magic
Social: sayings, aphorisms

Description

A shrub or tree to 15 m high, of the relic, fringing, transition and savanna forests, throughout
the Region, and extending southward to Angola.The tree carries large yellow flowers in long
terminal racemes and is quite decorative when in flower. It is grown as an ornamental in
Guinea-Bissau (6). The timber is pale brown, hard and good for carpentry. It resembles that
of Newbouldia laevis, and is used in Gabon (13). In S Nigeria it is made into knife-handles
(3).The bark is pulped up and used in Casamance (Senegal) as a poultice in the armpit for
localized pain. (7, 8). In Ivory Coast the plant is held to be particularly effective in treating
skin-afflictions, sores and scabies: leaves and bark are pulped up with citron-juice to a soft
paste; the liquid is squeezed out and used as an embrocation, while the lees may be used in
vigorous rubbing over the affected parts, or applied as a wet dressing under a bandage to
sores (9, 10). Plant preparations [methods not stated] are also administered as rejuvant and
diuretic medicines: for oedema of the legs and elephantiasis of the scrotum, on chancres
and for rheumatic pain and in treatment of the respiratory tract and in bouts of swamp-
fever (2). In Nigeria a decoction of bark and leaves is given as a mild laxative and in cases of
fever; a leaf-decoction and chewed leaves are used for general pains, head, back, etc. (1). In
Sierra Leone the bark is used in tanning (5).The flower is melliferous (6). The buds are used
in play by children like those of Spathodea campanulata (Bignoniaceae) (4). The juice from
the buds is used in S Nigeria for painful eyes (11).The tree probably has superstitious
attributes in S Nigeria (4). The Igbo at Ezi are recorded as using the wood for carving images
(12).

References

References:1. Ainslie, 1937: sp. no. 224. 2. Bouquet & Debray, 1974: 51. 3. Carpenter 78,
UCI. 4. Dalziel, 1937. 5. Deighton 4210, K. 6. Gomes e Sousa, 1930: 42. 7. Kerharo & Adam,
1963, b. 8. Kerharo & Adam, 1974: 237. 9. Kerharo & Bouquet, 1947: 252–3. 10. Kerharo &
Bouquet, 1950: 227. 11. Thomas, N. W. 2349, K. 12. Thomas, N. W. 2356, K. 13. Walker &
Sillans, 1961: 101.

Contributor

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)

Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

règnePlantae

embranchementTracheophyta

ordreLamiales

familleBignoniaceae

genreMarkhamia

espèceMarkhamia tomentosa

parentMarkhamia

nom scientifiqueMarkhamia tomentosa K.Schum. ex Engl.

nom canoniqueMarkhamia tomentosa

paternitéK.Schum. ex Engl.

classeMagnoliopsida