Borotutu is

traditional medicine Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) refers to the knowledge, skills, and practices rooted in the cultural beliefs of various societies, especially Indigenous groups, used for maintaining health and treatin ...

made from the

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

n tree '' Cochlospermum angolense''. It is widespread in parts of

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

, where it is known as ''mburututu'' in the Chokwe and

Kimbundu Kimbundu, a Bantu language which has sometimes been called Mbundu or North Mbundu (to distinguish it from Umbundu, sometimes called South Mbundu), is the second-most-widely-spoken Bantu language in Angola. Its speakers are concentrated in the n ...

languages.

Uses

Borututu bark is claimed to have

hepatic The liver is a major metabolic organ (anatomy), organ exclusively found in vertebrates, which performs many essential biological Function (biology), functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the Protein biosynthesis, synthesis of var ...

healing properties and a general cleansing effect. Borotutu bark pills and

herbal tea Herbal teas, technically known as herbal infusions, and less commonly called tisanes (UK and US , US also ), are beverages made from the infusion or decoction of herbs, spices, or other plant material in hot water. Often herb tea, or the plai ...

s are sold in health stores. The bark showed activity against the

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...

malaria parasite ''Plasmodium'' is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of ''Plasmodium'' species involve development in a blood-feeding insect host (biology), host which then injects parasit ...

Plasmodium berghei ''Plasmodium berghei'' is a single-celled parasite causing rodent malaria. It is in the ''Plasmodium'' subgenus '' Vinckeia''. Originally, isolated from thicket rats in Central Africa, ''P. berghei'' is one of four ''Plasmodium'' species tha ...

'' in laboratory tests. In Ghana, where the bark locally known as ''paajawu'', it is added to

Shea Butter Shea butter ( , , or ; ) is a fat (triglyceride; mainly oleic acid and stearic acid) extracted from the nut of the African shea tree ('' Vitellaria paradoxa''). It is ivory in color when raw and commonly dyed yellow with borututu root or ...

during the boiling process for a vibrant yellow coloring.

References

External links

* {{Medicinal herbs & fungi Plants used in traditional African medicine Food colorings