''Piptadeniastrum africanum'' is a tall deciduous tree within the legume family,

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

. It is native to the humid tropics of sub-Saharan Africa, ranging from Senegal to Sudan and Angola. It is the sole

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Piptadeniastrum''. It is also called ''Piptadenia africana'', and its timber is traded under the names Dabema or Dahoma. It commonly occurs in

freshwater swamp forest Freshwater swamp forests, or flooded forests, are forests which are inundated with freshwater, either permanently or seasonally. They normally occur along the lower reaches of rivers and around freshwater lakes. Freshwater swamp forests are foun ...

s but can also be found further north.

Description

''Piptadeniastrum africanum'' is a medium-sized to large tree capable of growing to 50 meters tall, with the record being and a maximum girth a breast height of in Ghana. It has wide spreading branches. Its trunk is straight and cylindrical while the base of the tree has thin buttress roots that can reach a height of 5 meters or more and extends along the ground, its bark is grey to brown in color but reddish at the base. Leaves are alternate, bipinnately compound in arrangement with about 10 - 20 pairs of pinnae and about 30 - 58 leaflets per each pinnae. Leaflets, sessile and small, 0.3 x 1 cm long and 0.8 x 1.25 mm wide, glossy green above and paler beneath. Flower is yellowish to white colored and fruit is a brown woody pod.

Distribution

Naturally occurs in the humid Guineo-Congolian forest of West and

Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...

from Senegal to Sudan and moving southwards towards northern Angola. It is locally known as Dabema in Ivory Coast and as Dahoma in Ghana.

Chemistry

Methanol and

aqueous An aqueous solution is a solution in which the solvent is water. It is mostly shown in chemical equations by appending (aq) to the relevant chemical formula. For example, a solution of table salt, also known as sodium chloride (NaCl), in wat ...

extracts from the stem bark tested for the presence of

flavonoid Flavonoids (or bioflavonoids; from the Latin word ''flavus'', meaning yellow, their color in nature) are a class of polyphenolic secondary metabolites found in plants, and thus commonly consumed in the diets of humans. Chemically, flavonoids ...

s, phenols,

tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and Precipitation (chemistry), precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' is widel ...

s and

saponin Saponins (Latin ''sapon'', 'soap' + ''-in'', 'one of') are bitter-tasting, usually toxic plant-derived secondary metabolites. They are organic chemicals that become foamy when agitated in water and have high molecular weight. They are present ...

s. Profiles of its compounds include a variety of dihydroxy-trimethoxy(iso)flavone isomers,

apigenin Apigenin (4′,5,7-trihydroxyflavone), found in many plants, is a flavone compound that is the aglycone of several naturally occurring glycosides. It is a yellow crystalline solid that has been used to dye wool. Apigenin is abundant in parsl ...

chrysoeriol Chrysoeriol is a flavone, chemically the 3'-methoxy derivative of luteolin. Related compounds Diosmetin is one of three possible regioisomers of chrysoeriol. Natural sources Found in '' Artemisia''. Pharmacodynamics Vasorelaxant and hypot ...

eriodictyol Eriodictyol is a bitter-masking flavanone, a flavonoid extracted from yerba santa ('' Eriodictyon californicum''), a plant native to North America. Eriodictyol is one of the four flavanones identified in this plant as having taste-modifying prop ...

luteolin Luteolin is a flavone, a type of flavonoid, with a yellow crystalline appearance. Luteolin is the main yellow dye from the '' Reseda luteola'' plant, used for dyeing since at least the first millennium B.C. Luteolin was first isolated in pure f ...

, and

liquiritigenin Liquiritigenin is a flavanone that was isolated from ''Glycyrrhiza uralensis'', and is found in a variety of plants of the Glycyrrhiza genus, including ''Glycyrrhiza glabra'' (licorice). It is an estrogenic compound which acts as a selective agoni ...

Uses

The chemical compounds of ''Piptadeniastrum africanum'' have generated interest among researchers, largely due to the wide variety of afflictions that plant extracts are used to treat in traditional medicine. Extracts of the species are used to treat gastric ulcers. The Baka people of Cameroon use macerated stem bark extracts in preparations to treat abdominal pains while some healers use leaf extracts as a tonic or as an aphrodisiac. In Congo and Ghana, it is applied in native medicine as a treatment for back pains and sexual asthenia. Its timber is valued for use in building canoes and in marine and bridge construction.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q5224562, from2=Q3011617 Mimosoids Monotypic Fabaceae genera Flora of the Afrotropical realm Flora of West Tropical Africa Flora of West-Central Tropical Africa Flora of Angola Plants described in 1955