A scrambling shrub or small tree of savanna woodland, widely used in West African traditional medicine.
Opilia celtidifolia (family Opiliaceae), now usually included in Opilia amentacea, is a very variable plant. It is usually an evergreen shrub branching from the base, but it often climbs, with stems usually up to 15 metres long and occasionally 30 metres, and sometimes it grows as a small tree. It is gathered from the wild for local use as food and medicine and for wood, and its stems and leaves are used as a fish poison. It sometimes seems to live partly as a parasite on the roots of other plants.
As the database treats it, the species is widespread through most of tropical Africa and also grows in China, India, South-East Asia, Malaysia and Indonesia to northern Australia and the Solomon Islands. It grows in a wide range of places, from coastal bushland through acacia woodland to dry forest, often in riverine forest, and also in upland rainforest, from sea level to 1,900 metres. It can be raised from seed or cuttings.
Source: Useful Tropical Plants database (Fern, K.).
Leaves, roots, stem bark and seeds are used across West Africa for skin conditions, malaria, wounds, abdominal pain, intestinal worms, jaundice, headache, and fever.
A scrambling shrub or small tree of savanna woodland.