An evergreen shrub or small tree found across sub-Saharan Africa, used throughout its range in traditional medicine.
Bersama abyssinica (family Melianthaceae) is an evergreen shrub or tree usually up to 12 metres tall and exceptionally 25 metres. It is gathered from the wild for local medicine and materials, and is also grown as a hedge and an ornamental. Care is needed: all parts of the plant are poisonous and have been implicated in the deaths of people and livestock.
It grows across tropical Africa from Senegal to southern Sudan and Ethiopia and south to Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, in lowland bush savanna, gallery forest and montane forest from sea level to 2,700 metres. It is a very variable species with many synonyms. The trees respond well to coppicing and pollarding. The seed stays viable for only about two months after it is gathered, and the plant can also be grown from cuttings and root suckers.
Source: Useful Tropical Plants database (Fern, K.).
Leaves, bark, and root are used across Africa for diarrhoea, wounds, fever, eye disease, and urinary tract infections. All parts of the plant are toxic — not for informal use, as poisoning in humans and livestock has been documented.
An evergreen shrub/small tree of forest and woodland margins.