Khaya senegalensis is a valuable, multipurpose tree species native to the savanna regions of West Africa, widely recognized for its high-quality timber and extensive medicinal applications.
Dry-zone mahogany (Khaya senegalensis, family Meliaceae) is a tree 15 to 30 metres tall with a wide, rounded crown. Its trunk is up to a metre across and unbranched for 8 to 16 metres. It is evergreen in moist areas but loses its leaves in drier ones. Its leaves are divided into pairs of leaflets, and its fruit is a round woody capsule that splits open to release winged seeds. The heartwood is a handsome dark red-brown, often tinged purple, and is the hardest of the African mahoganies.
It ranges from Senegal to Sudan and Uganda, in riverine forest and higher-rainfall savanna woodland. In drier country it grows only along streams. It needs deep, fertile, moist soil, tolerates a dry season of four to seven months and is very resistant to flooding. Fresh seed germinates almost completely within about three weeks, and trees first bear seed at 20 to 25 years. Uncontrolled felling has led the IUCN to list it as Vulnerable.
Source: Useful Tropical Plants database (Fern, K.).
The extremely bitter bark is widely used as a decoction to treat malaria, fever, digestive disorders, wounds, skin infections, venereal diseases, jaundice, rheumatism, and worms in both humans and livestock, though excessive use can be toxic.
Seed oil is used for cooking, the bark may be added in small amounts as a bitter medicinal stimulant, and the leaves serve as livestock fodder during the dry season.
It is regarded as a powerful ritual tree, used in spiritual practices, dyeing cloth, cosmetics, arrow and fish poison preparation, and valued for its durable timber in furniture and boat building.
The plant is mainly propagated by fresh seeds sown soon after collection, which germinate quickly and reliably, with ongoing studies on stem cuttings to support domestication.