Diospyros canaliculata

Safety & Hazards

The bark-extract is strongly vesicant. It is a standard ingredient of arrow-poison mixtures in eastern Ivory Coast, and produces gangrene in the flesh around the wound facilitating penetration of other poisons in the mixture, especially of Mansonia spp (Sterculiaceae)[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ]. The yellow fruit-pulp is caustic, oily and blackening in air. When rubbed on the skin it causes a burning sensation and turns the skin yellow. In Central African Republic it is put into arrow-poison compounds[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ]. A mixture of the fruit and leaves, combined with the root of Parquetina nigrescens, is cooked to a syrup to put on arrow and spear heads for elephant hunting. Death is said to be rapid. The antidote to this poison is to apply ground-nuts crushed with young shoots of tamarind in a poultice[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ]. The fruit and sap are used as a fish-poison; the bark and seeds are similarly used[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ].