Strychnos icaja
Strychnos icaja
Safety & Hazards
Various parts of Strychnos plants, especially the seeds and bark, contain toxic alkaloids such as strychnine and brucine. The fleshy pulp of the ripe fruits, however, is often edible[ 500 Title Flora of Somalia Publication Author Thulin M. (Editor) Publisher Kew Publishing, London. Year 1993 ISBN Description Detailed information on the plants of the region, often adding notes on the plants uses. ]. A root or root bark infusion, or more rarely a stem bark extract, has been used as ordeal poison. Often roots of young plants were used, which seem to have a lower toxicity than those of mature plants[ 299 Title Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. Publication Author Website http://www.prota.org Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa. ]. The root bark is an ingredient in arrow poison[ 299 Title Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. Publication Author Website http://www.prota.org Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa. ]. Whole plants, root bark and fruits are used as a fish poison[ 299 Title Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. Publication Author Website http://www.prota.org Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa. ].
Botanical Description
Strychnos icaja is a very vigorous climbing shrub able to produce stems up to 100 metres long and 15cm in diameter. The stems can climb 40 metres into the forest canopy where they attach themselves by means of tendrils[ 299 Title Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. Publication Author Website http://www.prota.org Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa. , 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/ , 2064 Title Loganiaceae Publication Flore d’Afrique centrale (Zaïre - Rwanda - Burundi), Spermatophytes Author Leeuwenberg A.J.M. & Bamps P. Website http://10.5281/zenodo.4569937 Publisher Meise, Jardin botanique national de Belgique Year 1979 ISBN Description This publication, along with many other from the Flore d’Afrique centrale, has been made available as a PDF document under a Creative Commons - Attribution - Non-Commercial - Share Alike 4.0 International licence (CC-BY-NC-SA) ]. The plant is harvested from the wild for local medicinal use.