| DESCRIPTION: It is a rambling shrub up to 0.5-4 m in height, or scandent to 8 m with recurved spines to 3 cm long. Leaves alternate or subopposite, elliptic or obovate, base cuneate, apex rounded to shortly acuminate, to 7 x 5 cm, more or less pubescent. USE: It provides browse for livestock in Senegal, Sudan and northern Kenya, where buck will also eat it. The lianous branches are supple and are used in Kenya to make donkey panniers and wicker baskets for holding milk vessels. In Senegal, they are a part of the construction of a fish lure. The plant has diuretic properties. Water in which the leaves have been boiled is drunk in northwest Senegal to promote micturition in cases when venereal disease obstructs the urethra. The plant is also purgative. It is prescribed for blennorrhoea, helminthiasis, and loss of appetite. It is also used in Burkina Faso and Senegal for leprosy. In Senegal, the Soce tribe claims that a root decoction has a well-established reputation in the treatment of catarrh, the Serer tribe uses sap from the centre of the stem for eye troubles. The boiled roots are taken in Kenya for stomach upsets. GROWING PERIOD: Perennial. COMMON NAMES: Eddi shebai. FURTHER INF: It is found in dry savannah, thickets on dry soils and is sometimes riverine; recorded from Mauritania to nothern Nigeria and across Africa to northeast Africa. In southern Sudan, it is widespread in the Terminalia-Combretum belt. |