Dacryodes edulis
Evergreen tree up to 24 m tall with a much-branched dense crown; trunk shallowly fluted; bark reddish-brown; young branches with a dense indumentum of ferruginous stellate or dendroid hairs. Leaves pinnate; petiole up to 7·5 cm long, sparsely ferruginous-hairy, longitudinally striate; leaflets 5–8-jugate, up to 17 (25) × 6 (8) cm, pairs slightly overlapping as a rule, lamina oblong-lanceolate or, especially towards the petiole, ovate-lanceolate, apex long-acuminate, base often asymmetric, broadly cuneate, rounded or slightly cordate, glabrous above, very sparsely stellate-pubescent or glabrous below, nerves in 10–15 pairs, prominent below, anastomosing well within the margin; petiolules up to 1 cm long. Inflorescences ferruginous-tomentose like the young branches, up to 40 cm long; bracts up to 2 × 0·6 cm, elliptic, carinate; pedicels 1–2 mm long. Calyx c. 3 mm long, lobed nearly to the base, ovate-lanceolate, ferruginous-stellate-tomentellous. Petals c. 5 mm long, with ovate-lanceolate lobes. Stamen-filaments c. 3 mm long in male flowers; anthers ovoid, muticous. Ovary ovoid, glabrous or sometimes pubescent. Fruit bright blue, up to 6 × 3 mm, oblong-ellipsoid.
Common
Upper and Lower Guinea, especially from Ivory Coast to Cameroon, extending to Angola, Congo, São Tomé and Príncipe.
The bark is aromatic and on injury yields a resin which is used as pitch on the inner surfaces of calabashes and for mending earthenware. It can be burnt as a primitive lamp-oil or bush-candle. The resin has medicinal use in Nigeria for treatment of parasitic skin-diseases, jiggers, etc. Pulped-up bark is used in Gabon as a wound cicatrisant. In Congo a bark-decoction is used for gargles and mouth-washes, for tonsillitis; it is taken powdered with maleguetta pepper as an anti-dysenteric, and for anaemia, spitting blood and as an emmenagogue; with palm-oil it is applied topically to relieve general pains and stiffness and to treat cutaneous conditions. Root-bark in decoction is taken for leprosy. The resin under steam distillation has been reported to yield a peppery essential oil rich in sabinene, β-phellandrene and limonene, and a non-volatile fraction of crystalline canaric acid, a keto acid and the corresponding hydroxy acid. The leaves are eaten raw with kola nut as an antemetic in Congo. Leaf-sap is instilled into the ear for ear-trouble, and a leaf-decoction is prepared as a vapour-bath for feverish stiffness with headache. The leaves in Gabon yield a dye. The principle value of the tree lies in its fruit which is about 7 cm long by 3 cm in diameter. The leathery shelled stone is surrounded by a pulpy butyraceous pericarp about 5 mm thick which is the portion eaten, either raw or cooked to form a sort of ‘butter.’ It has a mild smell of turpentine and is oily with palmitic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid and stearic acid. The pulp is also rich in vitamins. The seed kernel is also rich in oil of the same fatty acids and approximately in similar amounts.