Erythrophleum couminga

Erythrophleum couminga is a moderate-sized deciduous tree which grows to a height of up to {{convert|20|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}. The trunk has rough, fissured bark and the twigs are downy when young. The leaves are compoundly bipinnate with two to four pairs of pinnae. Each pinna has a {{convert|2|to|6|cm|in|1|abbr=on}} petiole, a rachis up to {{convert|20|cm|in|0|abbr=on}} long, and eight to twelve alternate leaflets with rounded bases and acute apexes. The inflorescence is a loose panicle growing in a leaf axil. The individual flowers are small, bisexual and cream-coloured with parts in fives. They are followed by flat, woody, dangling pods measuring around {{convert|20|by|5|cm|in|0|abbr=on}}, containing four or more disc-like seeds.{{cite book|author=Schmelzer, Gaby H. |title=Medicinal Plants|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7FJqgQ3_tnUC&pg=PA245 |year=2008 |publisher=PROTA |isbn=978-90-5782-204-9 |pages=245–246}}

This tree is endemic to Madagascar; its range extends for about {{convert|400|km|mi|-1|abbr=on}} along the western coast of the country in a strip around {{convert|40|km|mi|0|abbr=on}} wide, and not occurring more than {{convert|600|m|ft|-2|abbr=on}} above sea level. It grows in mixed deciduous woodland and wooded savannas, in association with palm trees, preferring sandy soils.

The timber of this tree is durable and resistant to rot but is little used apart from making fencing posts. The foliage is poisonous to cattle, and the flowers and the bark are even more toxic. The bark contains complex diterpenoid alkaloids and is powdered and used in traditional medicine in very small quantities as a laxative. In larger quantities, an extract of the bark is a powerful, cardiac poison, rapidly causing shortness of breath, convulsions and cardiac arrest.{{cite web |url=http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Erythrophleum+couminga |title=Erythrophleum couminga |author=Fern, Ken |date=13 June 2019 |work=Useful Tropical Plants Database |accessdate=10 July 2019}} In the past, the bark has been used as a poison in trials by ordeal, a custom continuing in Madagascar into the mid-nineteenth century.{{cite journal | title=The state and pre-colonial demographic history: the case of nineteenth century Madagascar | year=1991 | last=Campbell | first=Gwyn | journal=Journal of African History | volume=23 | issue=3 | pages=415–445 | doi=10.1017/S0021853700031534 | jstor=182662}}

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couminga

Category:Plants used in traditional African medicine