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Klainedoxa gabonensis is a large tropical African tree of the family Irvingiaceae growing to 40 m (130 ft) in height. Its straight trunk is buttressed and up to 25 m (82 ft) long, while its spreading evergreen crown makes it one of the largest trees of the rainforest. It is found from Senegal to Sudan, Cameroons, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Tanzania, growing as far south as Angola and Zambia.
The timber is dense (0.91–1.15) and extremely hard so that cutting and local usage is very limited, but trees are still exploited for firewood. Sapwood is thin, light brown in colour, and liable to insect attack. Heartwood is reddish to golden brown with wide dark veining, and zigzag markings. Poles are resistant to rotting and are used in hut construction and to make spring traps.
The bark has analgesic qualities. When ground to a fine powder and mixed with clay and water it is rubbed onto rheumatic joints. People afflicted with lumbago have the affected parts treated with bark smoke. Pulped bark is made into an ointment with palm-oil and applied to rheumatic parts, and a bark decoction is added to baths and lotions for buccal infections, smallpox and chickenpox, and taken orally for venereal disease, sterility and impotence. Tannin is present in both bark and root. Alkaloids are present in the leaves. Young leaves with stipules are eaten with palm kernels as an aphrodisiac. They are also eaten with vegetables, oil, salt, fish or meat to ease stomach ache, and are used as a topical analgesic.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Klainedoxa gabonensis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
