African Milkbush

Overview

Native to tropical Africa, but widely planted and naturalized throughout the tropics and subtropics. It is widely planted for use as a hedge and has long been used in agroforestry systems in east Africa. It has the potential to provide semi-arid zone inhabitants with an energy solution in the form of a biomass that can be converted to gaseous, liquid or solid biofuels.
 

Vernacular Names

Kayu patah (Malaysia), Bali-bali (Tagalog-Philippines), Khia cheen (Thailand), Konpal (India), Lü yu shu (Chinese), Alfabeto chino (Spanish), Arbre de saint Sebastien (French).
 

Agroecology

Normally found in dry bushland thickets and naturalizes easily in brushwood, open woodland and grassland at elevations up to 2,000 m. Prefers a wide variety of well-drained, light-textured, neutral to acidic soils. Requires a sunny position. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 400-800 mm.
 

Morphology

• Stems - branches often in whorls, terete, 5-8 mm in diameter, finely longitudinally striate.
• Leaves - alternate, early caducous, linearlanceolate, narrowing at base, apex obtuse to subacute, glabrous throughout or puberulent below, sessile or subsessile, stipules minute, glandular.
• Flowers - generally composed of unisexual cyathia, bracts rounded, small; cyathia with 5 subglobose to transversely elliptical, bright yellow glands.
• Fruits - exserted on a tomentose pedicel, subglobose, 7-8 mm in diameter, glabrescent.
• Seeds - smooth, buff speckled with brown and with a dark brown ventral line.

Cultivation

• By seeds - sow seeds about 6mm deep in a well drained seed sowing mix at about 25°C.
• By cuttings - cuttings root easily. Cut fresh branches from a healthy bush. Cuttings should be at least 10cm long, and should be left to dry for at least 24 hours before planting.

Chemical Constituents

• Latex rich in terpenes, including ingenol and phorbol esters.
• Alkaloid, coumarins, polyphenols and tannins, and triterpenes.
   

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The plant is considered cooling, febrifuge, pectoral, digestive, diuretic, depurative, diaphoretic, stomachic, and vermifuge.
• Studies have shown antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, anti-malarial, antimicrobial, hepatoprotective, radioprotective, antipyretic, analgesic properties.
• The young branches can be roasted then chewed to relieve a sore throat. Ash from the burned branches and stems is used to treat whooping cough and applied externally as a caustic to treat open abscesses.
• Poultices from the stem are applied to heal broken bones. The pulped twigs are applied externally to treat oedema of the legs.
• A root and bud decoction is taken as a laxative, and to treat coughs and pectoral pain. A poultice of the roots or stems has been applied to ulceration of the nose, haemorrhoids and swellings.
• A root-decoction, combined with other drug-plants, is taken in in the treatment of schistosomiasis and gonorrhoea. The boiled root juice acts as an emetic in cases of snake bite, and is also used for sterility in women.
• Heated root scrapings, mixed with coconut oil, are applied externally to the stomach to relieve stomach-ache.
• The latex is used externally to treat skin-complaints, itches, insect bites, rheumatism, toothache, earache, to raise blisters on syphilitic nodes, and to remove warts, tumours, cancers, etc.