Barleria opaca (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Vegetable
Medicinal
Food security

Barleria opaca (Vahl) Nees

Protologue: A.DC., Prodr. 11: 230 (1847).

Family: Acanthaceae

• Justicia opaca Vahl (1805).

• Child’s vegetable (En).

Barleria opaca occurs in western and central tropical Africa, from Côte d’Ivoire to Gabon.

The leaves of Barleria opaca, collected from the wild, are eaten as a cooked vegetable, e.g. in Ghana and Gabon. The leaves are also used to treat children for piles by squatting in a warm decoction. In Nigeria the whole plant is used in treating jaundice, rheumatism and paralysis, and the leaf sap is applied against catarrh.

The composition of fresh leaves of Barleria opaca is per 100 g: moisture 81 g, energy 230 kJ (55 kcal), protein 3.6 g, fat 0.5 g, carbohydrate 11.7 g, fibre 2.7 g, Ca 874 mg , Mg 104 mg, P 38 mg and Zn 0.6 mg (Leung, W.-T.W., Busson, F. & Jardin, C., 1968).

• Scrambling shrub with hairy stems, sometimes rooting at the nodes.
• Leaves opposite, simple; petiole up to 0.5 cm long; blade elliptical, c. 7.5 cm × 3.5 cm, tapering at both ends, margin entire, with scattered simple hairs at both surfaces.
• Inflorescence cymose, 1–3-flowered, close together in the upper leaf axils, at apex of branches ending in a dense spike-like structure.
• Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, up to 4 cm long; calyx 4-lobed, 2 outer lobes lanceolate, 13–17 mm long, 2 inner ones smaller, shortly bifid at apex; corolla bell-shaped, 2-labiate, white to very pale blue; stamens 2, anthers blue, staminodes 3; ovary superior, 2-celled, glabrous, style terete, glabrous, stigmas 2-lobed.
• Fruit a spindle-shaped, compressed capsule c. 1 cm long, 2-seeded.
• Seeds discoid, densely covered by brownish hygroscopic hairs.

Barleria comprises about 300 species and occurs in the Old World tropics except one species, which is found in Central America. The eastern and southern parts of Africa are richest in species. Barleria opaca belongs to section Fissimura.

Barleria brownii

The leaves of the closely related Barleria brownii S.Moore are used similarly as a vegetable, e.g. in Gabon.

Barleria opaca occurs usually in the forest undergrowth in the lowland.

Barleria opaca is rather widespread and there are no indications that it is in danger of genetic erosion.

Barleria opaca will remain a vegetable of minor importance. Its nutritional and medicinal properties need more investigation.

• Burkill, H.M., 1985. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 1, Families A–D. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 960 pp.

• Busson, F., 1965. Plantes alimentaires de l’ouest Africain: étude botanique, biologique et chimique. Leconte, Marseille, France. 568 pp.

• Irvine, F.R., 1961. Woody plants of Ghana, with special reference to their uses. Oxford University Press, London, United Kingdom. 868 pp.

• Sillans, R., 1953. Plantes alimentaires spontanées d'Afrique centrale. Bulletin de l'Institut d'Etudes Centrafricains 5: 77–99.

• Aguilar, N.O., 2001. Barleria L. In: van Valkenburg, J.L.C.H. & Bunyapraphatsara, N. (Editors). Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(2): Medicinal and poisonous plants 2. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands. pp. 98–101.

• Balkwill, M.J. & Balkwill, K., 1996. Problems with generic delimitation and subdivision in a large genus, Barleria (Acanthaceae). In: van der Maesen, L.J.G., van der Burgt, X.M. & van Medenbach-de Rooy, J.M. (Editors). Proceedings 14th AETFAT congress, 22–27 August 1994, Wageningen, Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht,Netherlands. pp. 393–408.

• Balkwill, M.-J. & Balkwill, K., 1997. Delimitation and infra-generic classification of Barleria (Acanthaceae). Kew Bulletin 52(3): 535–573.

• Leung, W.-T.W., Busson, F. & Jardin, C., 1968. Food composition table for use in Africa. FAO, Rome, Italy. 306 pp.

• P.C.M. Jansen, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Jansen, P.C.M., 2004. Barleria opaca (Vahl) Nees. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. Grubben, G.J.H. & Denton, O.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands.

Accessed 3 April 2025.