Psychotria eminiana (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Medicinal

Psychotria eminiana (Kuntze) Petit

Protologue: Bull. Jard. Bot. Etat 34: 48 (1964).

Family: Rubiaceae

Synonyms

Uragoga eminiana Kuntze (1891), Grumilea ungoniensis K.Schum. & K.Krause (1907), Grumilea stolzii K.Krause (1920).

Origin and geographic distribution

Psychotria eminiana is widespread in tropical Africa; it has been found from northern Nigeria, Central African Republic and Sudan south to Malawi, Zambia, Angola and Mozambique.

Uses

In Malawi the leaves are cooked with ashes to prepare a slimy vegetable called ‘thelele’, which is particularly liked by older people. In DR Congo Psychotria eminiana is used medicinally against intestinal diseases and worms. In eastern Africa the rhizomes are used to treat snakebites; fresh rhizomes are chewed and the juice swallowed, or they may be pounded and the infusion used both orally and externally on the wound.

Properties

No properties of Psychotria eminiana are known, but in general Psychotria species are rich in alkaloids. Best known is ipecac (Psychotria ipecacuanha (Brot.) Stokes), native to South and Central America but widely cultivated also elsewhere, of which the rhizomes contain a series of terpenoid tetrahydro-isoquinoline type alkaloids such as emetine, cephaeline and psychotrine. The dried rhizome has long been an important medicine as an emetic, expectorant and to treat amoebic dysentery. In small doses the drug is a stimulant, increasing appetite and facilitating digestion.

Botany

Subshrub to small tree up to 3.5 m tall, with woody or herbaceous, sparsely branched, glabrous to pubescent stems arising from a woody rhizome. Leaves opposite, simple; stipules triangular, up to 1 cm long, deciduous; petiole up to 3 cm long; blade ovate, oblong, obovate, elliptical or round, 3–25 cm × 2–13 cm, cuneate to rounded at base, apex emarginate to acuminate, margins entire, glabrous to pubescent, with domatia. Inflorescence a trichotomous to many-branched complex of many-flowered panicles; peduncle up to 13 cm long. Flowers bisexual, usually 5-merous, heterostylous, subsessile; calyx tubular with unequal triangular lobes less than 2 mm long; corolla tubular with tube up to 5 mm long and lobes 2.5 mm × 1 mm, yellowish; stamens inserted at middle of corolla tube; ovary inferior, 2-celled, style slender, stigma 2-lobed. Fruit a globose 2-lobed drupe, 5–7 mm × 7–10 mm, red, glabrous to pubescent, containing 2 pyrenes c. 5 mm in diameter. Seeds subglobose, c. 4.5 mm in diameter, dark brown, ventral face flat.

Psychotria is a large pantropical genus of about 500 species, with over 200 species present in tropical Africa. Psychotria eminiana is rather variable and several varieties have been described. Most of the habit variation seems to be due to differences in burning frequency and damage. Plants that are protected for some years become much woodier than other ones.

In Cameroon the boiled leaves of Psychotria leptophylla Hiern are said to be used as a vegetable; this species is also found in Nigeria, the island Bioco (Equatorial Guinea) and DR Congo.

Ecology

Psychotria eminiana occurs in deciduous thicket, Brachystegia woodland and derived open bushland, usually on dry burnt ground or stony hills but sometimes riverine, at 500–1650 m altitude.

Management

Psychotria eminiana is only collected from the wild and not cultivated.

Genetic resources

Psychotria eminiana is rather widespread and not in danger of genetic erosion.

Prospects

Psychotria eminiana will remain a minor vegetable, locally important in the dry season when other vegetables are scarce. Its nutritional and medicinal properties should be investigated.

Major references

• Petit, E., 1964. Les espèces africaines du genre Psychotria L. (Rubiaceae). 1. Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de l'Etat (Bruxelles) 34: 1–229.

• Verdcourt, B., 1976. Rubiaceae (part 1). In: Polhill, R.M. (Editor). Flora of Tropical East Africa. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. 414 pp.

• Verdcourt, B., 1989. Rubiaceae (Rubioideae). In: Launert, E. (Editor). Flora Zambesiaca. Volume 5, part 1. Flora Zambesiaca Managing Committee, London, United Kingdom. 210 pp.

• Williamson, J., 1955. Useful plants of Nyasaland. The Government Printer, Zomba, Nyasaland. 168 pp.

Other references

• Anderson, L., 2002. Relationships and generic circumscriptions in the Psychotria complex (Rubiaceae, Psychotrieae). Systematics and Geography of Plants 72: 167–202.

• Burkill, H.M., 1997. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 4, Families M–R. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 969 pp.

• Kokwaro, J.O., 1993. Medicinal plants of East Africa. 2nd Edition. Kenya Literature Bureau, Nairobi, Kenya. 401 pp.

• Ong, H.C. & Brotonogoro, S., 2001. Psychotria 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. 454–460.

• Petit, E., 1966. Les espèces africaines du genre Psychotria L. (Rubiaceae). 2. Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de l'Etat (Bruxelles) 36: 65–190.

Author(s)

• P.C.M. Jansen

PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Correct citation of this article

Jansen, P.C.M., 2004. Psychotria eminiana (Kuntze) E.M.A.Petit. [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. <http://www.prota4u.org/search.asp>.

Accessed 17 December 2024.

• See the Prota4U database.