Solanum terminale (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Medicinal
Fibre

Solanum terminale Forssk.

Protologue: Fl. aegypt.-arab. 45 (1775).

Family: Solanaceae

• Solanum welwitschii C.H.Wright (1894).

Solanum terminale occurs from Guinea east to Ethiopia and south to Angola and South Africa. There is a single record from the Comoros.

In Rwanda a leaf extract is drunk as an abortion-inducing drug and in Rwanda and Uganda it is drunk to induce labour in childbirth. In DR Congo a root decoction is filtered and applied as an enema as a mild purgative for children. In Tanzania a root extract is drunk as a stimulant and to induce sweating. The fruits are poisonous and have been used in the Central African Republic as a criminal poison.

In eastern DR Congo the stems are used for tying in construction of houses and fences.

Liana up to 15 m long, or straggling shrub; young stems hairy, hairs simple or branched. Leaves alternate, simple; stipules absent; petiole 0.5–4 cm long; blade ovate to lanceolate or elliptical, 2–13.5 cm × 1–7 cm, base rounded or cuneate, apex acuminate, margin entire to wavy, almost glabrous. Inflorescence a terminal cyme, becoming displaced laterally, lax to congested, many-flowered. Flowers bisexual, regular, 5-merous; calyx bell- or cup-shaped, 1–3 mm long, soft-hairy, lobes triangular to ovate, obtuse, reflexed; corolla deeply stellate, 1–2 cm in diameter, blue to mauve or purple; stamens alternate with corolla lobes, filaments up to 1.5 mm long, anthers elliptical, up to 5 mm long, opening with apical pores; ovary superior, c. 1 mm in diameter. Fruit a globose to ellipsoid berry 5–10 mm in diameter, glabrous, orange or red to dark blue, many-seeded. Seeds obovoid, 2.5–3 mm in diameter, pale brown. Seedling with epigeal germination; cotyledons thin, leafy.

Solanum comprises over 1000 species and has a cosmopolitan distribution, except in boreal, alpine and aquatic habitats. At least 100 species are found in tropical Africa. The principal centre of diversity is located in Central and South America, with secondary centres in Africa and Australia. Solanum has been subdivided into 7 subgenera and numerous sections and series.

Solanum terminale has been placed in the subgenus Solanum, and 4 subspecies have been recognized, but in southern Africa intermediates between subspecies have been found and there is considerable overlap of the areas of distribution. In Ethiopia subsp. welwitschii (C.H.Wright) Heine is considered sufficiently different from the other subspecies to reinstate it as a separate species.

Two endemic species of Madagascar, belonging to subgenus Solanum, are also used medicinally.

Solanum madagascariense

Grated bark of Solanum madagascariense Dunal is applied as a plaster to wounds and bark sap is applied to bruises.

Solanum heinianum

A bark decoction of Solanum heinianum D’Arcy & Keating is drunk to cure syphilis.

Solanum terminale occurs in forests, especially at edges, along streams and in rocky localities, at 900–1300 m altitude. It is less frequent in high-rainfall woodland.

There is no indication that Solanum terminale is in danger of genetic erosion.

Solanum terminale will probably only remain of local importance as a medicinal plant.

• Burkill, H.M., 2000. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 5, Families S–Z, Addenda. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 686 pp.

• Gonçalves, A.E., 2005. Solanaceae. In: Pope, G.V., Polhill, R.M. & Martins, E.S. (Editors). Flora Zambesiaca. Volume 8, part 4. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 124 pp.

• Jaeger, P.M.L. & Hepper, F.N., 1986. A review of the genus Solanum in Africa. In: D’Arcy, W.G. (Editor). Solanaceae: biology and systematics. Columbia University Press, New York, United States. pp. 41–55.

• D’Arcy, W.G. & Rakotozafy, A., 1994. Solanaceae. Flore de Madagascar et des Comores (plantes vasculaires), famille 176. Imprimerie Officielle, Tananarive, Madagascar. 146 pp.

• Hulstaert, G., 1966. Notes de Botanique Mongo. Académie Royale des Sciences d’Outre-mer, Classe des Sciences Naturelles et Médicales, N.S. 15–3, Bruxelles, Belgium. 213 pp.

• Kamatenesi-Mugisha, M. & Oryem-Origa, H., 2007. Medicinal plants used to induce labour during childbirth in western Uganda. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 109: 1–9.

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

• Ralantonirina, D., 1993. Aperçu sur les plantes médicinales dans le sud de Madagascar : étude faite sur les adultes dans le périmètre de la réserve spéciale de Beza - Mahafaly. Thèse pour l’obtention du grade de Docteur en médecine, Etablissement d’Enseignement Supérieur des Sciences de la Santé, Faculté de Médecine, Université d’Antananarivo, Madagascar. 95 pp.

• Ranaivoson, A.J., 1996. Les pathologies et leurs différents traitements dans le fokontany d’Analamanga, Soavina, Antananarivo et Atsimondrano. Thèse pour l’obtention du grade de Docteur en médecine, Etablissement d’Enseignement Supérieur des Sciences de la Santé, Faculté de Médecine, Université d’Antananarivo, Madagascar. 71 pp.

• Rwangabo, P.C., 1993. La médecine traditionelle au Rwanda. Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique (ACCT), Paris, France. 258 pp.

• Vergiat, A.M., 1970. Plantes magiques et médicinales des féticheurs de l’Oubangui (Région de Bangui). Journal d’Agriculture Tropicale et de Botanique Appliquée 17: 295–339.

• Yamada, T., 1999. A report of the ethnobotany of the Nyindu in the eastern part of the former Zaire. African Study Monographs 20(1): 1–72.

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

Bosch, C.H., 2008. Solanum terminale Forssk. In: Schmelzer, G.H. & Gurib-Fakim, A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. Accessed 4 April 2025.

• See the Prota4U database.