Zanha golungensis (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Fruit
Medicinal
Timber
Auxiliary plant
Food security

Zanha golungensis Hiern

Protologue: Cat. afr. pl. 1(1): 128 (1896).

Family: Sapindaceae

Vernacular names

Smooth-fruited zanha (En). Mkalya, mkwanga (Sw).

Origin and geographic distribution

Zanha golungenis is widely distributed in Africa, occurring from Senegal east to Ethiopia and Kenya, and south to Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Uses

The wood of Zanha golungensis is widely used for construction, furniture and carving. Several sources, especially from West Africa, claim explicitly that the fruits are not eaten by humans, but other reports state that they are consumed.

Various plant parts contain saponins and the bark is used as a substitute for soap. Bark decoctions are taken as a cure for malaria, powdered bark is sniffed against chest complaints and colds and rubbed into the skin of temples and forehead to get relief of headache, and bark preparations are considered galactagogue. In Senegal bark is applied in a poultice to treat broken limbs. In Tanzania a root decoction is drunk as a cure for infected, hard abscesses, and to treat uterus prolapse, hernia and amenorrhoea. A decoction of leafy twigs is used to treat fever. Zanha golungensis is occasionally planted as shade tree in coffee plantations.

Properties

The heartwood is whitish, sometimes with a pinkish hue, and indistinctly demarcated from the sapwood. The texture is moderately fine.

The fresh fruit contains about 67% water. The fruit contains per 100 g of dry matter: energy 1449 kJ (347 kcal), protein 2.1 g, fat 1.5 g, fibre 3.2 g, Ca 140 mg, P 60 mg and Fe 5 mg. It contains acid saponin. The triterpenoids zanhic acid and zanhic acid-γ-lactone, and the prosapogenins zanhin and medicagin have been isolated from the root bark.

Description

Deciduous, dioecious shrub or small to medium-sized tree up to 30(–40) m tall; bole cylindrical, sometimes crooked, up to 150(–170) cm in diameter; bark surface greyish brown to dark brown, scaling off in large flakes revealing a brown layer; crown dense, heavily branched; twigs glabrous. Leaves alternate, paripinnately compound with 3–7 pairs of leaflets; stipules absent; petiole up to 12 cm long, rachis up to 15 cm long, glabrous or sparsely hairy; petiolules up to 2 mm long; leaflets opposite, ovate to elliptical or oblong-elliptical, 6–11(–17) cm × 2–4(–5.5) cm, cuneate at base, obtuse to short-acuminate at apex, margin entire to slightly toothed towards the apex, glabrous, pinnately veined with up to 16 pairs of lateral veins. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary panicle with flowers in dense clusters. Flowers unisexual, regular, small, greenish, sweet-scented; pedicel up to 3 mm long, hairy; sepals 4–5, c. 4.5 mm long, fused at base, hairy outside; petals absent; stamens 4–5, up to 8 mm long; disk cup-shaped; ovary superior, 2-celled, style simple; male flowers without ovary, female flowers with rudimentary stamens. Fruit an ellipsoid fleshy drupe up to 2 cm × 1.5 cm, glabrous, yellow to orange or pink, 1-seeded. Seed ellipsoid, up to 2 cm long. Seedling with hypogeal germination; epicotyl c. 15 cm long; first 2 leaves opposite, with 2–3 pairs of leaflets.

Other botanical information

Zanha golungensis sheds most of its leaves during the dry season. The flowers appear before the new leaves. Fruits are eaten by birds, gorillas, chimpanzees and monkeys, and these probably serve as seed dispersers.

Zanha comprises 3 species. Zanha africana (Radlk.) Exell of mainland tropical Africa and Zanha suaveolens Capuron, which is endemic to Madagascar, are both trees of which the timber is used locally.

Ecology

Zanha golungensis occurs in deciduous woodland and forest, sometimes also in evergreen forest and extending into riverine forests in drier areas, at 300–1700 m altitude. It requires proper drainage.

Management

Propagation of Zanha golungensis with fresh seeds is easy. Seeds germinate within 2 months. In Kenya seedlings survived a dry period of 3 weeks. Propagation by cuttings is probably feasible as well. In Togo Zanha golungensis is often retained for its fruits when land is cleared for home gardens. In Ethiopia it is left after forest clearing to serve as a shade tree for coffee.

Genetic resources

There are no indications that Zanha golungensis is threatened or vulnerable. Although widespread, it apparently is nowhere common.

The variation in tree height and bole diameter of Zanha golungensis is largely due to growing conditions. It may be worthwile to try selections of the largest trees from DR Congo and Ethiopia in other areas.

Prospects

In most of its range Zanha golungensis produces timber of little commercial value. However, it will remain an important source of wood for local uses. There is very little or no information on its propagation and management, and research is needed to explore possibilities for domestication of this multipurpose species.

Major references

• 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.

• Coates Palgrave, K., 2002. Trees of southern Africa. 3rd Edition. Struik Publishers, Cape Town, South Africa. 1212 pp.

• Chhabra, S.C., Mahunnah, R.L.A. & Mshiu, E.N., 1991. Plants used in traditional medicine in eastern Tanzania. 5. Angiosperms (Passifloraceae to Sapindaceae). Journal of Ethnopharmacology 33: 143–157.

• Davies, F.G. & Verdcourt, B., 1998. Sapindaceae. In: Beentje, H.J. (Editor). Flora of Tropical East Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands. 108 pp.

• Neuwinger, H.D., 2000. African traditional medicine: a dictionary of plant use and applications. Medpharm Scientific, Stuttgart, Germany. 589 pp.

Other references

• Arbonnier, M., 2000. Arbres, arbustes et lianes des zones sèches d’Afrique de l’Ouest. CIRAD, MNHN, UICN. 541 pp.

• Aubréville, A., 1959. La flore forestière de la Côte d’Ivoire. Deuxième édition révisée. Tome deuxième. Publication No 15. Centre Technique Forestier Tropical, Nogent-sur-Marne, France. 341 pp.

• Friis, I., 1992. Forests and forest trees of northeast tropical Africa: their natural habitats and distribution patterns in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. Kew Bulletin, Additional Series 15, H.M.S.O., London, United Kingdom. 396 pp.

• Gelfand, M., Mavi, S., Drummond, R.B. & Ndemera, B., 1985. The traditional medical practitioner in Zimbabwe: his principles of practice and pharmacopoeia. Mambo Press, Gweru, Zimbabwe. 411 pp.

• Hauman, L., 1960. Sapindaceae. In: Robyns, W., Staner, P., Demaret, F., Germain, R., Gilbert, G., Hauman, L., Homès, M., Jurion, F., Lebrun, J., Vanden Abeele, M. & Boutique, R. (Editors). Flore du Congo belge et du Ruanda-Urundi. Spermatophytes. Volume 9. Institut National pour l’Étude Agronomique du Congo belge, Brussels, Belgium. pp. 279–384.

• Kambizi, L. & Afolayan, A.J., 2001. An ethnobotanical study of plants used for the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases (njovhera) in Guruve District, Zimbabwe. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 77: 5–9.

• Kareru, P.G., Kenji, G.M., Gachanja, A.N, Keriko, J.M. & Mungai, G., 2007. Traditional medicines among the Embu and Mbeere peoples of Kenya. African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines 4(1): 75–86.

• Malaisse, F., 1997. Se nourir en fôret claire africaine. Approche écologique et nutritionelle. Les presses agronomiques de Gembloux, Gembloux, Belgium & CTA, Wageningen, Netherlands. 384 pp.

• Robinson, J., 2004. After the conflict: plant genetic resources of southern Sudan. Plant Genetic Resources 2(2): 85–97.

• Vivien, J. & Faure, J.J., 1996. Fruitiers sauvages d’Afrique: espèces du Cameroun. Ministère Français de la Coopération, Paris, France & CTA, Wageningen, Netherlands. 416 pp.

Sources of illustration

• Akoègninou, A., van der Burg, W.J. & van der Maesen, L.J.G. (Editors), 2006. Flore analytique du Bénin. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands. 1034 pp.

Author(s)

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

Correct citation of this article

Bosch, C.H., 2011. Zanha golungensis Hiern. In: Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Louppe, D. & Oteng-Amoako, A.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. Accessed 23 December 2024.

• See the Prota4U database.