ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of African Walnut, Gabon Nut and Almond Wood. The fruits, sold in Cameroon markets, have agreeably edible kernels, resembling hazelnuts or chestnuts. They are eaten fresh, boiled in the shell, roasted, boiled, and pounded and made into cakes. The timber is red to reddish-brown, closegrained, hard, heavy, resistant to water, and immune to insects, e.g., termites, through liable to split. Suitable for house posts, railway sleepers, bridge-piles, and charcoal, it has been suggested for heavy carpentry, stair treads, doors, turnery, and boat and carriage construction. The stomachic bark decoction is used for dysentery in Liberia. Powdered bark is used in Equatorial Africa for dressing sores, and in decoctions to stimulate appetite and counteract anemia, or in enemas for dysentery.
