ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Tallow Tree. The only seeds and the pulp around them are used as food sources in Africa. The pulp can be made into a sweetmeat. The oily kernels, little eaten by humans, are beaten into cattle fodder by the Nupe. Ashes of the fruits are used to prepare a snuff. Seeds are used for necklaces and girdles. An aromatic resin, exuding from the trunk, is used to fumigate African huts and garments. The wood is used for planks and boat-building in Liberia and sold in England as African Mahogany. Senegalese use the wood decoction for anemia and cachexia. In Sierra Leone, young shoots are boiled as a febrifuge. Liberians use the bark decoction for placental retention. In French Guinea, the bark is boiled to make a lotion for itch.
