ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on the 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. Seeds are used for necklaces and girdles. The wood is used for planks and boat-building in Liberia and sold in England as African Mahogany. Roots are boiled on the Gold Coast to prepare a bird-lime. Seeds are burned to repel mosquitoes. Senegalese use the wood decoction for anemia and cachexia. The wood burns slowly and is favored as a fuel because of the agreeable odor. The heartwood is probably resistant to borers and termites.
