ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecol-ogy, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Gbanja Kola. Kola possesses the central stimulating principle of caffeine. This species is more valued than C. acuminata as it contains more caffeine. Nuts are used in West Africa to sustain people during long journeys or long hours of work. Kola, Cola, or Kola-nuts is the dried cotyledon of Cola nitida, or of some other species of Cola. In the US, the kola-nut is used in the manufacture of nonalcoholic beverages. Reported to be astringent, nervine, poison, restorative, sedative, stimulant, stomachic, and tonic, gbanja kola is a folk remedy for digestion, dysentery, exhaustion, hunger, malaria, nausea, and toothache. Reported from the African Center of Diversity, gbanja kola, or cvs thereof, is reported to tolerate low pH, shade, slope, and virus.
