EJADA

Icacunia Trichantha

🥔🍒 Is It a Fruit or a Tuber?

Both—but in different ways:

Fruit: Yes, it produces a drupe—a soft, pulpy fruit with a pit in the center. The outer flesh is edible and sweet, so it does qualify as a fruit in that sense.

Tuber: The plant is best known for its massive underground tuber, which is starchy and used as a famine food or fuel source. This tuber behaves more like a root vegetable than a fruit.

🌱 Botanical Profile

Family: Icacinaceae

Growth Habit: Climbing shrub up to 2 meters tall

Tuber: Large, yam-like and starchy—often used as a famine food

Fruit: A drupe with soft, sweet pulp; edible, but the kernel is typically not consumed

Icacina trichantha blurs botanical boundaries—its sweet drupe qualifies as a fruit, while its underground starchy tuber has long served as a famine food and fuel source during scarcity. This duality makes it both a nutritional and ethnobotanical marvel.”

🍲 Culinary Uses

Tuber: Can be boiled, dried, and pounded into flour (called gẹ-wutu), used in soups or mixed with roasted watermelon seeds (ìgbãlò)

Fruit: Eaten raw for its sweet pulp

Caution: Some preparations require prolonged soaking and washing to remove bitter or toxic compounds like alkaloids and benzophenones

🧪 Medicinal Applications

Traditional Uses:

Emergency remedy for food poisoning and constipation

Aphrodisiac in folk medicine

Used to treat malaria, rheumatism, toothache, and even mumps

Employed to induce emesis and abortion in traditional settings.

Treatment for food poisoning, constipation, malaria, and rheumatism

Scientific Insights:

Contains unusual pimarane-type diterpenes

Exhibits hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties in lab studies

🔥 Other Noteworthy Traits

Fuel Source: The tuber is highly flammable and burns with intense heat

Cultural Names: Known as Urumbia or Eriagbo among the Igbo, and Gbegbe by the Yoruba—each name reflecting its emetic or cleansing properties

Pharmacological Activities

Hepatoprotective: Protects the liver from toxins like arsenic and paracetamol

Anti-inflammatory: Reduces edema in animal models

Antioxidant: Moderate activity linked to phenolic content

Antimicrobial: Active against E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, and more

Antidiabetic: Lowers blood glucose and improves lipid profiles in diabetic mice

CNS Effects: Sedative, anticonvulsant, and anesthetic properties observed in lab animals

🧬 Bioactive Compounds

Pimarane-type diterpenes: Rare structures with cytotoxic and anti-genotoxic potential

Stigmasterol & β-Sitosterol: Identified as key antimicrobial agents in the leaves

Alkaloids, tannins, saponins, flavonoids, glycosides: Contribute to its broad-spectrum activity

🌿 Icacina trichantha: Dual Identity in Nature

🌾 Scarcity & Survival Significance

Emergency Moisture & Energy Source: The massive underground tuber stores starch and moisture, allowing the plant—and the people who rely on it—to survive multi-year droughts2.

Famine Food: During food shortages, the tuber is harvested, detoxified through soaking and drying, and turned into flour for soups and porridges.

Seasonal Lifeline: The fruit ripens at the end of the dry season, precisely when other food stores are depleted, making it a critical bridge between hunger and harvest.

Cultural Resilience: In Nigeria, it’s known as Gbegbe or Ibugo, and is often left underground until absolutely needed, like a buried reserve of hope.

Wild Abundance: In some regions, families can collect hundreds of kilos of fruit per day from wild stands, offering a lifeline without cultivation.

🧪Healing Highlights

Antimicrobial: Active against E. coli, Candida albicans, and more

Anti-inflammatory & Hepatoprotective: Tested in lab models

Antidiabetic: Lowers blood sugar and improves lipid profile

CNS Impact: Sedative and anticonvulsant effects observed

Aphrodisiac & Emesis agent in traditional medicine

Possible Ceremonial Contexts

Ritual Cleansing: The Yoruba name Gbegbe translates to “cleanse,” hinting at its use in spiritual or bodily purification rites—possibly before initiation, healing, or ancestral offerings.

Emetic Ceremonies: Among the Igbo, names like Urumbia and Eriagbo refer to their emetic effects. Plants with such properties are often used in ritual vomiting to purge negative energies or prepare for trance states.

Aphrodisiac & Fertility Rites: Its reputation as an aphrodisiac may link it to fertility ceremonies, especially in rural settings where plant-based tonics are part of traditional courtship or marital rituals.

Protective Amulets or Offerings: While not confirmed, plants with strong medicinal and survival traits are sometimes used in protective charms or placed at shrines as symbols of resilience and ancestral wisdom.

Ceremonial use of Icacina trichantha isn’t widely documented in formal ethnobotanical literature, but its emetic, cleansing, and aphrodisiac properties suggest it may have played a role in ritual purification or spiritual healing among certain West African communities.

🌍 Where to Find Icacina trichantha: From Savannas to Seed Shops

Icacina trichantha bridges the wild and the wise—from sweet fruit to famine tuber. Celebrated in West Africa as food, fuel, and folk remedy, its rare compounds offer modern hope, tempered by age-old caution. A true survival crop, rooted in healing and heritage

‘Survival Root & Healing Fruit.” It’s now reaching new soils via niche seed vendors like Dhara Seeds. Consider its potential in drought-resilient gardens—but remember, it’s a plant rooted in cultural survival.

⚠️ Disclaimer for Readers

This post explores the cultural, medicinal, and nutritional uses of Icacina trichantha based on traditional knowledge and emerging research. The plant contains potentially toxic compounds. It should only be consumed following proper detoxification and is not recommended for pregnant individuals, children, or those with liver or kidney conditions without professional guidance.