Anthonotha macrophylla P.Beauv.

Family

Caesalpiniaceae (Leguminosae - Caesalpinioideae)

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Chromosome number

2n = 24

Synonyms

Macrolobium macrophyllum (P.Beauv.) Macbr. (1919).

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Vernacular names

Palissandre d’Afrique, réré à longs fruits (Fr).

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Origin and geographic distribution

Anthonotha macrophylla is distributed from Guinea westward to the Central African Republic and DR Congo, and south to Gabon, Congo and Cabinda (Angola).

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Uses

The wood is used for house posts, telegraph poles, carpentry and tool handles. It is suitable for heavy construction, heavy flooring, joinery, vehicle bodies, sporting goods, agricultural implements, railway sleepers, vats and turnery. Stems are sometimes left standing after land clearing to serve as stakes for yam. The wood is also used as firewood, and in parts of Nigeria it is in demand for smoking fish.
The seeds are eaten in Liberia, and they are a nutritious livestock feed. The leaves are used in Nigeria to extract a red dye. Edible caterpillars of the genus Platysphinx can be collected from the leaves. In eastern Nigeria Anthonotha macrophylla is planted in fallow land to restore soil fertility. Twigs are split and used for binding.
In Sierra Leone leaf and bark infusions are drunk as a remedy for jaundice. A leaf poultice is rubbed on boils to ease pain and induce the formation of pus. The leaves are used to treat dysentery and snakebites and a leaf decoction is drunk to ease toothache. In Liberia a leaf poultice is applied to burns. In both Liberia and Nigeria the exudate from the bark is used as a liniment. In Côte d’Ivoire a bark decoction is drunk to cure malaria, in the Central African Republic and Gabon as a vermifuge, and in DR Congo to treat hernia.

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Properties

The heartwood is reddish brown to purplish brown with black streaks, and distinctly demarcated from the whitish to pinkish sapwood. The grain is usually interlocked, texture medium to coarse.
The wood is heavy with a density of about 870–960 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content. It air dries slowly and is susceptible to checking and splitting; best results are obtained with back-sawn logs. The wood is difficult to saw; to avoid rapid blunting, tungsten carbide-tipped saw teeth are needed. It is also difficult to work, but finishes well. The heartwood is durable, but the sapwood is susceptible to Lyctus attack. The heartwood is highly resistant to impregnation with preservatives, the sapwood moderately resistant.
The composition of sun-dried seed meal per 100 g is: water 15.6 g, protein 21.1 g, fat 1.9 g, crude fibre 5.0 g (Durunna, 2006). Leaves contain tannin and traces of flavonoids, bark and roots contain tannin and saponins.
The in-vitro antiplasmodial activity of the ethanol bark extract is moderate.

Botany

Shrub or small to medium-sized tree up to 20 m tall, often straggling with several stems, rarely liana-like; bole often cylindrical, up to 60 cm in diameter; bark slightly fissured, flaking off, greyish, inner bark orange-brown to red with brown exudate; crown spreading; twigs silvery to pale brown short-hairy. Leaves arranged spirally, paripinnately compound with (2–)3(–4) pairs of leaflets; stipules ovate-elliptical, c. 2 mm long, soon caducous; petiole (1–)2–3(–7) cm long, rachis 2.5–11(–16) cm long; petiolules (4–)5–8(–15) mm long; leaflets opposite, obovate-elliptical, up to 20(–30) cm × 7(–16) cm, rounded to slightly cuneate at base, acuminate at apex, silvery to pale brown short-hairy below. Inflorescence an axillary loose panicle, sometimes some together on knob-like structures below the leaves, up to 15(–21) cm long, brown short-hairy. Flowers bisexual or functionally male, zygomorphic, 5-merous, with 2 firm, elliptical bracteoles up to 8 mm × 6 mm at base; pedicel 3–8 mm long; sepals ovate-triangular to oblong, up to 5 mm long, 2 partly fused, others free, glabrous; petals unequal, 1 large with claw 3.5–4(–6) mm long and deeply lobed lamina 3–4.5 mm × 4–6 mm, others small, 1–2(–5) mm long; stamens 3, 10–13 mm long, rudimentary stamens 6, up to 1.5 mm long; ovary superior, sessile, 3–5 mm long, velvety hairy, 1-celled, style slightly longer than stamens. Fruit an oblong pod, sometimes slightly curved, (8–)15–26(–34) cm × 5–7 cm, pointed at apex, prominently veined, brown to almost black, short-hairy, up to 7-seeded. Seeds elliptical, flattened, 5–6 cm × 3.5–5.5 cm, seed coat thin, brittle and dull. Seedling with hypogeal germination; epicotyl 6–8 cm long, hairy; leaves alternate, first leaf with 2 pairs of leaflets.
In Nigeria Anthonotha macrophylla is reported to flower in April–July and October–December, and to fruit in February and June–September. In Liberia the fruits burst open towards the end of the rainy season, which is an indication for farmers to clear the land and plant rice. In Côte d’Ivoire fruits are ripe in February–March and in Gabon in January–February. The seeds are eaten by colobus monkeys and mandrills. No nodulation of the roots was observed in rainforest in Guinea, but the roots are associated with ectomycorrhizae.
Anthonotha comprises 17 species and is almost completely confined to West and Central Africa, only extending to northern Angola and western Tanzania. Gabon (with 12 species) and Cameroon (10 species) are richest.
Anthonotha crassifolia (Baill.) J.Léonard is a medium-sized to fairly large tree up to 40 m tall, with bole up to 150 cm in diameter. It is found from Senegal and Mali to Cameroon, Gabon and northern Angola. It is very difficult to distinguish from Anthonotha macrophylla unless fruits are present. In Guinea the wood is used for carpentry. In Côte d’Ivoire a leaf decoction is applied externally to relieve intercostal pain and constipation.
Anthonotha acuminata (De Wild.) J.Léonard is usually a shrub or small tree, but occasionally grows as tall as 28 m with a bole diameter of 70 cm. It is recorded from Cameroon, Gabon, Congo and DR Congo, where its wood is probably used occasionally. Sap of young leaves is used to treat eye infections and oedema.
Anthonotha gilletii (De Wild.) J.Léonard is a small to medium-sized tree up to 25(–30) m tall, with a bole diameter up to 40(–70) cm. It is recorded only from Congo and DR Congo, where its wood is probably used occasionally. Bark decoctions have diuretic properties and are taken to cure oedema.

Description

Ecology

Anthonotha macrophylla is often common in the understorey of rainforest, including secondary forest, up to 1200 m altitude.

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Management

After forest clearing Anthonotha macrophylla often regenerates abundantly and can become locally dominant in secondary vegetation. There are about 60 seeds per kg. The seeds start germinating 1–2 months after sowing. The germination rate is low. The seedlings show little mycorrhiza dependency, but still inoculation may increase growth and nutrient uptake. In fallow land in Sierra Leone, the tree survives coppicing and re-sprouts, resulting in several boles.
Anthonotha macrophylla is suitable for alley cropping, but for highly acidic soils and soils with high concentrations of aluminium other species are better adapted. In commercial forestry in Sierra Leone it is considered a weed; it proved quite resistant to poisoning by hormones and sodium arsenite.

Genetic resources and breeding

Anthonotha macrophylla is not threatened because it is widespread and often common, and regenerates abundantly. Several accessions of Anthonotha macrophylla have been preserved in the gene bank of IITA and in the botanical gardens of Onne and Ibadan in Nigeria, and Mbalmayo in Cameroon.

Prospects

Research is needed to confirm that Anthonotha macrophylla could play an important role in silvo-pastoral systems. As a timber tree it does not have a bright future as the bole sizes are too small.

Major references

• Altieri, M.A. & Koohafkan, P., 2004. Globally important ingenious agricultural heritage systems (GIAHS): extent, significance, and implications for development. FAO, Rome, Italy. 44 pp.
• Bolza, E. & Keating, W.G., 1972. African timbers: the properties, uses and characteristics of 700 species. Division of Building Research, CSIRO, Melbourne, Australia. 710 pp.
• Breteler, F.J., 2010. Revision of the African genus Anthonotha (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae). Plant Ecology and Evolution 143(1): 70–99.
• Burkill, H.M., 1995. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 3, Families J–L. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 857 pp.
• Raponda-Walker, A. & Sillans, R., 1961. Les plantes utiles du Gabon. Paul Lechevalier, Paris, France. 614 pp.

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Other references

• Breteler, F.J., 2008. Anthonotha and Isomacrolobium (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae): two distinct genera. Systematics and Geography of Plants 78: 137–144.
• Diédhiou, A.G., Guèye, O., Diabaté, M., Prin, Y., Duponnois, R., Dreyfus, B. & Bâ, A.M., 2005. Contrasting responses to ectomycorrhizal inoculation in seedlings of six tropical African tree species. Mycorrhiza 16: 11–17.
• Durunna, C.S., 2006. Aspects of the bio-chemical composition of Anthonotha macrophylla seeds. Animal Production Research Advances 2(4): 217–220.
• Hawthorne, W. & Jongkind, C., 2006. Woody plants of western African forests: a guide to the forest trees, shrubs and lianes from Senegal to Ghana. Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. 1023 pp.
• Kanmegne, J., Bayomock, L.A., Duguma, B. & Ladipo, D.O., 2000. Screening of 18 agroforestry species for highly acid and aluminium toxic soils of the humid tropics. Agroforestry Systems 49(1): 31–39.
• Lebbie, A.R. & Guries, R.P., 1995. Ethnobotanical value and conservation of sacred groves of the Kpaa Mende in Sierra Leone. Economic Botany 49(3): 297–308.
• Nyerges, A.E., 1989. Coppice swidden fallows in tropical deciduous forest: Biological, technological, and sociocultural determinants of secondary forest successions. Human Ecology 17(4): 379–400.
• Orji, R.C.A. & Uzoagba, I., 2008. Sensory evaluation of Scomber scombrus (Mackerel) smoked with different types of wood. Nigerian Food Journal 26(2): • Thompson, E.E., 1965. Primitive African medical lore and witchcraft. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 53(1): 80–94.
• Zirihi Guédé, N., N'guessan, K., Etien Dibié, T. & Grellier, P., 2010. Ethnopharmacological study of plants used to treat malaria, in traditional medicine, by Bete populations of Issia (Côte d’Ivoire). Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences & Research 2(4): 216–227.

Afriref references

Author(s)

•	C.H. Bosch PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Editors

•	R.H.M.J. Lemmens PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands
•	D. Louppe CIRAD, Département Environnements et Sociétés, Cirad es-dir, Campus international de Baillarguet, TA C 105 / D (Bât. C, Bur. 113), 34398 Montpellier Cédex 5, France
•	A.A. Oteng-Amoako Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG), University P.O. Box 63, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana

Associate editors

•	E.A. Obeng Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG), University P.O. Box 63, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana

Correct citation of this article

Bosch, C.H., 2011. Anthonotha macrophylla P.Beauv. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Louppe, D. & Oteng-Amoako, A.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. <http://www.prota4u.org/search.asp>. Accessed .

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