Description

This item is from "Some Common Medicinal And Poisonous Plants Used In Ethiopian Folk Medicine" work, by Amare Getahun.

Rhamnaceae

Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk"

(-Z. jujuba Lam. )

gava (T)

ghob, gheb, jumuba (Som)

kurkura (GH), (Adaric)

A shrub or small tree up to 6 meters high, generally found in lowlands forming a sub-desert scrub.

The dried wood is used by Somali women to fumigate their hair.

The bark is employed as a fish poison in some parts of Ethiopia.

The roots may have enough tannin to be used as astringent and in the treatment of scrofula.

Its fruit is edible however, only children seem to eat it. But in drier areas, the fruits have a more significant role in the diet of adults. Children use the seeds as beads. The red wood is expensive and is used over fire to give smoke.

Hagenia abyssinica (Bruce) Gamelin

habbi (T)

duchia, edo, fieto (G)

heto (GK)

The kosso tree is typically a highland tree occurring only above 2.OOOm. It is a very handsome tree, indeed, particularly when in bloom. It should make a nice ornamental tree.

The dried pistillate flowers of kosso are perhaps the most widely used of all tapeworm expellant preparations. It is widely sold on the open markets. The kosso drink is strong and should be regulated according to the person's health condition. Excess dosage of kosso can cause death, and repeated use is suspected to cause blindness in man.

Kosso is sometimes used to cause abortion in women.

 

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herbs, medical, medicinal, poisonous, plant, folk medicine, ethiopia