page_title: Prunus africana
section_title: Traditional and alternative medicine
hierarchical_section_title: Prunus africana / Uses / Traditional and alternative medicine
caption_attribution_description: Prunus africana, bark harvested for medicine, Mt. Cameroon
context_page_description: Prunus africana, the African cherry, has a wide distribution in Africa, occurring in montane regions of central and southern Africa and on the islands of Bioko, São-Tomé, Grande Comore, and Madagascar. It can be found at 900–3,400 m above sea level. It is a canopy tree 30–40 m in height, and is the tallest member of Prunus. Large-diameter trees have impressive, spreading crowns. It requires a moist climate, 900–3,400 mm annual rainfall, and is moderately frost-tolerant. P. africana appears to be a light-demanding, secondary-forest species.
  The bark is black to brown, corrugated or fissured, and scaly, fissuring in a characteristic rectangular pattern. The leaves are alternate, simple, 8–20 cm long, elliptical, bluntly or acutely pointed, glabrous, and dark green above, pale green below, with mildly serrated margins. A central vein is depressed on top, prominent on the bottom. The 2 cm petiole is pink or red. The flowers are androgynous, 10-20 stamens, insect-pollinated, 3–8 cm, greenish white or buff, and are distributed in 70 mm axillary racemes. The plant flowers October through May.
context_section_description: The species has a long history of traditional uses. The bark is used in numerous ways: as a wound dressing, as a purgative, as an appetite stimulant; and to treat fevers, malaria, arrow poisoning, stomach pain, kidney disease, gonorrhoea, and insanity. The pharmacology and traditional uses of the species are reviewed in Stewart (2003a and 2003 b) 
  The extract Pygeum is an herbal remedy prepared from the bark of P. africana and is promoted as an alternative medicine for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). A 2016 literature review found that Pygeum offered no benefit. A 2019 review said there was some evidence of BPH symptom relief.
caption: P. africana with stripped bark
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