Botany Rising: The World of James Petiver

In many ways, the English apothecary James Petiver (1663–1718) was an exemplar of that epistemic turn in which categorization was based on the ceaseless global accumulation of specimens – plants, fish, animals, rocks, shells, insects, fossils, and the rest – that were compared in terms of their identification with or difference from one another. This was proto-classification, largely visual in relation to the whole or the parts, for there was no agreed standard of categorization derived from scientific principles. Petiver belonged to an expanding European world that, under the impress of global data gathered on an unprecedented but haphazard scale, was in headlong if uncertain transition from Renaissance “cabinets of curiosities” to the accumulation and sorting of specimens into some kind(s) of systematic order(s).

Petiver came from the English Midlands, but had a rich uncle who owned property in the Southeast. Another kinsman was William Sherard, who was a botanist, antiquarian, sometime British consul at Smyrna, and whose large fortune endowed the Sherardian Chair of Botany at Oxford University. ^{Footnote 8} Petiver was apprenticed as an apothecary, and then set up in his own practice around 1690 at the sign of the White Cross in Aldersgate near Long Lane in London. In 1695, he was appointed apothecary to the Charterhouse hospital and augmented his income by practicing medicine, including surgery. In that same year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Petiver’s own “particular attachment was to plants.” ^{Footnote 9} His method of collecting specimens derived from and reflected the vastly expanding global commercial and colonial interests of Britain. His place of business in Aldersgate “was familiar to shipmasters, merchants, planters, surgeons, consuls, and apothecaries.” ^{Footnote 10} He exhorted all of these to gather plants for him on their travels across the globe, and issued to them everything from printed instructions written by himself to drugs to preserve specimens and bottles and boxes to keep them in. This enterprise was driven on by letter writing and Petiver’s correspondence was vast and worldwide. He coaxed and cajoled, bullied and demanded, gave out rewards, and issued constant reminders. The fullest modern account of this epistolary traffic concerns his operations in the American colonies and the Caribbean, and it is a tale of relentless curiosity and single-minded purpose. ^{Footnote 11}

Petiver was a prolific author of books, catalogues, and lists, but his writings lacked any foundation in a clear, agreed, or explicit botanical systematics. He was much criticized for this by Linnaeus, and today it is generally agreed that his single greatest contribution was a practical one. He produced exsiccatae, sets of dried plants with printed labels, and did much to encourage and disseminate this practice. ^{Footnote 12} Petiver labored under the almost universal belief of his age in the fixity of species, and like his peers he did little experimentation in plant physiology, chemistry, breeding, or crossing. He was first and foremost a collector, and his huge energies were ultimately directed to plant taxonomy and to the medicinal, commercial, or manufacturing uses to which specimens might be put. In the scientific circumstances of his time these were “enormous, endless, even hopeless objectives,” for he and his peers struggled “with a maze of imperfect data and with unworkable systems.” ^{Footnote 13}

Indications of Petiver’s methods and their shortcomings are to be found in his dealings with correspondents on the Gold Coast (Guinea). In 1695, as a newly minted Fellow of the Royal Society, he solicited Edward Bartar, an employee of the Royal African Company at Cape Coast Castle, to collect and send him local plants. Little seems to have come of this initiative, but Petiver had other connections at Cape Coast and sedulously fostered them. One of these was the Rev. Dr. John Smyth, physician and Anglican Chaplain to the Royal African Company’s employees. On 6 April 1692, he shipped a collection he had made of “Guinea Plants” to Petiver in London. ^{Footnote 14} He was asked to do the same when he removed to Port Royal in Jamaica, but the relationship dwindled away largely because of Petiver’s importunate harassment of Smyth to furnish more and more specimens. Be that as it may, it is evident that Petiver discussed Smyth’s Gold Coast plants with his botanical peers at one of their periodic gatherings at London’s Temple Coffee House. ^{Footnote 15}

Most germanely, in the Temple Coffee House or elsewhere Petiver interested one of the grandees of British science (and society) in Smyth’s specimens. This was Hans Soane, a physician and botanist who served as doctor to the Duke of Albemarle when he was Governor of Jamaica (1687–1688). Soane spent fifteen months in Port Royal, collected 800 new plant species in the Caribbean, and eventually produced a book that discussed them. ^{Footnote 16} He was an eminent figure in the Royal Society, and Secretary of it when Petiver was elected to its fellowship in 1695. Soane’s patronage is suggested by the fact that Petiver now wrote up an account of the plants sent to him by Smyth. This took the form of a communication to Soane. It was afterwards printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society as A Catalogue of Some Guinea-Plants, with Their Native Names and Virtues; Sent to James Petiver, Apothecary, and Fellow of the Royal Society; with His Remarks on Them. Communicated in a Letter to Dr. Hans Soane. Secret. Reg. Soc. ^{Footnote 17}

The Catalogue lists and discusses the medicinal properties of forty plants forwarded to Petiver by his “Worthy and Reverend Friend” Smyth, “whilst he was Minister to the Royal African Company in the English Factory at Cabo Corso, vulgarly called Cape Coast, in Guinea.” Petiver told Soane that his African Materia Medica, which has “no more Art than Composition,” is simply an unadorned addition to information about the “Art or Mystery of Physick.” However, this is not the case. As he did with other collections, Petiver massively and elaborately speculated about the specimens placed before his eyes. Smyth provided a note on the Fante Twi name of each plant (heard orally in a language he did not understand, and which he then transcribed phonetically as best he could), and a short description of (some of) its medical use(s) by his informants. ^{Footnote 18}

Let us now consider Petiver’s commentaries on Smyth’s specimens with the ruling epistemic imperatives of identity and difference in mind. The quest for these called forth from Petiver’s magpie research a baroque or “learned” explication, in which the matters of decision and attribution were elided in a great tangle of either/or possibilities. This superstructure was constantly undermined by the lack of a foundational systematics. It would be tedious to review Petiver’s commentaries on all forty plants, for they are intellectually interchangeable. I restrict myself to an examination of Petiver’s longest commentary. This concerns Attrummaphoe, as named by Smyth in his Twi transcription. He said the Fante of Cape Coast boiled and drank it to dry “the great sort of Pox to Skin.” Petiver already had a specimen of this plant, forwarded to him by Bartar, who said the Fante poured the juice of this “weed” up their nostrils to make them sneeze.

Petiver’s quest to identify or to differentiate Attrummaphoe led him through the botanical literature, by himself and others, a fruitless exercise in the absence of any agreed principles of categorization (or indeed of any sufficiency of good specimens with adequate provenance). I quote him in extenso:

This is in essence a visual description from observation. Its identifications and potential assignations are drawn from books and catalogues produced by people labouring under the same disabilities as Petiver. Its persuasion to principles of identity and difference are undermined by the lack of any clear and rigorous regime of taxonomic order.

Botany risen: the world of Carl Linnaeus

In 1753, thirty-five years after Petiver’s death, a two volume work entitled Species Plantarum was published in Stockholm. Its author was Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), a physician and professor of botany at Uppsala University with an ever growing European reputation. ^{Footnote 20} This work was the culmination of its author’s thinking, reflection, and writing on botany since his first publication Systema Naturae (1735) appeared in Holland when he was a twenty-eight year old student there. The work of 1753 was revolutionary and immediately recognized as such, and by 1800 – twenty-two years after Linnaeus’s death – it was in its fifth, now four volume, edition compiled by a German acolyte of the author. The book was also sensational, for its chief subject was sex (albeit in plants) and it employed a notably erotic language. ^{Footnote 21}

The Species Plantarum was a taxonomical classification of plants based on the closest observation of their sexual and other characteristics, and on dissection and comparison of parts. More than that, its systematics reduced the florid plethora of plant names (as in Petiver) to a simple binomial nomenclature, and putatively arranged all possible specimens into a vegetal cladistics of relational assignation and belonging. Simply, it was the foundation of modern botanical classification. Linnaeus’s fertile and highly original mind no doubt produced his findings, but historical circumstances played their part as well. Since the time of Petiver, Europe’s global reach had massively expanded and intensified. This generated the raw materials for much Enlightenment speculation and, as we now know, it was a process that gathered unstoppable momentum throughout the nineteenth century. Thus, the first edition (1753) of the Species Plantarum dealt with 7,300 species, for botanical collection had accelerated and become more deliberate and measured in the train of a now firmly established and ever rising European exploration, commerce, and colonialism. In Foucault’s terms, this was an age in which Europeans like Linnaeus sought the hidden logics behind observations that were carried out ever more extensively and intensively on a worldwide scale.

One key element in Linnaeus’s triumph would not have surprised Petiver. In the age before scientific professionalization, the savant relied on networking to disseminate his ideas. Linnaeus, who met with Sir Hans Soane in London in 1736, never left Sweden for the last forty years of his life. Like his peers, he had an extensive correspondence, and his influence across Europe was much reinforced and embedded by his “Apostles” (and note the term), some seventeen peripatetic and proselytizing scientists who had all been his students. ^{Footnote 22}

European botanical exploration and collection in West Africa much intensified from the mid-eighteenth century: in Sierra Leone from 1771 (Smeathman, Afzelius, Berlin, and Matthews); at Cape Coast in the early 1780s (Brass); and at Warri in the Niger delta in the middle of that decade (Palisot de Beauvois). It is the case, however, that the most sustained effort was made by Denmark where Martin Vahl (1749–1804), trained in Stockholm by Linnaeus himself, was Professor of Botany at Copenhagen University. There were Danish forts and settlements along the littoral of the eastern Gold Coast headquartered at Christiansborg (now in Accra). ^{Footnote 23} The two most significant figures in this Danish initiative on the Gold Coast were P.E. Isert (1756–1789), born in Brandenburg to German parents, and P. Thonning (1775–1848), a Dane. Both men were trained physicians with botanical and other scientific interests.

Isert was employed as a physician at Danish Accra (1783–1786). He was able to travel around the inland Akan kingdom of Akuapem, and he visited Ouidah in Dahomey. He left behind an engaging and informative account of his time on the Gold Coast. ^{Footnote 24} Among other things, Isert collected plants, if in a rather unsystematic way, and his herbarium was sent to Vahl in Copenhagen (it is today in Munich). In 1786–1788 he was in the West Indies. He then returned to the Gold Coast planning to found plantations so as to provide an economic alternative to the slave trade, which he abhorred, but he died of a fever there in 1789. Thonning lived in the Gold Coast from 1799–1803. He was sent out to revive Isert’s project of growing cash crops, but he was also instructed to collect botanical specimens and did so in a more systematic way and on a larger scale than his predecessor. He produced detailed notes and descriptions about his herbarium, and his materials were also forwarded to Vahl.

Between them, Isert and Thonning sent 2,000 specimens (gathered from 610 species) to Vahl. The latter started to work on and with them but he died in 1804. After Vahl’s death, this material was first described in full in the 1820s by Schumacher, another professor at Copenhagen. By then, botanists across Europe from St. Petersburg to Florence and London were interested in these Danish collections. This was because of their wealth of type specimens. Thus, of the 474 (out of 610) names based on these type specimens, 203 are still in use either in the original genus or by transference to another. In sum, the collections of Isert and Thonning were of signal, original, and enduring importance to taxonomic botany in the new Linnaean tradition. ^{Footnote 25}

A persistent theme in European reporting from and about the Gold Coast was disease and sickness. As early as the 1610s, Brun observed on the third of his voyages that “strange illnesses and diseases” prevailed on the coast of Guinea, and most accounts that followed discussed aspects of this topic. ^{Footnote 26} In truth, this was of commanding personal interest, for the European death rate from illness along the Gold Coast was alarmingly high. As a result, there developed a close but unsystematically pursued interest in West African botanical materia medica. Reports of plant cures for all sorts of ailments were a commonplace of travel literature about the Gold Coast from the seventeenth century onwards.

Botany Practiced: Henry Tedlie in Asante

In 1807, the inland kingdom of Asante invaded the southern Gold Coast to assert control over the peoples there. Further Asante invasions followed in 1811 and 1816. These military incursions devastated a large area, and produced anxiety in the European forts and settlements on the coast. It became evident that Asante was a military power to be reckoned with, and Europeans with the British in the lead decided that they must arrive at a peaceful accommodation with it. Accordingly, in 1817 it was determined that a British mission be sent from Cape Coast to the Asante capital of Kumase. The chief purpose was treaty making, but the detailed instructions given to the British mission also charged its members with gathering as much intelligence about Asante and the interior of West Africa as it could reasonably manage. A physician was to accompany the mission, on the questionable grounds that western medical practices “give Negroes an exalted idea of white men.” In addition, the mission was to collect “any specimens” of plants they encountered, and bring these back to Cape Coast. ^{Footnote 27}

In the event, the mission’s physician and plant collector turned out to be the same person. This was Henry Tedlie (1792–1818), a young man born in Ireland who had taken part in the British military expedition to Kandy in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and then become assistant-surgeon at Cape Coast Castle. Tedlie was an enterprising fellow. Throughout the mission to Kumase he “suffered severely” from intermittent dysentery (and died of this in Cape Coast in 1818), but he practiced medicine among the Asante, made important contacts there (notably the Gyaasewahene Opoku Frɛfrɛ), and clearly talked much (via an interpreter) with adunsiŋfoↄ (herbalists, physicians) about diseases and the therapeutic plants used to treat them. By the time that Bowdich’s account of the mission was published, Tedlie was dead. The chapter on “Materia Medica and Diseases” in Bowdich’s account ran to ten pages, and the author noted that all the information in it was “afforded” by Tedlie. ^{Footnote 28}

Tedlie furnished a listing of thirty-seven plants from Kumase, collected between mid-May and mid-September 1817, providing the Asante Twi names for them supplied by his interlocutors, together with the latter’s descriptions of (some of) their medicinal uses. These data are enumerated and analyzed below in tabular form. ^{Footnote 29} However, before we turn to Tedlie’s materials, we need to take immediate account of a footnote in Bowdich’s book. While Bowdich was resident in London preparing his book for publication after Tedlie’s death, he sought informed opinion on and clarification of the latter’s botanical notes from an acknowledged, indeed famous, authority. Thus, the footnote mentioned reads in full: “I am indebted to Mr. Brown’s knowledge for the names and references in the parentheses.” ^{Footnote 30}

Robert Brown (1773–1858) was a botanist, best known perhaps for his microscopic revelation of what came to be called Brownian motion. ^{Footnote 31} In 1793, Brown abandoned his medical studies at Edinburgh University so as to pursue his botanical passion. He became an army surgeon, and was posted to Ireland where he saw little military action but collected plant specimens and began to produce botanical papers. His writings reached the attention of Sir Joseph Banks, the explorer, impresario, and a leading figure in the British scientific establishment. Joseph Banks, of course, did as much as anyone to internationalize the Linnaean system. In 1800, he recruited Brown to serve as naturalist on Matthew Flinders’s impending scientific expedition to New Holland (Australia). Brown set foot there in 1801, and remained in Australia until 1805. In that time, he collected altogether some 3,400 botanical species, the great majority of which were previously unknown to European science. He returned to England, and in 1810 he published a foundational text on the Australian flora using the Linnaean system. ^{Footnote 32} In that same year, Banks appointed him as librarian and curator of his collections. When Banks died in 1820, Brown inherited his library and herbaria. ^{Footnote 33} He rose to become Jupiter Botanicus, the most celebrated botanist in Britain, with admirers all over Europe. Honours followed in due course, and inter alia he became President of London’s Linnaean Society (1849–1853). ^{Footnote 34}

The Table below, then, is based on information provided by Tedlie and Brown, and published by Bowdich. Each entry is in four parts: (a) the Asante plant names given to Tedlie (who spoke no Twi, but seems to have taken considerable care in transcription), the medicinal use(s) of each plant as given by Tedlie’s Kumase informants, and the identification made by Brown when he examined Tedlie’s specimens and notes; (b) the identification of each plant in modern Asante Twi, and current botanical nomenclature and taxonomy; (c) such comments as seem relevant to the plant, including remarks on present botanical knowledge of or research into its status; and (d) a reference to a relevant item of current scientific literature concerning the plant in question (all such articles given here are available in full on the web). In the compilation of (b) and (c) I have stood on a lot of scientific shoulders, and here I acknowledge the most important works I have consulted. ^{Footnote 35}

Table of Asante Medicinal Plants Collected by H. Tedlie in Kumase (1817)

1.

(a) Cutturasuh (Chrysanthellum procumbens. Persoon. syn. 2. p. 471, Verbesina

mutica Willd.) A small plant, a decoction of which is purgative; before boiling it should be bruised.

(b) kotokusaa (a)bobe

Chrysanthellum americanum or procumbens (L.) Vatke: family Compositae.

(c) Common weed of cultivated land across West Africa: aromatic herb, prostrate, creeping: used to treat measles (Ewe, Ghana), yaws in chickens (northern Ghana), and in henna compounds for tinting nails (Hausa, northern Nigeria): widely employed in homeopathic medicine (often under name Verbena mutica): recorded by Petiver (1695) as “cuttosoe,” “Boyl’d in Water and drank, is good for the Belly-ach.”

(d) For the plant’s possible uses in hepatic detoxification consult: Lydia Ferrara, “Use of Chrysanthellum americanum (L.) Vatke as Supplement,” European Scientific Journal 9–36 (2013).

2.

(a) Adumba (a species of Ficus). The bark and fruit are pounded with Mallaguetta pepper and a small plant called awhinteywhinting, boiled in fish-soup. Two doses in the third month of gestation are said to cause abortion.

(b) doma

Ficus capensis Thunb.: Fig: family Moraceae.

(c) Common tree up to 60 feet high: pinkish-red edible fruits (figs): in Asante young leaves are used by nursing mothers to promote milk flow: used in compounds as diuretic, enema, aphrodisiac: sap of young shoots drunk for gonorrhoea: decoction of leaf and stem drunk for dysentery: used to treat headaches, lumbago, bronchial problems: bark pulped with Xylopia peppers to treat oedemas: widely used medicinally in Côte d’Ivoire and sacred there: bark with kola chewed for thirst (Sierra Leone): fruit and leaves fed to cattle to increase milk yields (Fulani, northern Nigeria and beyond).

ahwintsiwintsi (impl. “sneezing”): aka nkwateŋwateŋ , gyiadawuro

Calliandra portocirensis (Jacq.) Benth.: family Mimosaceae.

Straggling shrub up to 8 feet high: pungent roots thought to be strongly purgative: a mix of this plant with ginger in water drunk for constipation, lumbago: roots mixed with pepper applied to gonorrhoea: dried leaves snuffled to relieve headache by sneezing: sap an irritant applied to moribund person to make the eyes move (hence Asante nickname, nyanafunu , “awakening a corpse”): collected by Thonning in Akuapem.

(d) Consult: Bukola Adebayo-Tayo et al., “Phytochemical Screening and Microbial Inhibitory Activities of Ficus capensis,” African Journal of Biomedical Research 15–1 (2012); Abayomi Orishadipe et al., “Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectometry Analysis of the Hexane Extract of Calliandra portocirensis and its Antimicrobial Activity,” African Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry 4–7 (2010).

3.

(a) Koofoobah (Gloriosa superba. Linn.) is bruised with Mallaguetta pepper (lesser cardamom seeds), and applied to the ancle or foot when sprained.

(b) ?

Gloriosa superba L.: Flame lily: family Liliaceae.

(c) Toxic, due to high levels of the alkaloid colchicine: it is possible that Tedlie’s informant(s) did not name the plant but rather the complaint it was used to treat: cf. okufo , “a person full of pains” + aba , “a seed or other plant product:” today the generic Asante name for a lily is sukooko : collected by Thonning in Akuapem: this plant is used across the world to relieve bruises, sprains, itching, and there is a substantial pharmacological literature concerning it.

(d) Consult: D. Kavithamani et al., “A Review on Gloriosa superba L. as a Medicinal Plant,” Indian Journal of Research in Pharmacology and Biotechnology 1–4 (2013).

4.

(a) Tandoorue (perhaps a Cupania or Trichilia). The bark is pounded, and boiled with Mallaguetta pepper. Used for pain in the belly, and acts as a purgative.

(b) ↄtaŋaduru (“hateful medicine”) because of its bitterness: aka ↄpam (a thorny tree, the bark of which was used to prevent abortion)

Trichilia heudelotti Planch.: family Meliaceae.

(c) Tree up to 60 feet high, up to 5 feet in girth: heartwood used for canoes, chewing sticks: bark gives a reddish-brown dye: its August flowering taken as sign announcing “second” season ( apɛsɛ boro bere ) for planting corn: bark, leaves used medicinally: bark decoction used to treat upset stomach, colic ( ayamka ), sores: leaf decoction used for heart problems: pulped wood applied to open wounds: bark powder used to treat lumbago, rickets: used across West Africa for all these purposes: a close variant T. monadelpha collected by Thonning in Akuapem: phytochemical screening of leaves, stem and root bark shows tannins, saponins, alkaloids, anthraquinones, cardenolides: efficacious against microbial infections.

(d) Consult: Christiana Adeniyi et al., “Antimicrobial activities of Trichilia heudelotti (Meliaceae) Planch., a Nigerian Medicinal Plant,” Planta Medica 74–1 (2008).

5.

(a) Bissey (Sterculia acuminata. Palis. de Beauvois, Flore d’Oware 1. p. 41. tab. 24). The fruit is constantly chewed by the Ashantees, especially on a journey; it is said to prevent hunger, and strengthen the stomach and bowels; has a slight bitter aromatic astringent taste, and causes an increase of the saliva while chewed.

(b) bese

Cola acuminata, and also C. nitida: family Sterculiaceae.

(c) These trees produce kola nuts, staples of Asante (and Yoruba) consumption and long-distance trade: C. acuminata ( bese ) chewed by Asante for tonic effects from its caffeine, kolatine, and theobromine content: most viscid of kola nuts: C. nitida is preferred by Asante, and in the Muslim western Sudan: it is bese kↄkↄ (“red kola”), aka bese pa (“good kola”), besehene (“king kola”): the nuts are 50% nutritive matter, high in caffeine, assuage hunger, produce energy: grows wild and cultivated: best for long-distance trade as it stores well: traded all over western Sudan, and especially Hausaland, Sokoto Caliphate: at least sixteen types of kola tree grown in Asante: kola has medicinal uses across West Africa, and it is used now in soft-drink and drug manufacture: Isert collected C. gigantea in Ouidah: Thonning collected C. verticillata in Akuapem.

(d) For the pharmacological industry search for “novel bioactive compounds” in kola, consult: E. Dewale et al., “Proximate and Phytochemical of Cola acuminata and Cola nitida,” Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 16–2 (2013). For kola in Asante and beyond, consult: Edmund K. Abaka, “Kola is God’s Gift:” Agricultural Production, Export Initiatives and the Kola Industry in Asante and the Gold Coast, c. 1820–1950 (Oxford: James Currey, 2005); Paul E. Lovejoy, Caravans of Kola: The Hausa Kola Trade, 1700–1900 (Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press, 1980).

6.

(a) Attueh (Blighia sapida. Hort. Kew. ed. 2. vol. 3, p. 350. Akeesia Africana Tussac Flor. des Antilles 66). A decoction of the bark is said to be anti-venereal. The fruit is eaten.

(b) takwa(dua) (cf. nkↄtwa , “fighting” + dua , “tree”; named for the difficulty of felling it): aka ankyɛ (cf. kyɛŋ , “to become hard”)

Blighia sapida König: A(c)kee apple: family Sapindaceae.

(c) Shade tree up to 60 feet high, up to 6 feet girth: fruit only edible when ripe: rich in oil: unripe, it causes mouth sores: raphe has toxic properties, as does aril: bark, ground with capsicum peppers, is invigorating body rub: pulp of leafy tips applied to head for migraine: crushed leaf juice applied to conjunctivitis, ophthalmia: crushed leaf paste with local salt applied to sores from yaws and venereal infections: wide medicinal use in West Africa and beyond: toxic parts commonly used to stun river fish.

This is the A(c)kee apple or fruit, now a “national” emblem of Jamaica and its cuisine: some sources derive A(c)kee from ankyɛ : most likely arrived in Caribbean on eighteenth century slave ship (though legend says it was introduced by the (in)famous Captain Bligh as late as 1793): A(c)kee poisoning caused a vomiting epidemic in Jamaica in 1916: Thonning collected it: its Akuapem Twi name was atia-tjo (Thonning gave it as vild kaschu, “wild cashew”), and said the bark was macerated with lemon juice and used as a rub or poultice on swollen testicles.

(d) Consult: Atolani Olubunmi et al., “Blighia sapida: The Plant and its Hypoglycins, an Overview,” Journal of Scientific Research (Ibadan) 39–2 (2009).

7.

(a) No Asante name given. Ricinus Communis Linn. Castor oil-nut tree, thirty feet high here, and not a bush as on the coast; not used as medicine by the natives.

(b) abronkuruma (“the bloom-like okro”): aka sunsumkuruma (“the spirit okro”)

Ricinus communis L.: family Euphorbiaceae.

(c) Ubiquitous weed, also cultivated: perennial undershrub up to 9 feet high (but see above): decoction of leaves with powder from grinding, burning fruits applied to rashes: seeds chewed and leaf decoction used as purgatives: washed, heated, softened leaves applied to draw out guinea worm: widely used across western and southern Africa (e.g. the oil is applied to camel sores in northern Nigeria, Niger).

International commercial crop: used in making dyes, soap: hydrogenated oil used in waxes, polishes, candles, crayons, carbon paper, monofilament nylon, jet engine lubricant etc.: castor bean contains toxic ricin but is 35–55% oil: research is going on in Brazil to detoxify seed, as its high protein content gives it great potential as human and animal foodstuff: castor seed “cake” high in nitrogen, potash, phosphoric acid, and used globally as a fertilizer.

(d) Consult: Sylvia Worbs et al., “Ricinus communis Intoxications in Human and Veterinary Medicine – A Summary of Real Cases,” Toxins (Basel) 3–10 (2011).

8.

(a) Apooder (Two species of Leucas, of which one is hardly different from L. Martinicensis, Hort. Kew. ed. 2. vol. 3, p. 409, the other is perhaps new.) A mixture of the bruised leaves with lime-juice is applied to inflammations.

(b) trapotopo (“it jumps from one clump of forest to the next”)

Leucas martinicensis (Jacq.) Ait. f.: family Labiateae.

(c) Tropical weed, 60–90 cm high: odorous: decoction given to babies to heal sores in navel: inflorescence in soup taken to “strengthen” foetus: leaves with Citrus medica chewed to assist placenta expulsion in childbirth: leaf poultice applied to swelling of joints: mashed leaves used as nose drops for catarrh.

Often used in conjunction with apupuaa (cf. Tedlie’s name above: and cf. puduw , “to swell or distend,” mpunpunnya , “inflammation”)

Cyathula prostrata (Linn.) Blume: family Amaranthaceae.

Erect straggling herb 30–90 cm high: leaf poultice used in extracting bullets: cold leaf infusion drunk for snakebite: used medicinally in Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and south Asia e.g. Malaysia.

Thonning collected both plants in Akuapem and Ouidah.

(d) Consult: Chinenye Ugwah-Oguejiofor et al., “Anticonvulsant and Sedative Activities of Aqueous Leaf Extract of Leucas martinicensis (Jacq.) E. Br.,” Nigerian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences 23–2 (2015); Bolanle Ibrahim et al., “Anti-Inflammatory, Analgesic and Anti-Oxidant Activities of Cyathula prostrata (Linn.) Blume (Amaranthaceae),” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 141–1 (2012).

9.

(a) Hooghong (a species of Urtica), is bruised, mixed with chalk, and drunk by pregnant women to correct acidity in the stomach, heartburn, &c.

(b) hunhon , huŋhoŋ

Laportea aestuans (L.) Chew.: family Urticaceae.

(c) Weed of cultivated land in closed forest, waste spaces: a herb, variable from 30–150 cm high, slightly stinging: stem slimy when crushed: popular potherb: decoction, used in soup, taken by post-partum women as tonic: taken as emmenagogue: poultice of it applied to scorpion stings: soup of leaves with palm nuts taken for irregular menstruation, stomach troubles: leaf poultice with mashed ripe plantain brings boils to a head: used medicinally in Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, and China and Taiwan.

(d) Consult: Uduak Essiett et al., “Phytochemical and Physiochemical Analysis of the Leaves of Laportea aestuans (Linn.) Chew. and Laportea ovalifolia (Schumach.) Chew. (Male and Female),” Asian Journal of Plant Science and Research 1–2 (2011).

10.

(a) Accocottocotorawah (Heliotropium indicum. Linn.). The juice expressed from this plant is snuffed up the nostrils in cases of severe headache. They also inhale the smoke of it into the nose.

(b) akokↄtubatuda , aka akↄmfɛmanko , ansamkↄnakyi (“the back of the fowl’s neck,” because of the plant’s long, curled, “feathery” terminal spikes)

Heliotropium indicum L.: family Boraginaceae.

(c) Common weed across old world tropics: robust annual, 30–90 cm high: poultice of leaves applied to sores: leaf infusion used as enema, and for eye cataract: juice put in eyes to halt dizziness: whole plant decoction used for convulsions in children: roast plant with other ingredients applied as enema to expel clotted blood in post-partum women: poultice of leaves, honey, local soap applied to penis to restore virility: mashed leaf used as ear drops: poultice used for swollen neck glands: leaves applied to gonorrhoea and erysipelas: mix of leaves with boiled clay used to halt abortion: the plant has wide medicinal uses in India, China, The Philippines.

(d) Consult: Peter Fu et al., “Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids-Tumorigenic Components in Chinese Medicine and Dietary Supplements,” Journal of Food and Drug Analysis 10–4 (2002).

11.

(a) Crowera (Acalypha ciliata. Willd. sp. pl.), is bruised with lesser cardamom seed, and rubbed on the chest and side when pained.

(b) korakora , aka mofoa (“producing ease, peace”)

Acalypha ciliata Forsk.: family Euphorbiaceae.

(c) Weed of cultivated land: erect annual herb 30–70 cm high: leaves can be eaten as vegetable: mashed leaves applied to pains and sores: known to contain alkaloids: Isert collected this plant in Akuapem.

(d) Consult: N. Okoronkwo et al., “Evaluation of the Chemical Compositions and Antimicrobial Activities of Acalypha ciliata Leaves,” International Journal of Plant Science and Ecology 1–3 (2015).

12.

(a) Enminim (a species of Vitis). A climbing plant. The juice expressed from the leaves is dropped into the eyes when affected with ophthalmia or pain.

(b) anunum

Ampelocissus multistriata (Bak.): syn. A. pentaphylla: family Vitaceae.

(c) Large herbaceous climber with tuberous roots: leaf poultice used for wrist gout: ground leaves put in rivers to stupefy fish.

(d) Consult: Cheikna Zongo et al., “Polyphenols Content, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities of Ampelocissus grantii (Baker) Planch. (Vitaceae): A Medical Plant from Burkina Faso,” International Journal of Pharmacology 6–6 (2010).

13.

(a) Secoco (Leptanthus?) A small marshy plant. Is pounded with lime-juice and rubbed on the body to cure the crawcraws, a severe and obstinate species of itch.

(b) asekokↄ : aka akokↄhwerewahaban (“the bush fowl’s herb”)

Drymaria cordata (L.) Willd.: family Caryophyllaceae.

(c) A viscid weed of wet, sheltered places in villages, waste places and roadsides from Guinea to Cameroon: widespread in tropics, sub-tropics: weak, straggling stem 20–60 cm high: leaf poultice externally applied to sores, itches: emaciated children smeared with poultice mixed with “lucky” white clay ( hyire ): in Guinea the juice is drunk for its cooling properties.

“Craw-craw” is an itching skin disease produced by larvae of the filarial worm (Onchocerca volvulus) causing onchocerciasis: larvae migrating in subcutaneous tissue cause nodules, dermatitis, visual impairment: transmitted by bite of female black fly: aka “river blindness” ( anifuraeɛ bi a nkontia de ba ): modern drug treatment is Ivermectin, but resistance to this is growing and scientists are looking at this and other plants for alternatives to synthesise: Leptanthus gives no clue to the plant’s identity, for it simply notes the feature of “slender” (der. Gk. leptos) flowers (der. Gk. anthos).

(d) Consult: Raymond N. Nono et al., “Drymaria cordata (Linn.) Willd. (Caryophyllaceae): Ethnobotany, Pharmacology and Phytochemistry,” Advances in Biological Chemistry 4 (2014).

14.

(a) Ammo. The juice is applied to cuts and bruises.

(b) ɛme

Ocimum canum Sims, also O. gratissimum L.: family Labiateae.

(c) Weed of village middens: much branched perennial herb, 30–60 cm high: strongly odorous (smelling like basil or, as Christaller noted, like mint): important source of medicinal camphor oil and has many uses in Asante: boiled and drunk for fever: put into bathwater to invigorate: used to halt dysentery: promotes healing in cuts, wounds: eases lactation: soothes toothache: dried plant burned to repel mosquitos: boiled with kernel oil it is used as a pomade: globally, plant now grown as a source of camphor for medical purposes (e.g. India, southern Russia).

Rattray noted ɛme had important ritual uses because of its strong smell: inter alia, it was burned in a sickroom to drive out the “evil” spirit(s) causing illness: the Akuapem put O. gratissimum in bathwater to perform the same function: Asante say that spirits are very sensitive to smell and “do not like ɛme at all.”

(d) Consult: Bukola T. Aluko et al., “Phytochemical and Nutrient Compositions of the Leaves of Ocimum canum Sims,” African Journal of Biotechnology 11–63 (2012).

15.

(a) Petey (possibly a Piper). The leaves are pounded, and applied as a plaister to inflammatory swellings and boils.

(b) pete(kuku) : aka ↄbraneatuata (“a strong man passes wind in struggling to uproot it”), asua , siwabiri

Sida acuta Burm f.: family Malvaceae.

(c) Tough perennial erect herb, sometimes shrubby, much branched, 60–90 cm high: hard to pull out because slimy and has a long taproot: mashed plant taken to bring on labour: leaves boiled in alcohol drunk for diabetes: infused leaves with crushed ginger an enema for piles, stomach and waist pains: leaf poultice used on boils, fresh wounds and swollen neck glands: bullet wounds poulticed with crushed leaves, root bark, 2–3 capsicum pepper fruits, few grains salt: used for dysentery, impotence: “It is reported to make one immune to cutlass wounds and gunshots. The herbalists described their methods by which one is made immune. Although they differed in the ingredients used, Sida acuta appeared to be the principal constituent of this charm.” ^{Footnote 36}

Thonning collected it in Akuapem: plant used medicinally across West Africa, India (notably in south in Tamil Nadu).

(d) Consult: Pradhan Kumar et al., “Ethno-Medicinal and Therapeutic Potential of Sida acuta Burm. f.,” International Research Journal of Pharmacy 4–1 (2013).

16.

(a) Abromotome. The bruised leaves are used to discuss boils.

(b) aberewanomtaa (“the old woman smokes tobacco”): aka kumasituo (“Kumase gun,” because of “smoke” given off by flowers when disturbed)

Laportea ovalifolia (Schum. et Thonn.) Chew.: family Urticaceae.

(c) Widespread in forest (said to indicate good places to grow cocoa): irritating, stoliferous creeping herb: often shrubby: irritates skin, but not stomach when cooked (used by Fante and Ewe as potherb): Christaller says it is “a kind of burdock:” Thonning collected it in Akuapem: it might be the attrumaphoe reported by Petiver (1695).

(d) See 9 above.

17.

(a) Yangkompro (A syngenesious plant related to Cacalia). The pounded leaves are applied to cuts and contusions.

(b) (o)nyamekom(e)tiri (“God strikes my head”)

Scoparia dulcis L.: family Scrophulariaceae.

(c) Weed of waste places across tropics: erect, shrubby plant, 30–90 cm high: odorous (hence commonly named “sweet broom”): decoction of shoots with capsicum peppers drunk for post-partum pains: leaves applied to cuts, wounds: leaf poultice with salt, honey put on chronic sores: Thonning collected it in Accra and gave its Ga name as “sjaa-bla:” plant has wide medicinal applications in Nigeria, India, Taiwan, Brazil.

An isolate of this plant (Scoparionol, found in 1940s) is analgesic, anti-inflammatory, diuretic: plant of benefit to diabetics, reduces adipose tissue, promotes wound healing.

(d) Consult: Ahmed Coulibaly et al., “Antioxidants and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Scoparia dulcis L.,” Journal of Medicinal Food 14–12 (2011).

18.

(a) Oeduema (Musanga cecropioides Br. See Tuckey’s Congo, p. 453). The hairy sheath, or stipule, of a large palmated-leaved tree; it resembles a skin, is boiled in soup, and used as a powerful emmenagogue.

(b) odwuma ( odwumafufuo , “stipules”)

Musanga cecropioides: family Moraceae.

(c) Corkwood, umbrella tree, or (Christaller) trumpet tree: common in closed forest, but short-lived and replaced by harder-wooded species: erect, up to 90 feet tall: stilt or prop roots up to 10 feet long, with girth above roots up to 6 feet: timber used for log rafts on lake Bosomtwe (where canoes banned): used too for fences, roof shingles: this is the sole source for medicinal use, apart from informants who say the tree is rarer than it used to be (clearing of closed forest habitat?): Thonning collected it in Akuapem.

(d) Consult: Guy R.F. Tchouya et al., “Phytochemical Analysis, Antioxidant Evaluation and Total Phenolic Content of the Leaves and Stem Bark of Musanga cecropioides R. Br. ex Tedlie (Cecropiaceae), Growing in Gabon,” Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 3–5 (2015).

19.

(a) Semeney (probably a species of Aneilema). The leaves are pounded and applied as a plaister to favour the discharge of boils and collections of pus.

(b) sommɛnini : aka mpɛntemi , akwabeɛ

Palisota hirsuta (Thunb.) K. Schm.: family Commelinaceae.

(c) Common on roadsides, in forest clearings: stout, hairy herb, grows to 120–270 cm or more: leaf decoction drunk for gonorrhoea: leaves in palm nut soup taken to arrest abortion or expel placenta after birth: beaten stem juice put on bullet wounds, fibres used as bandage (aids extraction of bullet): leaf poultice applied topically to piles, and root decoction drunk to ease them: plant used medicinally across West Africa: might be “assrumina” reported by Petiver (1695). Christaller gives somme as “a plant, an emblem of purification and peace. Its smell is said to drive away evil spirits.”

(d) Consult: Madubuike Kelechi et al., “Anti-Inflammatory Activities of the Leaf Chloroform Extract of Palisota hirsuta,” Journal of Advances in Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences 2–2 (2015).

20.

(a) Wowwah (perhaps a Sterculia). The inner bark of this tree is scraped fine and mixed with Mallaguetta pepper, and drank for colic and other pains in the belly.

(b) ↄwawa(pupuo) : aka apupuo

Cola gigantea A. Chev. var. glabrescens: family Sterculiaceae.

(c) Medium to large forest tree up to 100 feet high: powdered bark applied to sores, and ulcers of yaws, syphilis: bark decoction taken internally for piles: bark used for lumbar and intestinal pains, headaches: bark pulp drunk as tonic: used medicinally from Gambia to Nigeria: Thonning collected it in Akuapem.

(d) Consult: Lucy Catteau et al., “Preliminary Evidences of the Direct and Indirect Antimicrobial Activity of Twelve Plants Used in Traditional Medicine in Africa,” Phytochemical Review 14 (2015).

21.

(a) Anafranakoo. The bruised leaves are applied to discuss boils and any other inflammatory swelling.”

(b) anafranaku

Hilleria latifolia (Lam.) H. Walt.: family Phytolaccaceae.

(c) Common on farms, along paths: perennial herb, woody below, 30–120 cm high: leaf juice heated on fire and when cool put into ear for earache, headache: fine powdered leaf rubbed into skin incisions to treat rheumatism: poultice of fresh leaves, roots applied to boils: seeds poison livestock: leaves with those of Piper guineense rubbed on body for oedema: used medicinally in Côte d’Ivoire, Congo: Thonning said it was “frequent” throughout Akuapem.

(d) Consult: Isaac K. Amponsah et al., “Pharmacognostic Standardisation of Hilleria latifolia (Lam.) H. Walt. (Phytolaccaceae),” Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine 4–12 (2014).

22.

(a) Kattacaiben (Leea Sambucina). A decoction of the leaves is drunk every morning by pregnant women when they experience any uneasiness in the abdomen. The bark of the tree powdered is rubbed on chronic swellings.

(b) ↄkata(nini)gyeben : aka ↄkatakyi (“hero”)

Leea guineensis G.Don-FWTA. ed. 2, 1, 683: family Vitaceae.

(c) Shrub, up to 8 feet high: exudes watery sap if broken: fruits used to snare birds: roots, seeds used as purgative drink: root decoction with peppers used for venereal disease: crushed leaves used for many complaints: seeds combined with Commelina nudifora applied to sores: plant has ritual uses in Côte d’Ivoire: Thonning collected it in Akuapem “preferably in moist places,” and observed “the Guinea plant differs from the Indian one merely in having broader and larger leaflets.”

(d) Consult: Garima Mishra et al., “Ethnobotany and Phytopharmacology of Leea indica: an Overview,” Journal of Coastal Life Medicine 4–1 (2016).

23.

(a) Aserumbdrue (a species of Piper related to umbellatum). The leaves are used in soup to allay swellings of the belly.

(b) surowisa (impl. “climbing,” so “sky pepper”): aka sesaa(dua) , asonsa

Piper guineense Thonning in Schum.: “Asante pepper” (cf. Danish, “Asiante-Peber”): West African black pepper: family Piperaceae.

(c) Widely distributed on trees in closed forest: trained up trees by Asante: climber up to 40 feet high: leaves in soup thought to aid conception: fruits with other herbs used as stimulants: seeds used as stomachic, carminative for griping conditions: seeds added to many medicines, e.g. for rheumatism: in fifteenth century this pepper spice was carried to Europe from the Grain Coast (Liberia), but it never held the market like black and white pepper from P. nigrum: its taste comes from the piperine, chavicine in its oil: distilled oil suitable for soap making: Thonning thought it “a bad substitute for black pepper, as it has an unpleasant bitterness, which is stronger and more distasteful the fresher it is:” it may be the “asserida” reported by Petiver (1695).

(d) Consult: Chukwudi Anyanwu et al., “Assessment of the Antimicrobial Activity of Aqueous and Ethanolic Extracts of Piper guineense Leaves,” Journal of Medicinal Plant Research 8–10 (2014).

24.

(a) Ocisseeree. The bark of this tree is used to stop the purging in dysentery and diarrhoea.

(b) kesrekesre (name derived from sound of a “sawing” game played by children with the tough, fibrous, parallel veins in the leaves): aka kesenekesene

Dracaena mannii Baker: Small Dragon Tree: family Agavaceae.

(c) Grows in closed forest: up to 40 feet high: scented flowers: red fruits, jelly-like seeds surrounded by yellowish pulp: colonial Europeans ate leaves as asparagus substitute: bark, leaves both used medicinally: anti-emetic, and so used for stopping vomiting, nausea: used for this across tropical western Africa.

(d) Consult: Mubarak O. Ameen et al., “The Phytochemical Screening and Toxicity of the Stem Extracts of Dracaena mannii (Baker),” International Journal of Chemical Science 7–1 (2015).

25.

(a) Gingang (Paullinia Africana Br. See Tuckey’s Congo, p. 427). The bark of this tree is used internally and externally, mixed with Mallaguetta pepper, for pain in the side.

(b) gyengyini : aka toantini (“the veins are joined”), akonkyere

Paullinia pinnata L.: family Sapindaceae.

(c) Grows in most deciduous secondary forest: woody creeper, common in tropical Africa, Madagascar: huge range of uses including above: used by Azande (Sudan), Temne (Sierra Leone), Yoruba (Nigeria), and in Caribbean, south America: contains weak alkaloid (saponin), and bitter substance similar to aconitine: collected by Isert and Thonning: it may be the “unguin” reported by Petiver (1695).

I note there is another possibility:

gyengya aforowa

Premna quadrifolia Schum. et Thonn.: family Verbenaceae.

A much branched shrub that can grow into small tree: a root bark decoction is drunk in Asante for “body pains.”

(d) Consult: Kofi Annan et al., “Pharmacognostic Evaluation and Physiochemical Analysis of Paullinia pinnata L. (Sapindaceae),” Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2–2 (2013); Elvis Adjalian et al., “Chemical Composition and Insecticidal and Repellent Effect of Essential Oils of Two Premna Species against Sitotroga cerealella,” Journal of Insects, Article ID 319045 (2015).

26.

(a) Cudeyakoo. A very small plant. The leaves and stalk pounded are applied to eruptions on the head. A mixture of it with lime-juice is applied to the yaws.

(b) akekaduru (syn. akodekↄ , used of ginger when offered in a mixture at a shrine)

Zingiber officinale: family Zingiberaceae: ginger.

(c) Ginger has many culinary uses in Asante: ginger paste is applied to the head for headaches: it is chewed for colds and catarrh and is a component of enemas.

(d) Consult: Rohini H. Terry et al., “The Use of Ginger (Zingiber officinale) for the Treatment of Pain: a Systematic Review of Clinical Trials,” Pain Medicine 12–12 (2011).

27.

(a) Affeuah (unknown) and Nuinnuerafuh (Hedysari species). A mixture of the bruised leaves of these plants with Mallaguetta pepper, is rubbed on the body and limbs when swelled or pained: a decoction of them, with an addition of the plant Comfany (Alternantherae, sp.), is used internally in the same cases.

(b) ↄfewa : aka ↄfewaheɛ , ↄfewafuo , ↄfewafitaa

Carpolobia lutea G. Don.: family Polygalaceae.

(a)nyanforowa : aka nyamyanforowa

Mallotus oppositifolius (Geisel.) Müll. Arg.: family Euphorbiaceae.

ɛfan : generic term for many plants in family Amaranthaceae.

(c) ↄfewa grows in dense forest undergrowth: evergreen shrub up to 20 feet high: “A bark decoction is used, both externally and internally, for rheumatism, and an infusion of leaves and twigs as a stomach medicine.” (Dalziel, FWTA Appendix, 73).

(a)nyanforowa is common in closed forest, thickets, old farms: a shrub up to 12 feet high: plant vermifugal, and used for dysentery: decoction of roots used for anaemia and fatigue: ointment made from it said to be aphrodisiac: may be “unnena” reported by Petiver (1695).

ɛfan is generic: Comfany may be “the priest’s plant” (i.e. ↄkↄmfↄ , “priest” + ɛfan ).

(d) Consult: Lucky Legbosi Nwidu et al., “Antimicrobial Activity of Carpolobia lutea Extracts and Fractions,” African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines 9–3 (2012); Chinaka Nwaehujor et al., “Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Oxidant Activities of Mallotus oppositifolius (Geisel.) Methanol Leaf Extracts,” Arabian Journal of Chemistry 7–5 (2014).

28.

(a) Adummah (Paullinia Africana. The same as No. 25). A decoction of the bark of this tree, reduced to powder with Mallaguetta pepper, drunk once a day, stops the discharge of blood and cures the dysentery.

(b) This is not number 25 above. Possibly, odom

Chlorophora excelsa (Welw.) Benth.: Iroko wood: family Moraceae.

Asante use this as purgative and for coughs: More likely, ↄdom

Erythrophelum guineense G. Don: Sasswood: “Ordeal Tree” in Asante: family Caesalpinaceae.

(c) ↄdom is poisonous, used by Asante as “ordeal” drink to determine if a person’s testimony given under oath was true or false: bark boiled, and “red water” from it was drunk: the “innocent” vomited, the “guilty” did not (and then often died depending on the strength of the dose): poison due to erythropheline, an alkaloid: it can be used as a local anaesthetic (like cocaine): modern medicine has synthesised it for use in treating heart disease, asthma: weak, cold infusion of bark was used in Asante as emetic and purgative.

(d) Consult: Thiri Padayachee et al., “Anti-Amoebic Activity of Plant Compounds from Virgilia oroboides and Chlorophora excelsa,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 78–1 (2001); B. Adeoye et al., “Toxicity of Erythrophelum guineense Stem Bark: Role of Alkaloidal Fraction,” African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines 1–1 (2004).

29.

(a) Tointinney (probably a Menispermum), is chewed with Mallaguetta pepper as a cure for a cough.

(b) tenetene

Sida cordata (Burm. F.) Borss.: Snake Mallow: family Malvaceae.

(c) Widespread on farms, paths: straggling, creeping pilose herb: used for coughs, asthma, bronchitis: a vulnerary (cures wounds): leaves used to poultice wrist gout and neck glands: used in ante-natal medicine: Christaller gives it as ntentene , “a species of herb.” Many varieties of Sida used medicinally around world: there is a Sanskrit word for Sida, as it is a part of the ancient Ayurvedic medical system in India.

(d) Consult: N. Ali Shah et al., “Investigation on Flavonoid Composition and Anti Free Radical Potential of Sida cordata,” BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2013).

30.

(a) Apussey (A leguminous plant, probably allied to Robinia). The bark of this tree, pounded with Mallaguetta pepper, is applied to the head in cases of headache.

(b) apↄse

Cnestis ferruginea DC: family Connaraceae.

(c) Grows in secondary forest: shrub or small tree up to 20 feet high: fruit used to clean mouth, teeth: powdered bark rubbed on gums for pyorrhoea: juice, roots applied to nostrils for migraine, sinusitis: used all over western Africa, and notably in southern Nigeria: the active principle is thought to be glycocosidic: it may be “aputassy,” noted as a mouth and teeth cleaner by Petiver (1695).

(d) Consult: Ismael Ishola et al., “Analgesic and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Cnestis ferruginea Vahl ex DC (Connaraceae) Methanolic Root Extract,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 135–1 (2011).

31.

(a) Thuquamah. The bark is pounded and drank in palm wine, with Mallaguetta pepper, for pain in the belly.

(b) ntɛ(w)hama

Dioclea reflexa Hook. f.: family Papilionaceae.

(c) Common in closed forest: woody climber: reddish-brown seeds ( ntɛw ) long used as marbles in Asante children’s games: bark exudes sticky resin: plant used as tonic with Mallaguetta pepper: seeds sold by traders, herbalists: Irvine reported an Asante belief that the monitor lizard only ate this plant: Christaller gives ntɛ(w)-hama as the climber which yields the seeds called ntɛw , and hama as any climber, “a plant that grows clinging to the ground or trees:” Isert collected this plant at Ouidah.

(d) Consult: A. Ogundare et al., “Antimicrobial Efficacy of the Leaves of Dioclea reflexa, Mucuna pruriens, Ficus asperifolia and Tragia spathulata,” Research Journal of Microbiology 2 (2007).

32.

(a) Conkknoney, a dark purple-coloured toadstool, the size of a hazel nut, rubbed with Mallaguetta pepper and lime-juice; it purges briskly. To stop the purging, a mess of boiled Guinea corn-meal and lime-juice should be eaten.

(b), (c) and (d)

No information: a generic toadstool is mmere bↄne , “a bad mushroom,” but Tedlie’s description offers several possibilities.

33.

(a) Suetinney (Brillantaisia owariensis. Palis de Beauvois Flore d’Oware, 2, p. 68, tab. 100, fig. 2). A decoction of the leaves is drunk for pain in the belly.

(b) sutwene : aka nsↄnhwea , dwareansra (“I bathed in it but did not smear my skin with ointment”)

Brillantaisia owariensis, aka B. nitens Lindau: family Acanthaceae.

(c) Weed of farmed land, riverine and secondary forest: erect, straggling herb 60–180 cm high: leaves have much oil: juice of leaves squeezed into ears to stop “drumming” noise that follows immersive bathing: oily leaves used in washing: also used in treating gyatↄ (yaws): crushed leaves added to drink taken for constipation.

(d) Consult: Perrin L. Foning Tebou et al., “Owariensisone: A New Iridolactone from the Whole Plant of Brillantaisia owariensis P. Beauv.,” Natural Product Research 1 (2016).

34.

(a) Soominna (Tetandra Monogynia), is bruised with lime-juice, and used to abate cough.

(b), (c) and (d)

It may be significant that the text gives Tetandria Monogynia without italics. The term was pre-Linnaean, old and disused: when in use it described plants structurally by counting their features, and so might apply to a number: TM was used widely in eighteenth century colonial north America (Canada, USA) to describe the boxwood tree, but this is not an Asante plant: none of the possible Akan Twi terms are close (enough) to Soominna: it may be connected simply with sumaŋ , a charm, amulet.

35.

(a) Thattha (Scoparia dulcis Linn.). The expressed juice of this plant is dropped into the ears when pained.

(b), (c) and (d)

This is 17 above: Tedlie reported the name of the disease treated rather than the plant: ataataa can be dropsy, but it is also used to describe fluid build-up in Otitis media, the result of an infection of the middle ear behind the eardrum.

36.

(a) Aquey (Melia Azedarach. Linn.). A decoction of the leaves of this tree is used with palm wine as a corroborant.

(b) a(n)kyeweaa

Melia azedarach L.: aka Persian lilac, Pride of India, Chinaberry (USA): family Meliaceae.

(c) Originally from India, Persia: now naturalized across global tropics: small, quick-growing, straggly in damper regions: widely grown in warmer regions for scent and shade: used medicinally by Persians, Indians, Arabs: the name azedarach implies toxicity, and it is in large doses: strongly purgative in small doses: leaf decoction used worldwide as vermifuge, diuretic, emmenagogue, febrifuge: Thonning collected it, observing that “the seed has come from Elmina, presumably brought there from the West Indies:” it may be “heniecoe” reported by Petiver (1695).

(d) Consult: M. Azam et al., “Pharmacological Potentials of Melia azedarach L.: A Review,” American Journal of BioScience 1–2 (2013).

37.

(a) Dammaram (Mussaenda fulgens nov. spec.)

(b) damaramma and/or damaram

Mussaenda erythrophylla and/or M. elegans: Schum. et Thonn.: aka “Asante Blood:” family Rubiaceae.

(c) Both plants called “Asante Blood:” they have red-vermilion parts and sticky roots (cf. damaram , “scarlet”; maa , “glutinous, viscid”): root decoction of M. erythrophylla with Mallaguetta pepper taken for coughs and to improve appetite: pounded leaf decoction of M. elegans taken for dropsy, elephantiasis: Thonning collected both in Akuapem: Christaller gives damaram as “a flower with woolly, vermilion leaves, the shrub on which it grows; scarlet, cinnabar red:” both plants used medicinally in Côte d’Ivoire, Togo: an extensive literature from India, China discusses their place in folk medicine, their chemical composition, and their potential pharmacological uses.

(d) Consult: Shylaja Gunesakaran et al., “The Genus Mussaenda: A Phytopharmacological Review,” Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research 7–7 (2015).

Botany Globalized: The World of Bioprospecting

In this paper I have drawn attention to and explored some plants used in historic Asante herbal medicine. I have suggested the potential in this sort of data for Africanist historians and comparativists. I have also used a framework, in Foucault’s well known order(s) of knowledge, to highlight in broad brushstrokes the epistemic shifts by means of which an expansionist western world annexed the understandings and practices of peoples around the globe to its own project. ^{Footnote 37} I want to conclude here with brief discussion of a postscript that arises from the history just noted.

Over forty years ago, when I first looked for historical information on Asante plants, the then booming field of theoretical ethnobotany was dominated by the industrious American anthropologist Brent Berlin, and his collaborators, the botanists Breedlove and Raven. Working with and on the Tzeltal of Chiapas in Mexico, and with other Maya groups, Berlin and his associates published an influential – if controversial – series of writings on the general theoretical principles of folk classification and nomenclature in ethnobotany and other scientific areas. ^{Footnote 38}

Upon first reading, this was impressive work that addressed Maya taxonomies of plant life via linguistic investigation of the assemblages of major lexemes and minor classes within indigenous botanical description. However, close reading raised problematic issues. First, these writings seemed to suggest “scientism,” in that they discounted the particularities of culture, history, and subjectivities, in favour of drives to categorization that were presumed to be innately hardwired in the human species. Thus, these findings were (re)presented as a key to understanding such matters worldwide. Second, Berlin’s approach seemed simply to stand Foucault’s imperial western epistemic project on its head, rather than making any real attempt to overcome it. That is, the natives’ opinions and points of view were now solicited, but these were still only the raw data for what looked very much like another western structural exercise in locating the hidden logics that lay behind, and so implicitly beyond, the grasp of informants.

In 1998, Berlin and his wife and co-author Elois A. Berlin (see footnote 38 below) founded the Maya ICBG (International Cooperative Biodiversity Group). The Maya ICBG was supported by the Biodiversity Program of the NIH (National Institute of Health) in Washington. It was designed to be a bioprospecting and research cooperative between the University of Georgia (where both Berlins were on the faculty), a Mexican university, a pharmaceutical company based in Wales, and PROMAYA, an NGO founded specifically to represent the Maya of Chiapas if and when patent rights and revenues accrued from their ethnobotanical knowledge. Almost immediately, there was a firestorm of protest from Mexican intellectuals, activists, and their global allies. Protesters objected to the privatization of indigenous knowledge by an international drug company. The Berlins riposted that PROMAYA was the only feasible way of managing benefit sharing with the community, because no individual person could expect remuneration as traditional knowledge was in the (Maya) public domain. The Mexican partner university withdrew from the Maya ICBG, and in the ensuing furore the NIH followed suit in 2001, effectively terminating the project. ^{Footnote 39}

Presently, this sort of (hi)story is being repeated around the globe. In a book of rare insight and empathy, Osseo-Asare considers the ongoing search by pharmacological multinationals for healing plants in Africa. ^{Footnote 40} A scholar with Akuapem ancestry, she has much to say about Ghana. For example, she outlines the chequered global career of Amomum melegueta – “Mallaguetta pepper,” much mentioned by Tedlie – from West Africa via the Atlantic trade into the world of current research into drug cures for impotence and infertility. Perhaps more pertinently, and surely more sadly, she traces out key passages in the history of post-independence Ghanaian medicinal research into native plants. This is a tale of lack of resources, frustration, and postcolonial bad faith, as Ghanaian scientists struggled and failed to make up for the material and technological advantages conferred upon western and other multinationals by, bluntly, the last five centuries of western expansionist history. I note this here in blunt conclusion, so as to underline the fact that in Foucault’s production and ordering of (botanical, and other) knowledge, Asante, Ghanaian, and African political independence did not call forth the fuller emancipations from an exploitative history that were once so optimistically anticipated. ^{Footnote 41}