Take Advantage of the Medicinal Benefits of Crassocephalum Crepidioides and Biafrae

Crassocephalum Crepidioides

Crassocephalum crepidioides (ebolo in Yoruba Language) belongs in the family Asteraceae. The stem is erect, round and hairy. Leaves are alternate, deeply-lobed and oval-shaped with toothed margins. The inflorescence is a capitulum consisting of orange disc florets. This plant is characterised by a cluster of heads at the apex of the stem. The seed is an achene with hairs (pappus) on top. It is a special pot vegetable among the Yorubas distinguished by its fragrance about which the Yoruba weighty wisecrack “No treatment can remove the fragrance of ebolo which is from its source, the wild” was coined!

Crassocephalum biafrae (worowo in Yoruba Language) also belongs in the family Asteraceae. It is a scrambling herb, so described because it uses twigs and canopies of weeds as support). It is a sub-succulent herb with leaves petiolate, that is having stalks, blade triangular or sagitate (like the head of an arrow) with base slightly cordate (which means that the leaf base has a depression into which the tip of the stalk is attached) shortly decurrent onto the petiol.

 Crassocephalum Crepidioide 

Let me start by emphasising that Crassocephalum Crepidioide is not Parsley and it is not coriander. Coriander is coriandrum sativum, an annual herb in the family Apiaceae. Parsley is petroselinum crispum and it is in the same family as coriander. Crassocephalum crepidioides is in the Asteraceae family.

A research was carried out to determine the nutritional qualities of crassocephalum crepidioides  and crassocephalum biafrae at the Department of Animal Production and Health Sciences and the Department of Biochemistry of the University of Ado, Ekiti Ekiti State. The conclusion was that the two vegetables are good sources of vegetable proteins whose quality could be enhanced through supplementation. According to an article, Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin, Aniya et al. (2005) found that it is a potent antioxidant and protects against hepatotoxicity. Studies have also confirmed wound healing, anti-diarrheal, anti-tumour, antioxidant, antidiabetic, hepatoprotective and radical scavenging properties for this vegetable species. It is also used as green fodder for poultry and livestock.

Crepidioides is used in traditional African medicine to treat indigestion, stomach ache, epilepsy, and sleeping sickness. The lotion of the leaves or decoction can be used to treat headache. Applied externally, the leaf sap is used as a treatment for fresh wounds. The dried leaf powder is applied as a snuff to stop nose bleeding. It is used to treat swollen lips.

Crassocephalum crepidioides has been used successfully as a trap plant to collect adult corm weevils in banana plantations; this is classical biological control by native people. In Cóte d’Ivoire, leaf preparation by anal enema is used to facilitate childbirth. In Papua New Guinea, the leaves are used externally to treat sores and irritation of the penis. Some other Crassocephalum species are used in traditional medicine internally to treat liver complaints, colds and externally, to treat burns, sore eyes, ear ache and breast cancer.

Crassocephalum Biafrae

Last rainy season, I ate this vegetable species so much with lots of locust beans added to it. It has a flavour too. Some people steam it to remove the mucilage. I do not steam mine.

Fresh succulent leaves of C. biafrae are used as a leafy vegetable in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon. They are especially popular in the southwestern part of Nigeria. The Yorubas in Nigeria often say ‘a vegetable soup prepared with worowo does not need meat.’ However, fish or meat can be added to the soup. In Sierra Leone, where it is called ‘bologi’, the leaves are eaten as a steamed vegetable in combination with okra and fish.

An infusion of the leaves is taken as a drink. Among the Yoruba-speaking people of South-West, Nigeria, a leaf extract of C. biafrae is used to stop bleeding from cuts or injury and, in Sierra Leone and Cameroon, the leaf extract is used to treat sore eyes. In Côte d’Ivoire, pulped leaves are applied to the breasts as a galactagogue. In Congo, it is used to treat cough and heart troubles as a tonic and to relieve rheumatic pain, prurient allergies and localised oedema. The leaves are applied in Nigeria to dress wounds.

It is a medicinal plant widely used by traditional healers in the western region of Cameroon for the treatment of female infertility. An experiment was designed to evaluate the effect of the aqueous extract from leaves and stems of C. biafrae on the onset of puberty and some biochemical and physiological parameters of reproduction in immature Wistar female rats. According to BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine Journal, volume 12, Article number: 36 (2012), the overall results of the study provided evidence on the puberty onset induction and ovarian folliculogenesis effect in immature female rat.

A group of scientists had a review on C. biafrae at the Department of Biological Sciences, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Department of Basic Sciences, Babcock University, Ilishan‑Remo, Ogun State and the Department of Biological Sciences, Environmental Biology Unit, Augustine University, Ilara Epe, Lagos, Nigeria. The conclusion is that C.biafrae is highly nutritive and rich in protein. It is also medicinally-important as a galactagogue and for treatment of diabetes, high blood pressure and infertility. It was reported to have biological activity against staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.

Source: Punch, Nigeria

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