African Wildlife & Environment Issue 85

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

excellent for eyesight. The leaves contain nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium which makes it a good base for a nutritional tea. The pounded leaves, roots and bark are still used traditionally for many ailments in the local villages. The bark of the Moepel is removed from the tree trunk, ground up into a powder and a little water is added to place onto open wounds and sores to aid in rapid healing. Pieces of the root are boiled and once cooled used as a douche for sexually transmitted infections, especially

three cm long and have the smoothest, almost leathery skin. The seeds are easy to suck off the flesh and are smooth and light tan-coloured. The tree size ranges from 15 to 25 meters in height, and the bark is a rough, dark brown-grey colour. The spiral-growing evergreen leaves are glossy and grow densely onto sturdy stems making the branches a safe haven for birds, mice, squirrels and bushbabies Although I speak of it respectfully as a South

African, it also grows in our neighboring African countries including Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Its range also extends to other parts of tropical Africa, and it prefers to grow in dry, open bushveld with summer rains. As a tough un needy tree, it can withstand various climatic conditions and almost any type of soil, making it a favourite for large gardens with open spaces as it requires little or no maintenance and very little watering. It is the Moepel tree’s medicinal value that is so appealing, especially as it contains Vitamin A which is retinol and Vitamin E which

gonorrhea. In Swaziland a root fusion is taken to treat candida and ulcers.

The ground seeds are crushed and used as a mouthwash with a little water as a teeth-whitening agent, although its seeds are extremely hard and I would never suggest one chews on the seeds for fear of losing

one’s teeth, but in local communities the seeds are fondly chewed and swallowed - including being used for cleaning up the digestion, intestines and stomach. A tea made with half a cup of crushed seeds, bark and leaves to one cup of boiling water, boiled

is excellent for anti-aging. The fruit’s high vitamin C content is between 50- 80mg/g, higher than the popular indigenous wild guava which has a 20mg/g The fruit also has a high concentration of sucrose, glucose and fructose and the yellow orange colour is its high beta carotene content,

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