Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
African ironwood bark is the bark of Prosopis africana, a hard, dark-wooded tree of the West African savanna. In Hausa the tree is called kiriya. Healers have long boiled the bark into teas, washes and powders.
It is used in folk practice for toothache, gum pain, diarrhoea, fevers and skin sores. The tree's seeds are a different matter. They are fermented into a well-known food seasoning, sold as daddawa or okpehe.
Here is the honest verdict. There are no good human trials of the bark for any health use. Long use in tradition is not proof that it works, and it is not proof that it is safe.
That gap is why this page sets a caution tier. The bark is rich in tannins and carries alkaloids whose dose in a home-made tea is unknown.
Nobody has shown how this bark acts in the human body. What follows comes from test tubes and animals, not from people.
The bark is heavy in tannins. In test tubes, tannins bind proteins and pull tissue tight. That is the likely reason a bark rinse feels drying in the mouth and may firm up loose stools.
Lab screening of bark extracts has slowed the growth of some bacteria and fungi in culture dishes. Whether that happens on skin, in a tooth socket or in the gut is not established.
In rodent studies, extracts have lowered fever, eased pain responses and reduced blood sugar. Rodent results often fail to repeat in people. Treat them as leads, not findings.
Antioxidant activity has also been reported in chemical assays. An assay result is a lab number. It does not tell you that anything improves in a person.
Most use is home-made rather than commercial. The usual form is a decoction: bark simmered in water, then strained.
Other traditional forms include: - dried bark ground to a powder - a mouth rinse or gargle made from the boiled bark - chewing sticks cut from twigs or roots - a wash or poultice placed on skin - bark steeped in palm wine or local spirits
Capsules and tinctures are rare. Outside West African markets you will seldom find a tested, labelled product. Nothing on the market is standardised for strength.
Loose bark carries a real sourcing risk. Market bark can be mixed with other tree species or stored damp and mouldy. Buyers cannot check this by eye.
The tree has held a strong place in West African life for centuries. Its timber is prized for tool handles, mortars and building posts.
In Hausa practice the tree is kiriya, and healers used the bark for toothache, gum trouble, dysentery and fevers. Related uses are recorded in Nigeria, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso and Senegal.
Bark washes were also applied to wounds, boils and skin sores. Some records describe bark preparations given for coughs and chest complaints.
Ethnobotanists wrote these uses down from the early 1900s onward. The records describe what people did. They do not test whether it helped.
Stop using it and get medical care if you notice any of these: - yellow skin or yellow eyes - dark urine, or passing much less urine - pain under your right ribs - vomiting that will not stop - bloody or black stools - a fever lasting more than two days, or any fever with chills in a malaria area - a swollen face or jaw, or trouble swallowing - shakiness, sweating or confusion, which can mean low blood sugar
Go to an emergency department for trouble breathing, a swollen mouth or tongue, or confusion.
African ironwood bark is not approved as a medicine in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada or Australia. Where it is sold there, it is an unapproved botanical, not a tested product. In West Africa the bark is a common market item, and the fermented seeds are an ordinary food.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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