Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
African kino is the bark, and the dark red gum, of the West African tree Pterocarpus erinaceus. In Hausa it is called madobiya. The bark is dried and ground, or boiled into a bitter, rust-coloured tea.
It is used in West African folk medicine mainly as an astringent. Astringent means it tightens tissue and dries up fluid. The old uses were loose stools, sore mouths, and wounds.
Here is the honest verdict on the evidence. Almost all of it comes from test tubes and rodents. Long use in tradition is not proof that it works, and it is not proof that it is safe.
No one has shown how it works in people. The main idea is simple chemistry. The bark holds a lot of tannins, which bind and tighten proteins.
In test tubes, tannins make surface proteins clump into a thin film. That could, in theory, calm a raw gut lining or a sore mouth. Whether this happens when you drink the tea has not been tested in people.
Lab work reports other actions too. Extracts slow some bacteria and fungi in culture. In rodents, extracts have lowered blood sugar and reduced swelling.
Rodents are not people, and a dish is not a body. The bark also scores high on test-tube antioxidant readings. Those numbers do not predict any health gain.
It is sold and used in a few simple forms.
Dried bark strips or chips are the most common, often boiled into a decoction, which is a long-simmered tea. Ground bark powder is also sold, sometimes mixed into food or water.
Hardened lumps of the red gum are used for mouth rinses and gargles. Pastes of powder and water are applied to skin in folk practice.
Tinctures, which are alcohol extracts, exist but are rare and are not standardised. The same tree is a major timber tree, sold as African rosewood or kosso. Timber-grade wood is not a medicinal product and is not prepared or checked for internal use.
The tree grows across the dry savannah belt, from Senegal through Mali and Burkina Faso to Nigeria and Cameroon. Healers there have used the bark and gum for generations.
Recorded folk uses included dysentery and loose stools, mouth and throat sores, toothache, wounds, and fevers. The bark was also given for weakness thought to come from low blood.
The tree had everyday uses beyond medicine. The bark gave a red-brown dye, and the leaves fed livestock in the dry season. This page reports that record; it does not recommend copying it.
Stop taking it and get medical advice if anything new or odd starts.
See a doctor the same day if you have a fever with chills, blood in your stools, or diarrhoea lasting more than two days. Also see a doctor if you are losing fluid fast and cannot keep water down.
Get urgent care for yellow skin or eyes, dark urine, or pain in the upper right belly. These can be signs of liver trouble.
Call emergency services for trouble breathing, a swollen face or lips, or a spreading rash. That pattern can mean a severe allergic reaction.
It is not approved as a medicine in the US, UK or EU. Where it is sold, it is an unlicensed herbal product with no quality standard. The tree is listed on CITES Appendix II, so trade in its wood and plant parts is controlled across borders.
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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