Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
What is African peach?
African peach is a shrub or small tree of the West African savanna. Its botanical name is Sarcocephalus latifolius, also written Nauclea latifolia. In Hausa it is called tafashiya.
The soft red fruit is eaten as food. The root bark and stem bark are the parts used as medicine. Healers have long used them for fever, malaria, pain and loose stools.
The honest verdict: human proof is thin. Almost all the research sits in test tubes and animals. Long use in tradition is not proof that it works, and it is not proof that it is safe.
How is it thought to work?
No one has shown how it works in people. Lab and animal findings are clues, not results you can count on.
In test tubes, bark extracts slow the growth of the malaria parasite. In mice and rats, extracts have lowered fever, pain signals and blood sugar. Whether any of that happens in a person is not established.
One 2013 report claimed the root made tramadol, a strong prescription pain drug. Later work traced that tramadol to soil pollution from veterinary use. The plant itself does not make it.
What forms does it come in?
Most use is informal rather than off a shop shelf. The usual forms are:
- Dried root or stem bark, boiled into a decoction (a strong simmered water extract) - Loose bark powder, sold in West African markets - Twigs used as chewing sticks for the teeth - Fresh fruit, eaten as food - A small number of capsules and tinctures sold online
Quality control is weak. Market bark is often unlabelled. It can be mixed with other species or carry soil and road pollution.
What did tradition use it for?
African peach has deep standing in West African folk medicine. Hausa, Yoruba, Fulani and Mandinka healers all used it.
Recorded uses included fever and malaria, belly pain, diarrhoea and worms. Bark was also used for toothache, wounds and as a general tonic. Twigs served as chewing sticks for cleaning teeth.
Colonial plant surveys noted this use well over a century ago. The bark is still traded in markets today. This page describes that history; it is not advice to copy it.
Stop using it and see a doctor if any of these appear:
- Fever that is not clearly better within 48 hours, or any fever with chills after travel in a malaria area - Yellow skin or yellow eyes, dark urine, or pain under the right ribs - Passing much less urine than usual, or swollen ankles - Shaking, sweating, confusion or a fast heartbeat, which can mean low blood sugar - Vomiting that will not settle, or blood in your stool - A rash, swollen lips or trouble breathing
Call emergency services for trouble breathing, collapse or confusion that gets worse.
African peach is not approved as a medicine in the US, UK, EU, Canada or Australia. In the US it may be sold as a dietary supplement, which means it is not checked for effect before sale. In the UK and EU it is not an authorised herbal medicine. In West Africa the bark and fruit are traded freely in local markets.
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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