Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
What is hog plum leaf?
Hog plum is a tropical tree, Spondias mombin. The Yoruba of Nigeria call it iyeye. Its small yellow fruit is eaten as food.
This page is about the leaf, not the fruit. Healers across West Africa brewed the leaf as a tea or a wash. It was used for wounds, loose stools, sore eyes and childbirth.
Here is the honest verdict. Almost all the research sits in test tubes and animals. Long use in tradition is not proof that a remedy works, and it is not proof that it is safe.
One point matters more than the rest. The leaf has a long history as a womb stimulant in West Africa. That is why pregnancy is a firm no.
How is it meant to work?
No one has shown how the leaf acts in the human body. What follows comes from lab benches and animal work.
In test tubes, leaf extracts slow the growth of some bacteria and fungi. They also mop up free radicals, which are unstable particles that can damage cells. Whether any of this happens in a person is not known.
In strips of animal womb muscle, the extract made the muscle squeeze. This fits the old use in labour. It is also the main reason to keep it away from pregnancy.
In rats and mice, leaf extracts lowered blood sugar and eased gut cramping. Animal results often fail to repeat in people. Treat them as a hint, not a finding.
How is it used or sold?
In West Africa the leaf is most often used fresh. The common forms are simple.
- Fresh leaf juice, squeezed from crushed leaves - A decoction, meaning leaves boiled in water and strained - A warm wash for skin and wounds - A poultice of pounded leaves laid on the skin - Dried leaf powder sold in markets
Outside Africa you may find dried leaf, tea bags, capsules or liquid extracts online. These are sold as food supplements. Strength is not standardised, so two jars can differ a lot.
The fruit is a separate thing. It is an ordinary food, eaten fresh or as juice. Nothing on this page applies to eating the fruit.
What did tradition claim?
Hog plum grows across West Africa, the Caribbean and tropical America. In Brazil the fruit is known as cajá.
Yoruba healers called the tree iyeye and used the leaf widely. Written records of this use go back well over a century. Oral use is older still.
Traditional roles included washing wounds and sores, settling loose stools, and easing stomach pain. Leaf juice was also dropped into sore eyes and placed on a newborn's cord stump.
Birth attendants used leaf preparations to bring on or speed up labour. The same preparations were used to end a pregnancy. This history is recorded, not recommended.
These are accounts of what people did. They are not instructions, and several of them are now known to be risky.
Short answer: Avoid: traditionally used to stimulate the womb.
Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
When should you see a doctor?
Stop the leaf and get help the same day if any of these happen.
- You are pregnant and have cramping, bleeding or fluid loss; this is an emergency - A wound turns red, swollen, hot or starts leaking pus - Red streaks spread from a wound, or you get a fever - Your eye hurts, stings or your sight blurs - Diarrhoea has blood in it, or lasts more than two days - A child has diarrhoea with sunken eyes, no tears or few wet nappies - You feel shaky, sweaty or confused, which can mean low blood sugar - Your skin or the whites of your eyes turn yellow
Tell your doctor or pharmacist that you used the leaf. It helps them work out what is going on.
Hog plum fruit is an ordinary food. In the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, the leaf is not a licensed medicine and may be sold as a food supplement. No regulator has approved it to treat any condition. In Nigeria, Ghana and nearby countries it is sold freely in markets as a traditional herb.
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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