// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Dennettia say? Den-nette-ia chance.
| Dennettia | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Magnoliids |
| Order: | Magnoliales |
| Family: | Annonaceae |
| Genus: | Dennettia Baker f. (1913) |
| Species: | D. tripetala |
| Binomial name | |
| Dennettia tripetala (Baker f.) | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
|
Uvariopsis tripetala (Baker f.) G.E.Schatz (2003) | |
Dennettia is a monotypic genus (i.e. a genus containing a single species) of plants in the custard apple family Annonaceae. The sole included species is Dennettia tripetala, a shrub or tree native to western and west-central tropical Africa, including Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon.[2] It is threatened by habitat loss.[1]
Nomenclature
[edit]D. tripetala is known colloquially in English as the pepper fruit.[citation needed] It is also called mmimmi by the Igbo, ata igebere or igberi by the Yoruba, imako by the Niger Deltans and Urhobo, ako by residents of Benin and nkarika by the Efik.[citation needed]
Description
[edit]Three broad green sepals and golden fleshy petals make up the pepper fruit. The oblong-shaped leaves alternate one on top of the other and taper at the tip.
Uses
[edit]The leaves of D. tripetala may be dried and kept for a very long time without succumbing to microbial growth. U. tripetala fruits can be used as food and herbs to make herbal remedies, according to Okwu and Morah.[3] The pepper fruit's fruits, leaves, and roots are all used in traditional medicine preparations.[4]
Food
[edit]Essential oils and volatile oils are both present in pepper fruit. This fruit's volatile and essential (oleoresin) oils, which make up a significant portion of its composition, give it flavor, aroma, and pungency. In the eastern portion of Nigeria, it is typically offered with palm wine, garden eggs, bitter kola, and kola nuts for festivals, ceremonials, coronations, traditional weddings, naming rituals, new yam festivities, and other occasions. According to Keay (1989),[5] when chewed, pepper fruit has an extremely peppery flavor. When people chew this peppery food, they frequently feel stimulated.
The fruit of the D. tripetala can be used to season and flavor a variety of foods, including white soup, spicy fish, hot drinks, alcoholic beverages, beverages, meat, vegetables, stew, sauces, and sausages.[citation needed] investigated the viability of utilizing the pepper fruit in place of ginger while making zobo drinks. According to their research, pepper fruit can effectively replace ginger in the preparation of zobo drinks.
Nutritional value
[edit]D. tripetala contains 0.42% magnesium, 1.80% calcium, 2.50% potassium, 9.84% crude fibers, 15.31% crude protein, 8.0% moisture, 62% carbohydrate, 3.47% crude lipids, and 0.33% phosphorus, as well as trace amounts of cadmium, iron, zinc, and copper, according to Okwu and Morah's 2004[3] study. Water-soluble vitamins like niacin, ascorbic acid, riboflavin, and thiamine are also present in pepper fruit.
Medicinal
[edit]Pepper fruit find wide use among traditional remedies in West Africa.[4] Health claims that have been researched include:
- Postnatal care: Achinewhu et al. (1995),[6] investigated the use of pepper fruit seeds in food given to new mothers to help the uterus contract.
- Anti-inflammatory: Oyemitan et al.,[7] investigated the pepper fruit's essential oil for its analgesic and anti-inflammatory characteristics.
- Antimicrobial: Aderogba et al. investigated the antimicrobial properties of U. tripetala.[8]
- Glaucoma: Timothy and Okere[9] researched the use of pepper fruit to lower intraocular pressure (IOP) in glaucoma patients.
References
[edit]- 1 2 Harvey-Brown, Y. (2019). "Uvariopsis tripetala". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2019 e.T34669A149069409. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-2.RLTS.T34669A149069409.en. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
- 1 2 Dennettia tripetala Baker f. Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
- 1 2 Okwu, DE; Morah, FNI (2004). "Mineral and nutritive value of Dennettia tripetala fruits". Fruits. 59 (6): 437–439. doi:10.1051/fruits:2005006.
- 1 2 Iwu, M. M. (1989), Food for medicine, in Dietary plants and masticastors as sources of biologically active substances, University of Ife Press. Pp. 303 – 307.
- ↑ Keay, RWJ (1989). Trees of Nigeria. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. pp. 19–25. ISBN 978-0-19-854560-6.
- ↑ Achinewhu, SC; Ogbonna, CC; Hart, AD (1995). "Chemical composition of indigenous wild herbs, spices, fruits, nuts and leafy vegetable used as food". Plant Foods for Human Nutrition. 48 (4): 341–380. doi:10.1007/BF01088493. PMID 8882372.
- ↑ Oyemitan, IA; Iwalewa, EO; Akanmu, MA; Olugbade, TA (2008). "Antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects of essential oil of Dennettia tripetala G. Baker (Annonaceae) in rodents". African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines. 5 (4): 355–360. doi:10.4314/ajtcam.v5i4.31290. PMC 2816588. PMID 20161957.
- ↑ Aderogba, MA; Akinkunmi, EO; Mabusela, WT (2011). "Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of flavonoid and glycosides from Dennettia tripetala G. Baker leaf extract". Nigerian Journal of Natural Product Medicine. 15: 49–50. doi:10.4314/njnpm.v15i1.3.
- ↑ Timothy, CO; Okere, CO (2008). "Effect of Dennettia tripetela (Mmimi) seed intake on the IOP of normotensive emmetropic Nigerian Igbos". Journal of the Nigerian Optometric Association. 14: 14–16. doi:10.4314/jnoa.v14i1.55583.