MEDICINAL USES OF LOCUST BEANS

To many people, the name African Locust bean or monkey cutlass tree is associated with that cooking ingredient made from its seed, which is referred to as locust bean seed or dawa dawa in Hausa land. As with many African plants, the tree has had its use in traditional medical treatment of several diseases. To relieve diarrhea, the bark is boiled to make a tea. For infections, wounds, and fever, the bark is boiled and applied on the affected part of the body. The bark when macerated had being used in the treatment of toothache and treatment of wounds. Its leaves when crushed had being tried in the treatment of hemmorhoids and burns just as its flowers and bud when grilled and macerated has been used for the treatment of hypertension and in the prevention of leprosy in some communities. Some also use the decoction of the seed made by concentrating its extract through boiling to reduce tension, treat mouth sores as well as insect bites. Meanwhile, there is a scientific basis for its use in the treatment of wounds and stomach ulcers according to researchers that tried to assess the effect of the decoction on some germs that cause diseases. These are Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and Campylobacter jejuni/coli. H. pylori is the germ that causes stomach ulcer. The researchers from University of Yaounde, Cameroon, in the 2006 online edition of the journal Pharmacology tested the crude extracts of several plants, including locust bean tree bark along side others such as Pleiocarpa sp, Rinorea oblongifolia and Drypetes gossweileri. They considered also stem bark and seeds of bitter kola and wild basil leaves. They were dried and ground into a fine powder before extracted with either an alcoholic solution, water or both. Many of them were found to be effective in slowing down the growth of H. pylori and Campylobacter jejuni. These included the Garcinia mannii (a chew sticks for cleaning of teeth), locust bean, wild basil leaves and Markhamia lutea (Nile Tulip Tree). They suggested that the extracts either possess active principles with different (synergistic) antimicrobial mechanisms, or that the different active principles components of these plant extracts complement each other in a manner. Meanwhile, they declared that many of these plant extracts are active in laboratory conditions but not in humans due to their short stomach transit time and reduced contact with the infectious agent and/or due to their poor acid stability. According to them, the ability of the extract of the barks of these plants, including locust beans, slow down the growth of several germs including that for ulcer, thus providing some scientific support for their use in the traditional management of peptic ulcer disease. In addition, they said there may be the need for more studies to assess their safety and effectiveness in humans to further provide scientific validity for their traditional use. The effectiveness of locust bean root bark extract against some micro-organisms associated with urinary tract infections equally affirms the antibacterial properties of the bark of the tree. In an assessment by a group of researchers from the Department of Microbiology, Federal University of Technology, Yola, Nigeria, they said there are evidences that it can be used in the prevention of diseases caused by such germs as Escherichia coli known to cause bloody diarrhea and sometimes kidney failure; Staphylococcus aureus (germ that causes food poisoning, pneumonia and blood poisoning), Klebsiella pneumoniae (causes urinary tract infection) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (causes severe nosocomial infections). These germs are also associated with urinary tract infections. They found that both the water and methanolic extracts displayed appreciable antibacterial activities against such recalcitrant pathogenic bacteria like K. pneumoniea, S. aureus and E. coli that are known to show above average resistance to most chemical antimicrobial agents. These pathogens are known to cause majority of community and hospital acquired infections. However this group also tried expaining why the plant is helpful in treatment of diseases. Their justification for the folklore use of locust bean in medical practice by majority of the populations of the sub-Saharan Africa, they said may be due to its ability to inhibit these germs.They said its bark consist mainly of glycosides and tannins, appreciable amounts of saponins glycosides and phenolics, with trace amount of alkaloids in the June 2007 edition of the African Journal of Biotechnology Meanwhile, there are evidences that locust bean seeds because of such bioactive compounds may really have a basis for its effectiveness in the treatment of snakebites, diabetes, fever and infections caused by some susceptible pathogens. The presence in the root of substantial quantities of glycosides may justify the use of the decoctions for conditions of the heart and hypertension.