Description

Drypetes is a plant genus of the family Putranjivaceae, in the order Malpighiales. It was previously in the family Euphorbiaceae, tribe Drypeteae, and was the sole pantropical zoochorous genus of the family. The genus comprises about 200 species, found in Africa, southern Asia, Australia, Central America, the Caribbean, southern Florida, Mexico, and various oceanic islands. They are dioecious trees or shrubs.

Characteristics:

Deciduous trees, to 30 m high, bole fluted, bark greyish-white, smooth, thin; branchlets 1-5 mm thick, slender, drooping, glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate; stipules small, lateral, caducous; petiole 3-20 mm long, slender, grooved above, glabrous; lamina 6-15 x 2-6.4 cm, elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, base oblique, acute, apex obtusely acute, obtusely acuminate or acute, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 7-15 pairs, pinnate, slender, prominent, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers unisexual, greenish-yellow, 5-8 mm across; male flowers: 3-6 in axillary clusters; pedicel 5-8 mm long, minutely hispid; tepals 4, 4 x 2 mm, oblong, obtuse, hispid outside; stamens 6-10; filaments 3 mm long, free, glabrous; anthers oblong; disc lobulate, villous; female flowers: solitary or in pairs, axillary; pedicel minutely hispid; tepals 4, 4 x 2 mm, oblong, obtuse, hispid outside; ovary ovoid, 1-celled; stigma mushroom shaped; ovules 2, pendulous. Fruit a drupe, obovoid, 1.5-2.5 cm long, greenish-yellow, drooping; seed solitary, covered with pulpy mucilage. Leaves simple, alternate, distichous; stipules caducous; petiole ca. 0.5 cm, canaliculate; lamina 6-9 x 2-2.5 cm, elliptic, apex acuminate to caudate-acuminate with blunt tip, base asymmetric; midrib canaliculate; secondary nerves 10-15 pairs, slender; tertiary nerves admedially ramified.  

Medicinal Uses:

The plant is often harvested from the wild for medicinal use, the stem bark being sold for this purpose in local markets. The tree is also used as a source of wood, edible seeds and as a snake repellent. A leaf decoction is used as a wash and is also drunk as a treatment for asthma in children. It is used in the treatment of bronchitis, cough and other lung problems; diarrhoea; gonorrhoea; sexual asthenia; to relieve urethral discharge; as a tonic after childbirth. Combined with pimento it is taken as an anthelmintic, and as a vermifugal enema