English: Sabine; Buttertree.
Region: west tropical Africa, Guinea-Bissau to Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, western DR Congo.
Habitat: lowland moist tropics, rainforest, moist or swampy ground, on river banks; elevations up to 800 metres; deep, leached soil.
Content: seed fat 53.6% oleic acid, 45.2% stearic acid, 1.2% palmitic acid, ammo acids; flavonins, saponins, tannins, steroids, terpenes.
Use: fooda, medicines and other commodities; bark as fish-poison; wood for planks, rough construction work, canoes, heavy construction, heavy flooring, railway sleepers, ship and boat building, vehicle bodies, boxes, crates, veneer and plywood, interior trim, furniture, cabinet work, joinery, turnery, sporting goods, implements, toys; wood for fuel; seed fat for cooking, margarine; fruit as adulterant of cola nuts; leaves as cooked vegetable; tree for reforestation; seed fat for soaps, candles, unguent for skin and hair, killing lice, jiggers; young stems and roots as chew-sticks.
BotanyEvergreen tree; 35 metres tall.
Stem: cylindrical; 100 - 150cm in diameter; sometimes with small buttresses or stilt roots; heartwood yellowish, reddish, pinkish brown; sapwood whitish to pale pink; wood grain is straight to slightly wavy, texture coarse, heavy, hard, strong, not durable, susceptible to pinhole borers and marine borers, fairly resistant to termites, dries slowly with little splitting, cupping may occur, easy to work, saws satisfactorily, may cause gumming of saw blades and overheating, planes, polishes, moulds well, bores satisfactorily, holds nails well, splitting on nailing is rather common, finish to an attractive appearance; bark contains a yellow, resinous latex, dries to an orange-red colour.
Flowers: large amounts of nectar; flowering mainly during rainy season.
Pollination: by monkeys.
Fruit: sweet, yellow pulp, bitter when unripe; edible, too hard when ripe; broadly ovoid, 15 cm long by 10 cm across; 3 - 10, more seeds; copious yellow thick juice.
Seeds: contain 32 - 42% of a solid fat, pale to dark brown, almost tasteless, pleasant smell, similar to shea butter of
Vitellaria paradoxa.