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i Parkia biglobosa - School of Forest Resources & Environmental ...

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Figure 12 – Pulp from P. <strong>biglobosa</strong> known locally as dobulong<br />

Medicines derived from P. <strong>biglobosa</strong> are <strong>of</strong> value to a rural community that<br />

cannot afford or have access to “modern medicine”. The importance <strong>of</strong> the tree and its<br />

products as medicine perhaps is the origin for its name. The name <strong>of</strong> the tree and food<br />

product, dawadawa is from Hausa, the lingua franca <strong>of</strong> West Africa, spoken by over fifty<br />

million in this part <strong>of</strong> the continent. Hausa borrowed a great number <strong>of</strong> words from<br />

Arabic, and greatly influenced its vocabulary (Salloum 2001). In Swahili, a language<br />

also Arabic in origin, dawa is defined as medicament, anything supplied by a doctor,<br />

including charms and talisman used by native medicine men and Dawa ya miti-shamba is<br />

herbal medicine, made from leaves, bark, roots or trees (Swahili-English Dictionary<br />

1939). In my interviews, I asked for uses for P. <strong>biglobosa</strong> other than food and the<br />

foremost use is for medicine. To relieve diarrhea, the bark is boiled to make a tea. For<br />

54

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