Bitter Kola with its scientific name as Garcinia Kola is a highly sought after product in the international market, in countries like United States of America,China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, and many other Asian countries.
The seed is eaten as refreshment. Mastication of bitter kola relieves coughs, hoarseness, bronchial and throat troubles. It is said to be a remedy for dysentery, osteoarthritis, antidote against poisoning and considered aphrodisiac.
Considerable experimental evidence has been adduced to support its chemical constituents against several ailments in the community, including malaria. “We extracted its chemical constituents, which is called Kolaviron and when it was tested on malaria parasite, we found it had significant anti-malarial activity,” says Professor Olusegun Ademowo, a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, South West of Nigeria. “What we are now trying to find out is the right dosage of its extract that would be required in treating malaria. Also, we are looking at what other effects its use will have on the human cells. But at the moment it is in the preliminary stage,” he added.
Researchers also reported that bitter kola had anti-malaria effect in the 2010 issue of Journal of Medicinal Plants Research, from a survey of plants used by traditional healers in the Democratic Republic of Congo attributing this to its quinines content.
In 1999, a group of researchers in Kinshasa, Congo, attested to why people should consider feeding more on bitter kola to ward of malaria. Under laboratory conditions, they found that extracts from bark, stem and seed of bitter kola tree inhibit the growth of malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) by at least 60 percent at a low concentration of 6 mg/ml.
Interestingly, Nigerian researchers have also developed herbal cures for malaria that can take care of resistant strains from a cocktail from local plants that include bitter kola. A typical cocktail developed by a plant taxonomist at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and Ebonyi State University, Professor Jonathan Okafor, consists of Morinda lucida (commonly called local cinchona or Brimstone tree.), Nauclea latifolia, lemon grass, male pawpaw leaves, Moringa oleifera (drumstick tree), mango bark, bitter kola and guava leaves and bark. Obierofu claimed that he has successfully used the concoction for the last 18 years to treat malaria and hopes to start producing it in commercial quantities.
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