Garcinia kola (bitter kola)

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Garcinia kola (bitter kola, a name sometimes also used for G. afzelii) is a species of flowering plant in the Clusiaceae or Guttiferae family. It can be found in Benin, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Its natural habitat is the subtropical or the tropical moist lowland forests.

Garcinia kola

Conservation status

Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Clusiaceae
Genus: Garcinia
Species: G. kola

Binomial name
Garcinia kola
Heckel

Garcinia kola - MHNT

The fruit, seeds, nuts and bark of the plant have been used for centuries in folk medicine to treat ailments from coughs to fever. According to a report from the Center For International Forestry Research, Garcinia kola trade is still important to the tribes and villages in Nigeria.

Traditional medicine

Garcinia kola is traditionally used by African medicine men who believe that it has purgative, antiparasitic, and antimicrobial properties.The seeds are used for bronchitis, throat infections, colic, head or chest colds, and cough. It is also used for liver disorders and as a chewing stick.

Barriers to cultivation

Despite the socio-economic importance of Garcinia kola, cultivation of the species is limited. Factors that have discouraged farmers from growing Garcinia kola include difficulties in germination that reduces seedling availability. Most productive trees were left in the wild when farmers cut plots out of the forest. Researchers have studied the germination problems of G. kola seeds and suggested various means of breaking its dormancy (Gyimah, 2000, Anegbeh et al., 2006, Kanmegne and Ndoumou, 2007, Oboho and Urughu, 2010, Oboho and Ogana, 2011). However, there is still a need to investigate simple and practicable methods that farmers could easily adopt with low technological input. G. kola seeds has both seeds coat dormancy and physiological dormancy probably imposed by the chemicals in the seed (Oboho and Urughu 2010). Seed coat dormancy of Garcinia kola can be reduced by removing the seed coat before sowing, while physiological dormancy can be reduced by soaking in water for 72 hours (Yakubu et al., 2014). Removal of the seed coat, soaking in water for 72 hours, placing inside air tight transparent polythene bag and sprinkling of water on the seeds
when needed for constant moisture gives an early germination period of two weeks

**21 Health Benefits of Bitter Kola **
Most parts of this plant like the seed, bark, fruit, and nuts can be used as a traditional medicine, a practice that has been done for centuries by the African medicine man. This practice has intrigued the medical world to study this bitter tasted plant to find out whether those healing attributes were just a rumor or real. The results are amazing, bitter kola possesses a wide array of benefits that will surely help everyone to stay healthy.
Meanwhile, bitter kola contains the high source of vitamins and minerals such as Vitamins A, C, E, B1, B2, B3, fiber, calcium, potassium and iron. That is why bitter kola is good for us. Thus, here are several known benefits commonly found in bitter kola. Here is the health benefits of bitter kola you should know.

**Bitter Kola for Sexual Health

Cures Impotence

Impotence is a malfunction in male genitals caused by a failure in maintaining an erection during a sexual intercourse. By increasing the blood flow to the genital area, bitter kola can be used as an effective remedy for ED or erectile dysfunction.

Improves Sexual Performance

For people with a low libido, bitter kola can be your savior. Bitter kola increases sex drive and improves the sexual performance of men who consume them. For increased effect, you need to chew the kola for at least 2 minutes before intercourse. This is one of the reasons that bitter kola gained its fame in the past few years.

Promotes Male Fertility

Meanwhile, many adult male problem is on their sexual organ. Further, for married men it is just so important to keep and maintain, in order to please their couple. Thus, you may found some medicine to improve fertility yet bitter kola is the best alternative if you want to improve you performance in bed with your lovely ones.

Prolonging Life

Many African people believed that consuming bitter kola will prolong their lives significantly. While this belief is not scientifically accurate it might be true to some extent. As we can see in above texts, there are just so many healthy benefits of bitter kola, that could positively contribute to a better, healthier life. By improving our lives, our longevity would surely increase, because many studies report that normally, healthy people live longer than unhealthy ones.

No Side Effects

This might be the best feature from bitter kola plethora of benefits. Many medical experts around the world confirmed that consuming bitter kola has no side effects at all to the human body, which is amazing considering most drugs possess a negative side effect in the long run when consumed periodically. This shows that bitter kola can be used as a natural, alternative remedy to the generic drugs that are chemically manufactured.

Ebola and HIV Treatments with Bitter Kola

Thus, ebola is danger virus that slowly killing people. This virus is still unknown medicine yet we may try some traditional way to prevent or treat it. Indeed, bitter kola content has been use to cure ebola and best treat for the patient. Also, it has anti bacteria and anti poison substances to protect our body.

Medicinal Significance

As a traditional medicine for many countries in Africa, bitter kola has purgative, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and anti-parasitic properties. These medicinal properties has been scientifically approved and raised bitter kola status as a significant ailment against many sickness and diseases.

** Anti-Poison**

Recent studies said that bitter kola is a potent antibiotic with many detoxification abilities. Chewing bitter kola will prevent any infection or poison that might happen when you accidentally ate something contaminated by bacteria or poison.

**Improve Immunity System ***

The high amount of antioxidant found in bitter kola can help your body to increase its immunity levels, so your body can withstand better against foreign contaminants and bacteria.

Cures for Ebola

Africa is known as the continent from which the Ebola virus came from. There are many cases of Ebola virus outbreak in Africa, and it has caused millions of death across the continent. Due to the multitudes of healing abilities of bitter kola, there are many claims saying that bitter kola can be used to cure ebola. While it is true that bitter kola does possess anti-bacterial and anti-microbial properties, such claims were never scientifically proven nor verified.

HIV Treatments

Thus, HIV is another killing virus. The scientist has been working hard to find the best medicine to cure it yet it is till finding by now. HIV patients are taking down by people who think they are so cool. Yet, many alternative may help HIV patients to suffer. Thus, bitter kola is best believe as HIV treatments as it has antibacterial substance.

More Health Tricks with Bitter Kola

Thus, bitter kola is best believe in improving sexual health in some countries. Yet, as the natural plant bitter kola is also beneficial for some points in health. Likewise, bitter kola is the alternative medicine for human health.

Cold Remedy

Bitter kola also can be used in alleviating sore throat and as a remedy for cold symptoms. Healers in Africa has been using it to treat people coughing and sneezes for hundreds of years effectively. It also helps to relieve the sore throat effects that may come as one of the symptoms of cold.

Relieve Arthritis

In July 2008 issue of the Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research, it is revealed that Garcinia kola reduces joint inflammation and pain caused by osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is one of the most common forms of arthritis, normally caused by aging, obesity, or a joint injury. It is characterized by swelling, pain, and inflammation in the joints, causing reduced movement. The antioxidant properties of bitter kola provide a significant analgesic or anti-inflammatory effects which significantly counters the effect of osteoarthritis.

Weight Loss Treatment

Chewing bitter kola could suppress the hungry feeling and makes your body wants to drink more water. In this case, it can be used to prevent any bad eating habit such as late night snacking, binge eating, etc. and by keeping your body hydrated, improved your digestive system as well. Bitter kola is also known to reduce glucose level in your blood.

Throat Clearing

If you have a problem with swallowing due to swelling or dry throat, you could try to chew bitter kolas. Experts said that it stimulates the mucus production along the vocal tubes to reduce the swelling and dryness in the throat.

Improves Lung Function

Some researchers reveal that bitter kola could improve lungs by strengthening fibers in the lungs tissue. This would dilate the alveolar ducts and sacs in the lungs, thereby improving the respiratory system. The 2008 Internet Journal of Pulmonary Medicine performs a series of experiments on mice which shows an improvement over the mice’s respiratory function after 28 days of bitter kola usage.

Prevents Glaucoma

A high eye pressure could lead to glaucoma, a condition of the eye that, if left untreated, could result in permanent blindness. Bitter kola has proven itself to be an amazing remedy for the eye. Lagos University Teaching Hospital has a journal which showed us that when you use bitter kola at least twice a day, it could successfully reduce the eye pressure.

Body Weight Management

Certain eating habits have a significant effect on your body fat, which in turn contributes to your body weight and overall health. If you really want to cut your weight drastically, these unhealthy eating habits need to stop and start burning the excess body fat. Bitter kola may not be able to burn any body fat, but it can help you refrain from bad eating habits. By suppressing your hunger effectively, you can limit your diet to only eating what your body needs.

Anti-Malarial Properties

Traditional African healers have been using bitter kola to treat malaria infections for years. The bitter kola is a good source of Quinone, which is known for its anti-malaria properties. Journal of Medicinal Plants Research found that Kolaviron, a chemical compound contained in bitter kola is also responsible for halting malarial activity.

Anti-Malarial Properties

Traditional African healers have been using bitter kola to treat malaria infections for years. The bitter kola is a good source of Quinone, which is known for its anti-malaria properties. Journal of Medicinal Plants Research found that Kolaviron, a chemical compound contained in bitter kola is also responsible for halting malarial activity.

Prevent Beer Spoilage

Another common known uses for bitter kola is that it can be used a hop substitution when brewing beer. As we all know, hops is the main beer ingredients which protect the beer from spoilage. So we can safely say that bitter kola can prevent beer from spoiling.

.** Remedy for Osteoarthritis**

The researches found that bitter kola has the source to treat osteoarthritis.

Improve Respiratory Function

Thus, bitter kola may reflex your lung in order to improve respiratory function.

Meanwhile, that is all the health benefits of bitter kola. Indeed, you may never know it before.