Back to results

Desert date (Balanites aegyptiacus)

An emulsion made from the fruit or bark is used as a molluscoid and fish poison. The toxicity is due to a saponin that becomes rapidly inert so that fish killed such this way are edible. Nevertheless it was reported in Côte d’Ivoire that the saponin damages the sight of fishermen after they have used it for five or six years (Orwa et al., 2009).