African Medlar

Vangueria infausta Burch.

Sources

14 listed

Best forFor anyone curious about one of the more popular wild fruits of southern Africa, eaten raw, dried, as juice, in maize porridge or in beer, and about what is known so far of the household remedies made from its roots and leaves.

Clinical evidence

Traditional

Real World Significance

20Regional historical significance

Breadth 17 Depth 5 Density 20 Convergence 25 Continuity 55

SafetyUse with cautionThe ripe fruit is a widely eaten everyday food. The root, bark and leaf preparations lack an established dose and adequate clinical safety data. Maroyi’s 2018 review describes preliminary laboratory tests and calls for further toxicological investigation. The insufficient safety evidence for the medicinal preparations supports the caution rating.

Tradition

Folk medicine

Common preparations

FruitJuiceTea infusionDecoction

In short

Summary of findings for quick reference

African medlar (Vangueria infausta) is a small wild fruit tree of the coffee family (Rubiaceae). It grows from southern into eastern Africa and carries dozens of names there, including umViyo in isiZulu, meaning a band of warriors. Above all it is a food. The round brown fruit tastes sweet-sour and mealy, rather like an apple. People eat it raw or dried, make it into juice, jam and porridge and add it to beer. In 1824 William Burchell described how the Bachapin had held the shrub to be bewitched during his 1812 journey and would not burn its wood. Hence the name infausta, unlucky. Recent surveys show how alive its use remains across southern and eastern Africa.

Which part is meant matters. The ripe fruit is a nutritious wild food. A Zimbabwean analysis found about 30 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 grams of a deseeded sample of flesh and skin, while earlier measurements also found citric acid. Folk medicine chiefly uses roots, bark and leaves as infusions or decoctions for malaria, fever, cough, stomach ache, toothache and other complaints. Extracts inhibit bacteria, fungi and malaria parasites in the laboratory. A root bark extract also reduced the parasite count in infected mice. Clinical evidence of an effect in people is missing.

The ripe fruit is an everyday food where it grows. The medicinal root, bark and leaf preparations lack an established dose and human safety data. The 2018 review describes preliminary tests on cells and brine shrimp and calls for further toxicological work. Do not treat yourself with them. Avoid these preparations in pregnancy and breastfeeding, alongside medicines and for children. Safety and effectiveness require evidence beyond traditional use.

Clinical evidence ↔ Historical significance

We display two separate evidence categories: clinical evidence from modern trials and historical significance from documented healing tradition. Both are valuable, but they answer different questions.

In every encyclopedia entry we evaluate two distinct categories of evidence. Clinical evidence as used in trials meets a narrower but scientifically essential bar. At the same time, the hundreds of thousands of plant species worldwide have only partially been captured and tested in modern studies.

Alongside the trial picture our researchers compile a comprehensive overview of where and since when a plant has been used across different traditions of natural medicine. When a plant has been used as a medicinal plant in many cultures across many generations, that historical significance deserves to be visible too.

Our position: a truly informative overview emerges only when both categories sit side by side. We communicate transparently what counts as what.

Overview

African medlar, Vangueria infausta Burch., is a deciduous shrub or small tree of the coffee family (Rubiaceae) that grows wild across southern and eastern Africa, from South Africa and Namibia north through Zimbabwe and Mozambique to Tanzania and Kenya. It is first of all a food plant. The round fruit ripens from glossy green to soft brown, tastes sweet-sour and mealy, rather like an apple, and is eaten fresh or dried, squeezed into juice, stirred into maize porridge and added to beer. It is one of the more popular wild fruits of the region, gathered in the bush and sold by street vendors, but hardly ever cultivated.

Alongside food use sits a broad folk-medicine tradition that chiefly uses roots, bark and leaves. Maroyi’s review records uses of the plant for 43 conditions across eastern and southern Africa, from malaria and cough to toothache. Extracts show activity against bacteria, fungi and malaria parasites in the laboratory, while clinical evidence of efficacy is missing. There is also a piece of cultural history. The name infausta, unlucky, comes from the Bachapin belief described by Burchell that burning the wood would bring misfortune and death.

History

The history of African medlar is an African one, and for a long time it was told only by word of mouth. The tree grows wild only south of the Sahara, and European botany did not describe it until 1824. The languages of the region make up for that. For South Africa alone, Alfred Maroyi's review lists dozens of names, among them umViyo and umTulwa in isiZulu, umvilo in isiXhosa, mmilo in Sepedi and Setswana, mpfilwa in Xitsonga and muzwilu in Tshivenda. In Zimbabwe the fruit is Nzvirumombe in Shona and umviyo in Ndebele. In Afrikaans it is wildemispel, and its taste is indeed compared with that of the European medlar.

The English naturalist William Burchell published the botanical description of the species in 1824. He had encountered the shrub at Sensavan on 18 June 1812. The Bachapin, a Tswana people, held it to be bewitched and unlucky and would never use its wood for fuel. He never learned why. On the hill above their town of Litakun it was among the few shrubs of any size still standing. Others were broken for firewood or browsed by goats. Burchell writes that the townspeople predicted his men would die when they boiled meat over this wood. Later they ate from the travellers’ pot after all. He named the species Vangueria infausta, the unlucky Vangueria, and published the name in the second volume of his Travels. He judged the fruit inedible.

As a food, the fruit is firmly rooted across the region. People eat it fresh from the tree, dry it as a store for lean times, stir it into maize porridge, squeeze it for juice and add it to beer. Households in Mwanza district in Malawi use up to 40 kilograms a season, and street vendors sell the fruit in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Roots, bark and leaves are made into infusions and decoctions for household remedies, and in Gauteng province roots and stems are sold as medicine. In the KwaZulu-Natal field study all hundred people interviewed eat the fruit. Knowledge of its other uses, though, travels mainly by word of mouth, older women hold much of it, and the study warns that it could be lost as younger people turn away from traditional foods.

Belief in the tree's power is still alive. In a survey published in 2025, all hundred people interviewed at Oyemeni in northern KwaZulu-Natal knew the isiZulu name umViyo, which means a band of warriors. Some explain it by the ripe brown fruit, hanging in the bush like the heads of hidden warriors. A tree growing beside a homestead is taken as the ancestors' protection against attack and dark forces and is left standing. Leaves and roots go into iNtelezi, a protective charm sprayed over men before stick fights. And, as in Burchell's day, children still learn that the wood does not belong on the fire. Boys are told not to use it in the cattle fields, girls not to carry it home. Elsewhere in South Africa it is said that anyone who burns it will see their cows bear only bull calves.

Mechanism

The chemistry of African medlar depends on the plant part. The edible fruit is mainly food. It contains vitamin C, citric, malic and formic acids, sugars, short-chain fatty acids and their esters, which help give it its fruity aroma, and modest amounts of phenolics, flavonoids and tannins. Roots, bark and leaves, the folk-medicine parts, are chemically more varied. Iridoid lactones, triterpenes such as friedelin and vanguerolic acid, flavonoids such as quercetin, luteolin and epicatechin, a biflavone, tannins and saponins have been obtained from them.

Some isolated compounds show activity in laboratory tests. Root extracts and the friedelin obtained from them inhibited malaria parasites in culture. A root bark extract cut the parasite count in infected mice by 73.5 per cent early in infection. Leaf extracts inhibited cyclooxygenase, the enzyme that makes prostaglandins, and fruit-pulp extracts slowed protein denaturation. Single flavonoids scavenged free radicals at least as well as vitamin C. These experiments establish neither an effect of eating the fruit nor one of drinking root tea in people.

Research on African medlar is young, and there is still no clinical trial in people. The state of knowledge is summed up in Alfred Maroyi's review, published in Molecules in 2018. It draws on 109 publications from 1962 to 2018 and finds laboratory evidence of antibacterial, antimycobacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antileishmanial, antioxidant and antiplasmodial activity and of inhibited prostaglandin synthesis. Malaria research has gone furthest. A root extract inhibited Plasmodium falciparum at less than 2 micrograms per millilitre in a screen of 20 plants the Venda use against malaria, and root bark also worked in infected mice. Maroyi concludes that toxicological studies, animal work and human clinical trials must come next.

On the food side there are measurements of composition. In 2025 Nemapare and colleagues found about 30 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 grams, along with formic acid, in a deseeded Zimbabwean fruit sample of flesh and skin. Further tests found phenolics and low antioxidant activity in the extracts. A survey of one hundred people at Oyemeni in northern KwaZulu-Natal documents continuing use as food and household remedy. Maroyi’s 2018 review describes cell-culture and brine shrimp tests and regards the tested extracts as showing low toxicity in those models. It calls for further toxicological work. Human safety data and an established dose for the household preparations are missing. Root and leaf findings cannot be transferred to fruit consumption, or the other way round.

Evidence

4 Outcomes evaluated. Sorted by grade.

Outcome	Class	Grade	Effect
Edible wild fruit and source of vitamin CCommunities across southern and eastern Africa eating the fruit	Traditional	I	Traditional food use
Root and leaf folk-medicine use (malaria, chest, digestive, dental complaints)Traditional users in southern and eastern Africa	Traditional	I	Traditional use, no clinical evidence
Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activityIn vitro models using plant extracts	Traditional	I	Preclinical only
Antimicrobial, antiplasmodial and antimycobacterial activityIn vitro models and a mouse malaria experiment using plant extracts	Traditional	I	Preclinical only

Key studies

The studies that matter.

Observational study · 2025
A survey of one hundred people at Oyemeni in northern KwaZulu-Natal, the first systematic ethnobotanical study of African medlar in South Africa. Everyone interviewed eats the fruit, some also make umBhantshi, juice or beer flavoured with the pulp, and the leaves are used to clean teeth and ease toothache. It documents tradition and knowledge and says nothing about effects.
Ngubane SC, Mbhele Z, Ntuli NR. Ngubane SC, Mbhele Z, Ntuli NR. Indigenous Knowledge and Traditional Uses of Vangueria infausta subsp. infausta Burch in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Plants (Basel) 14(12):1820 (2025). doi:10.3390/plants14121820
2025
A laboratory analysis of fruit bought at a market in Gweru, Zimbabwe. The deseeded sample of flesh and skin contained 297 milligrams of vitamin C and 68 milligrams of formic acid per kilogram. Further tests found phenolics, but antioxidant activity of the dried-sample extracts stayed below 20 per cent. The study examined fruit composition, not effects in people.
Nemapare P, Mugadza DT, Gadaga TH. Nemapare P, Mugadza DT, Gadaga TH. Characterization of Functional Properties and Organic Acids in Vangueria infausta Burch. (Wild Medlar/Nzvirumombe/Umviyo) Fruit(s) Found in Zimbabwe. Int J Food Sci 2025:9925294 (2025). doi:10.1155/ijfo/9925294
Animal study · 2006
An animal experiment with accompanying cell culture tests. A root bark extract suppressed the parasites by 73.5 per cent early in infection in mice infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei, and fractions inhibited Plasmodium falciparum in culture, although chloroquine was well over a hundred times more potent. It is the only animal experiment in Maroyi's review and remains a laboratory finding, not evidence of an effect in people.
Abosi AO, Mbukwa E, Majinda RR, Raseroka BH, Yenesew A, Midiwo JO, Akala H, Liyala P, Waters NC. Abosi AO, Mbukwa E, Majinda RR, Raseroka BH, Yenesew A, Midiwo JO, Akala H, Liyala P, Waters NC. Vangueria infausta root bark: in vivo and in vitro antiplasmodial activity. Br J Biomed Sci 63(3):129-133 (2006). doi:10.1080/09674845.2006.11732732
Laboratory study · 2014
A laboratory screen of 43 extracts from 20 plants the Venda people of South Africa use against malaria. The study singles out African medlar extracts, together with those of Tabernaemontana elegans, for inhibiting the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum below 2 micrograms per millilitre. That supports the traditional use as a laboratory pointer. There are no studies in people.
Bapela MJ, Meyer JJ, Kaiser M. Bapela MJ, Meyer JJ, Kaiser M. In vitro antiplasmodial screening of ethnopharmacologically selected South African plant species used for the treatment of malaria. J Ethnopharmacol 156:370-373 (2014). doi:10.1016/j.jep.2014.09.017
Laboratory study · 2018
A test-tube study of the fruit pulp from Zimbabwe. An ethanol extract and fractions made from it inhibited the denaturation of egg protein, the unsaponifiable fraction by up to 93 per cent at 400 milligrams per litre, and scavenged nitric oxide radicals. It is one of the few studies of the edible fruit itself, but a simple laboratory assay that says nothing about the human body.
Gwatidzo L, Chowe L, Musekiwa C, Mukaratirwa-Muchanyereyi N. Gwatidzo L, Chowe L, Musekiwa C, Mukaratirwa-Muchanyereyi N. In vitro anti-inflammatory activity of Vangueria infausta: an edible wild fruit from Zimbabwe. Afr J Pharm Pharmacol 12(13):168-175 (2018). doi:10.5897/AJPP2018.4894

Usage

Forms and preparation

As a food, African medlar could hardly be simpler. The ripe fruit is soft and brown, and its orange flesh tastes sweet-sour, slightly astringent and mealy, compared variously with green apple, medlar and pineapple. Most of it is eaten raw straight from the tree, often on the move. For storage the fruit is dried. For juice the pulp is squeezed out in water, the skins and seeds are strained off and the juice is sweetened to taste. With a little water and sugar the pulp makes a stand-in for apple sauce, cooked down it becomes marmalade, and South African cookery writing records vinegar made from it. In the Oyemeni survey, umBhantshi was the most frequently mentioned dish. The fruit is crushed by hand, skins and seeds are removed, and the puree is mixed into crumbly maize porridge, uPhuthu, or crushed, pre-boiled maize. For soft porridge the fruit paste is stirred into boiling water before maize or sorghum meal goes in. Some interviewees reported adding pulp thinned with water to fermenting beer when it lacks acidity. The South African plant profile also mentions a strong spirit made from the fruit. One Oyemeni interviewee described using chopped unripe fruit in fresh milk to curdle it for amasi. The survey documents this practice, it did not test its food safety. In folk medicine the parts are different and the recipes far less fixed. Roots, bark and leaves are made into infusions and decoctions, mostly drunk. In KwaZulu-Natal the fresh, velvety leaves serve as a toothbrush, crushed leaves are pressed as a paste onto an aching tooth, and a cooled root decoction is used as a mouthwash. None of these preparations is standardised, has an established dose or has been tested for safety. They are described here as part of the tradition, not as recipes to copy.

Dosage

There is no set amount for the fruit, which is eaten like any other soft fruit. For the root, bark and leaf preparations of folk medicine there is no established dose, no defined extract and no data from studies in people. That gap is one reason the entry is rated caution. If you are considering such a preparation, talk to a doctor or pharmacist first.

Special populations

Where it grows, the ripe fruit is eaten by adults and children alike. The medicinal root, bark and leaf preparations have not been studied in pregnancy, breastfeeding or childhood, and safety and toxicity data are lacking. Pregnant and breastfeeding women should avoid them, and they should not be given to children.

Safety

Safety profile

The ripe fruit is an everyday wild food, eaten fresh, dried and fermented across southern and eastern Africa. This provides no proof of safety for the medicinal root, bark and leaf preparations. These are made as non-standardised infusions and decoctions. An established dose and adequate clinical safety data are missing. Maroyi’s 2018 review describes preliminary tests on cells and brine shrimp and calls for further toxicological investigation. The medicinal preparations lack adequate human safety data, so caution is warranted. Do not treat yourself with root, bark or leaf preparations. Traditional use for malaria, fever, chest, digestive and menstrual complaints provides no proof of treatment safety or effectiveness. Pregnant or breastfeeding women, children and anyone who is ill or taking medicines should avoid these preparations entirely and seek medical advice. If an unexpected symptom follows a preparation, stop and seek medical help. Malaria is life-threatening. Left untreated, falciparum malaria can progress to severe illness and death within 24 hours. If you develop a fever after visiting a malaria area, seek immediate testing and medical treatment. A household remedy cannot replace that treatment.

Drug interactions

Root and leaf preparations lack studies of drug interactions. Their constituents have scarcely been studied clinically, so possible interactions remain unknown. If you take prescription medicines, avoid these preparations and ask your doctor or pharmacist.

Contraindications

The medicinal root, bark and leaf preparations lack clinical safety data and an established dose. The precautions below follow from that gap. Pregnancy and breastfeeding: avoid root, bark and leaf preparations entirely, as there are no safety data. Children: give no medicinal preparations. Only the ripe fruit is a food. Existing illness or prescription medicines: no self-treatment with medicinal preparations without medical advice, because there are no data on dosing or interactions and only first laboratory tests on toxicity.

Side effects

The available literature lacks systematic clinical data on side effects of the medicinal preparations. The ripe fruit is eaten as food. The laboratory tests described cannot establish how root and leaf preparations are tolerated. If you feel unwell after such a preparation, stop taking it and seek medical advice.

Look-alikes

Botany

Family

Rubiaceae

Native regions

Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Mozambique), East and Central Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Rwanda, Angola), Wild-gathered in woodland and bushveld; only locally cultivated

Harvest window

Fruit ripens in summer, January to April in South Africa and from November in Zimbabwe. Flowers September to October in South Africa, to November in Zimbabwe.

Habitat

African medlar grows in open woodland, bushveld, scrub and wooded grassland across southern and eastern Africa, often on stony koppies or in sandy valleys, and most commonly in open, exposed grassland. It is drought-resistant and withstands moderate cold. Bushbabies, monkeys, baboons, squirrels and bushpigs take the ripe fruit, and antelope browse the leaves. Most of the fruit people eat still comes from wild trees.

Identification & foraging

A deciduous shrub or small tree three to seven, occasionally eight, metres tall, usually multi-stemmed. The grey to yellowish-brown bark is smooth and peels in small irregular strips, and the young twigs are woolly. The opposite, light green leaves are large, elliptic to ovate and covered in soft velvety hairs, with the net of veins standing out below, and older leaves often look twisted and feel rough. In the southern spring, September to October, velvety acorn-shaped buds open into small greenish-white to yellowish flowers in dense clusters. The almost round fruit is glossy dark green when young and light brown when ripe, soft and fleshy. Under its leathery skin three to five seeds sit in soft pulp, and the remains of the flower are still visible at its tip. The ripe fruit is what people eat, while roots, bark and leaves are the parts used in folk medicine.

Similar plants and look-alikes

Toxic

Other Vangueria species (e.g. Vangueria madagascariensis, Vangueria esculenta)

Several close relatives, such as Vangueria madagascariensis and Vangueria esculenta, bear similar edible fruit and are used in similar ways across Africa, so mix-ups at species level are easy. The genus is not uniformly harmless, though. Vangueria pygmaea, Vangueria thamnus and Vangueria latifolia are among the six plants that cause gousiekte in southern Africa, a fatal heart poisoning of ruminants that ends in sudden heart failure four to eight weeks after the animals have eaten the plant. Gather only what you have identified with certainty as Vangueria infausta, and buy only from a known source.

Unpleasant

Edible fruit versus medicinal root and leaf

The ripe fruit is the food. Roots, bark and leaves serve as household remedies and have a different chemistry. Eating the fruit provides no safety evidence for root and leaf infusions or decoctions. Human safety data for these household preparations are missing. Do not treat yourself with them.

FAQs

What is African medlar and what part is used?

African medlar (Vangueria infausta) is a small wild fruit tree of the coffee family, native from southern into eastern Africa. People eat the round brown fruit, which is sweet-sour and mealy with a taste reminiscent of apple, raw, dried, as juice, in maize porridge or in beer. The roots, bark and leaves serve as household remedies in folk medicine, and these two sides of the plant are best kept apart.

Is African medlar approved in Europe as a medicinal plant?

No EMA monograph is listed for African medlar. The EU health claims register also contains no plant-specific authorised claim under its botanical name. African household use provides no evidence of medicinal-product authorisation in Europe. Vangueria infausta has no entry in the EU Novel Food Catalogue, but the catalogue is non-binding and non-exhaustive. Absence establishes neither permission nor prohibition as a food.

Is there any human evidence that African medlar works as a medicine?

No. There is not a single clinical trial. Every finding comes from the laboratory and from animal experiments with extracts. The most striking results are against malaria parasites, up to an experiment in infected mice with root bark extract. The standard review, by Alfred Maroyi in 2018, concludes that toxicological studies, animal work and then human clinical trials still have to follow.

Is the fruit nutritious?

The fruit supplies several nutrients. An analysis of fruit bought at a market in Gweru, Zimbabwe, found about 30 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 grams of a deseeded sample of flesh and skin, along with formic acid and phenolics. Earlier measurements cited in that study found more citric acid than in oranges or pineapples. Maroyi’s review also lists fibre, potassium, magnesium, iron and copper in the fruit.

Can African medlar be grown?

Yes, though hardly anyone does so yet. It is grown or tended in home gardens in Tanzania and in South Africa's Limpopo province, and trial plantings have been made in Malawi and even in Israel's Negev desert. Fruit from cultivated trees can be up to ten times larger than that of wild ones, and trial trees in Malawi yielded 2.5 to 5 kilograms each. It is raised from fresh seed, cleaned of skin and pulp and sown in a well-drained, sandy mix, or from cuttings. It grows slowly, tolerates drought and moderate cold and, trimmed from the start, makes an attractive small garden tree.

Is African medlar safe?

The ripe fruit is an everyday food where it grows, and no harm from eating it has been described. Root, bark and leaf infusions and decoctions are another matter. They have no established dose, no animal toxicity study and no human safety data, only first laboratory tests on cells and brine shrimp. That is why the entry is rated caution. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, ill or taking medicines, leave these preparations alone, and do not give them to children.

How old is the tradition, and why is the plant called unlucky?

The use reaches back further than any written source and was passed on by word of mouth. The first written record comes from the English naturalist William Burchell, who met the shrub in 1812 among the Bachapin, a Tswana people. They held it to be bewitched and unlucky and would never use its wood for their fires. Burchell therefore named it infausta, Latin for unlucky, and published the name in 1824. The name says nothing about the safety of the fruit.

References

14 sources.

Maroyi A. Maroyi A. Nutraceutical and Ethnopharmacological Properties of Vangueria infausta subsp. infausta. Molecules 23(5):1089 (2018).. 2018. doi:10.3390/molecules23051089
Ngubane SC, Mbhele Z, Ntuli NR. Ngubane SC, Mbhele Z, Ntuli NR. Indigenous Knowledge and Traditional Uses of Vangueria infausta subsp. infausta Burch in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Plants (Basel) 14(12):1820 (2025).. 2025. doi:10.3390/plants14121820
Nemapare P, Mugadza DT, Gadaga TH. Nemapare P, Mugadza DT, Gadaga TH. Characterization of Functional Properties and Organic Acids in Vangueria infausta Burch. (Wild Medlar/Nzvirumombe/Umviyo) Fruit(s) Found in Zimbabwe. Int J Food Sci 2025:9925294 (2025).. 2025. doi:10.1155/ijfo/9925294
Abosi AO, Mbukwa E, Majinda RR, Raseroka BH, Yenesew A, Midiwo JO, Akala H, Liyala P, Waters NC. Abosi AO, Mbukwa E, Majinda RR, Raseroka BH, Yenesew A, Midiwo JO, Akala H, Liyala P, Waters NC. Vangueria infausta root bark: in vivo and in vitro antiplasmodial activity. Br J Biomed Sci 63(3):129-133 (2006).. 2006. doi:10.1080/09674845.2006.11732732
Bapela MJ, Meyer JJ, Kaiser M. Bapela MJ, Meyer JJ, Kaiser M. In vitro antiplasmodial screening of ethnopharmacologically selected South African plant species used for the treatment of malaria. J Ethnopharmacol 156:370-373 (2014).. 2014. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2014.09.017
Gwatidzo L, Chowe L, Musekiwa C, Mukaratirwa-Muchanyereyi N. Gwatidzo L, Chowe L, Musekiwa C, Mukaratirwa-Muchanyereyi N. In vitro anti-inflammatory activity of Vangueria infausta: an edible wild fruit from Zimbabwe. Afr J Pharm Pharmacol 12(13):168-175 (2018).. 2018. doi:10.5897/AJPP2018.4894
Verstraete B, Van Elst D, Steyn H, Van Wyk B, Lemaire B, Smets E, Dessein S. Verstraete B, Van Elst D, Steyn H, Van Wyk B, Lemaire B, Smets E, Dessein S. Endophytic bacteria in toxic South African plants: identification, phylogeny and possible involvement in gousiekte. PLoS One 6(4):e19265 (2011).. 2011. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019265
Burchell WJ. Burchell WJ. Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, volume 2. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green (1824), pp. 258, 451, 499, 526.. 1824. Source
Behr K. Behr K. Vangueria infausta. PlantZAfrica, South African National Biodiversity Institute (2004).. 2004. Source
European Medicines Agency. EMA herbal medicines register, current official export. 2026. Source
European Commission. European Commission. EU Register of nutrition and health claims, current policy item data.. 2026. Source
European Commission, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety. European Commission. Novel Food status Catalogue.. Source
European Commission. European Commission. EU Novel Food Catalogue, entry POL-NF-13064: Silene vulgaris (Moench) Garcke, leaves and tender stems, not novel in food (Article 4 consultation, Spanish authority), 2025. 2025. Source
World Health Organization. Malaria fact sheet.. Source

Legal notice: The depiction of historical significance and traditional use is context within our encyclopedia and not a health claim for any product, not a treatment promise, and not a substitute for medical advice. What may be stated on product labels, product pages, or in advertising is governed by the applicable legal requirements.