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Pepper fruit

  • Igbo Mmimi

Uvariopsis tripetala · also called Pepper fruit tree

What it is used for

Tap a use to read how it is prepared and how well it is supported.

How each use is prepared

Parts used: fruit, seed.

  • Cough

    Traditional use

    Cough and breathing

    People use it this way, but it has not been tested.

    Reported as a traditional use in the review by Iseghohi 2015. The plant part is not stated in the sources read. No study of this use was read. [1]

  • Fever

    Traditional use

    Fever

    People use it this way, but it has not been tested.

    Reported as a traditional use in Iseghohi 2015. The plant part is not stated in the sources read. No study of this use was read. [1]

  • Toothache

    Traditional use

    Other

    People use it this way, but it has not been tested.

    Reported as a traditional use in Iseghohi 2015. The plant part is not stated in the sources read. No study of this use was read. [1]

  • Diarrhoea

    Traditional use

    Stomach and digestion

    People use it this way, but it has not been tested.

    Reported as a traditional use in Iseghohi 2015. The plant part is not stated in the sources read. No study of this use was read. [1]

  • Diabetes

    Traditional use

    Blood sugar

    People use it this way, but it has not been tested.

    Reported as a traditional use in Iseghohi 2015. The plant part is not stated in the sources read. No study of this use was read. [1]

  • Nausea in pregnant women

    Traditional use

    Women's health

    People use it this way, but it has not been tested.

    Iseghohi 2015 reports this as a traditional use. The sources read contain no safety study in pregnancy, so this use should not be taken as a sign that the plant is safe in pregnancy. [1]

  • Liver and kidney protection

    Lab or animal studies

    Other

    Tested in the laboratory or in animals, not in people.

    A study in rats with chemically induced liver and kidney injury. Extracts were compared with silymarin. The study reported lower liver enzymes, lower urea and creatinine, and less fatty change in the liver. It was done in rats only and says nothing about use in people. The part of the plant used is not clear from the sources read. [2]

Safety

The seeds and the spicy flesh are eaten as food, but data are lacking on what is safe to take as a medicine. Rat studies of the seed essential oil found harmful changes to the liver, kidneys and blood after repeated doses, and the researchers warned against habitual consumption of the seeds. No human safety study was found in the sources read.

Side effects

  • No human study of side effects was found in the sources read. [1][3]

Poisoning and overdose

  • Rat study of seed essential oil (Daniyan 2021): dose-dependent changes to organs and blood, with liver and kidney tissue changes and a raised AST/ALT ratio. The brain was not affected. The authors warned that habitual consumption of the seed may be harmful. [3]
  • Iseghohi 2015 reports that uvariopsin reduces bile secretion in rats, and that an extract was haematotoxic (harmful to the blood) at low to moderate oral doses in rats. Iseghohi 2015 also reports an intraperitoneal LD50 in mice of 251.19 g/kg for an ethanolic extract, and an LD50 of 1120 mg/kg for a root ethyl acetate extract (route not stated in the summary read). The review says the literature on toxicity is thin. [1]

If you take other medicines

  • Data lacking. No drug interaction study was found in the sources read. [1][3]

Pregnancy and breastfeeding

  • Data lacking. Iseghohi 2015 reports use for nausea in pregnant women, but no safety study in pregnancy or breastfeeding was found in the sources read. [1]

Children

  • Data lacking. No study of safety in children was found in the sources read. [1][3]

About this plant

A tree whose seeds and spicy fruit flesh are used as a flavouring in Nigerian cooking, known in Igbo as mmimi. Traditional use covers several everyday complaints; the evidence is mostly traditional, with some laboratory and rat studies, and rat studies suggest possible harm from habitual seed consumption.

How to recognise it

A shrub or tree up to 12-15 m (Iseghohi 2015). Leaves are simple, elliptic, about 7.5-15 cm long and 3.8-6.4 cm wide (3-6 in by 1.5-2.5 in in the source). The fruit is green, turning red when ripe, and the seeds and the spicy flesh around them are eaten (Iseghohi 2015). The sources read do not describe the flowers, bark or the leaf veins in detail.

Where it grows

In Nigeria
GBIF lists 26 occurrence records with country NG for the accepted name Uvariopsis tripetala. This is a record count only, not a survey. The sources read do not give the states where it grows.

Scientific details

Scientific name
Uvariopsis tripetala (Baker f.) G.E.Schatz
Family
Annonaceae
Older names
Dennettia tripetala Baker f.
Main compounds
uvariopsin

Sources

Not yet reviewed Drafted with AI from the sources below. Treat with care.

  1. Iseghohi SO and co-authors. A Review of the Uses and Medicinal Properties of Dennettia tripetala (Pepperfruit). Medical Sciences (Basel), 2015. PMID 29083395.
  2. Omage and co-authors. Dennettia tripetala Relieves Chronic Hepatorenal Injuries in Rats by Altering fas, sod-1, and tnf-α Expression. Preventive Nutrition and Food Science, 2022. PMID 35465114.
  3. Daniyan and co-authors. In vivo and in silico studies of Dennettia tripetala essential oil reveal the potential harmful effects of habitual consumption of the plant seed. Toxicology Reports, 2021. PMID 34401359.
  4. GBIF species match for Uvariopsis tripetala (synonym Dennettia tripetala) and occurrence records. Global Biodiversity Information Facility.