Breadfruit: The extinction of Ife ancient traditional tree

By Yekeen Olawale Wakeel

The African Breadfruit is a species of flowering tree in the jackfruit family. It is called Jaloke in Yoruba language. Its name is derived from the texture of the moderately ripe fruit when cooked, similar to freshly baked bread and having a potato-like flavour. When the fruit ripens, it becomes sweet. The leaves also have medicinal properties.

It has a very high nutritional value and can be eaten in different ways. It can even be processed into breadfruit flour, the Yorubas often make it into a porridge or pottage, or boil and pound it like yam into ‘Iyan jaaloke’ and eaten with various soups. It can also be fried or roasted and eaten as a snack.

In the past, breadfruit was always everywhere in its season; at evenings in Ile-Ife and other parts of Yoruba land, people hawked the pounded form usually called “iyan jaloke” (plucked pounded yam).

In fact, it was like a “national cuisine,” one can also liken it to an identity with which an Ife indigene is known. This pounded yam can no longer be found in the ancient town which is traditionally known for.

It suddenly disappears in the land and its cause of scarcity was due to the fact that people started using the wood for furniture making. There is a beadfruit with seeds and there is a seedless one.

But one with seeds is Artocarpus camansi while the seedless one is Artocarpus altilis and it is the one planted in Yoruba land. It is propagated by transplanting suckers that grow off the surface roots of the tree, so, this means there are no seeds to plant and the trees that should provide young shoots are going into extinction.

The concern now is that it may come to a point that the younger generations may have to be told the history of breadfruit in Yoruba land by just showing them pictures of the plant on the internet. This will be disastrous. Even some younger ones presently do not understand what is called breadfruit.

Artocarpus altilis is a multipurpose tree with a wide range of traditional uses as a food, medicine and source of building materials and feed. It belongs to the family Moraceae. It is high in carbohydrates and a good source of antioxidants, calcium, carotenoids, copper, dietary fibre, energy, iron, magnesium, niacin, omega 3, omega 6, phosphorus, potassium, protein, thiamine, vitamin A and vitamin C. It is called ‘Gbere’ in Yoruba. It is especially valued for its edible fruit and it also provides commercial timber.

Breadfruit can be shredded, dried and processed into a gluten-free flour, far superior in taste, nutrition and structure to any other flour alternative. The male breadfruit flower is highly effective at repelling mosquitoes and other insects. Breadfruit can be baked, boiled, candied, fried, pickled, roasted and steamed. The tree is also used for non-food purposes, its latex and bark are used as traditional medicine to treat sprains, sciatica and skin diseases.

Also, Its leaves have traditionally been used to treat cirrhosis of the liver, spleen enlargement, coronary heart disease, inflammation of the kidneys, high blood pressure and diabetes.

The toasted flowers are rubbed on the gums around aching teeth to ease pain. An extract from the flowers is effective in treating ear oedema. The latex is massaged into the skin to treat broken bones, bruises, sprains, abscesses.

It is commonly used for skin ailments and fungal diseases such as thrush. The latter is also treated with crushed leaves. The diluted latex is taken internally to treat diarrhoea, stomach-ache and dysentery. Latex and juice from the crushed leaves are both traditionally used to treat ear infections.

A filtrate of new, unfolded leaves is used as a muscle relaxant in cases of convulsive spasms. The yellowing leaf is brewed into a tea and taken to reduce high blood pressure. Hypertension and diabetes medications are prepared from a mixture of the boiled leaves of this species combined with Persea americana, Carica papaya and Annona muricata.

The bark is used to treat headaches. Bark extracts exhibit strong cytotoxic activities against leukaemia cells in tissue culture and extracts from roots and stem barks showed some antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria and may have potential in treating tumours. Liquid squeezed from the bark or leaves is given as remedy for chest pain and vomiting resulting from heart trouble.

Pressed liquid from the stem bark is employed in the treatment of pain in the bones and maternal postpartum infections. The bark is also used to treat stomach aches and digestive tract problems. Fluid pressed from young fruit is given to treat an illness which causes pain in the lungs and vomiting of blood.

There is scientific justification of its use for the management of inflammation, pain and wound healing.

It was found that breadfruit leaf ethanol extract improved the kidney function in the renal failure model which was shown by reduction on the levels of serum urea and creatinine and restoration of kidney structure.

The problem is that we do not plant trees. Therefore, breadfruit has become a thing of the past in some parts of Yoruba land. Artocarpus altilis is an endangered species and something needs to be done before it finally goes into extinction.

Yekeen Olawale Wakeel, Chief Museum Education Officer, National Museum, Ile-Ife.