Adenium obesum

desert-rose

In Kenya, this plant is used in witchcraft (chewed as an abortifacient) and for medicine (powdered stems or an infusion made from the roots are used to control lice and fleas on livestock). In Somalia, a decoction of the plant is used as nose drops to treat rhinitis, which a condition that involves nasal irritation and inflammation. The bark and milky sap are used to treat sprains, tooth decay, bone dislocation, swelling, wounds, and skin conditions.

The root, stem sap, or seeds are used to make arrow poison throughout Africa. The plant contains a number of cardiotoxic (acting upon the heart) compounds. It kills relatively quickly; even large-game animals don’t ever make it much more than a mile before dying. A decoction of the leaves is used as a fish poison. The plant is also poisonous to humans and is sometimes used for criminal purposes, which may be one reason why locals often make efforts to eradicate the plant from surrounding areas. The plant is also used as an ordeal poison. There are many other methods of “trial by ordeal” (fire, water, etc.), all of which have the aim of determining whether a person is innocent or guilty of a certain crime based on the effects of a given trial. In this case, a person accused of a crime would ingest a certain amount of a decoction made from the plant; if the person died, they were guilty but if they live, they are innocent. I guess you’d hope you weren’t accused of crimes very often...yikes. In Tanzania, this plant is used to mark graves, some of which may have ironically have been dug to accommodate trial by Adenium victims.

At least one compound derived from the plant has the potential to be used in anticancer drugs, as root extracts are toxic to certain lines of cancer cells. The compounds that affect cancerous cells, as well as those that affect the heart, will likely be the subject of further medical research in the future.

Desert rose prefers a spot in the sun or partial shade and can make do with little supplemental watering.