Eugène S. Attakpa

Sclerocaryabirrea (A. Rich.)Hochst. (Anacardiaceae) is one of the plants that played a role in feeding people in ancient times. English name Marula, is a savannah tree, belonging to the family Anacardiaceae, with a plum-like pale yellow fruit of 3–4 cm in diameter with a juicy mucilaginous flesh. Sclerocaryabirrea is deciduous and mainly dioecious, although there have been reports of monoecioustrees.The oil is extracted from the kernels that contain between 65% oil.This oil is composed with large amount of fatty acids which includes oleic acid (80-85%), linoleic acid (6.0-8.0 %), alpha-linolenic acid (0.2-0.9 %), palmitic acid (10-14%), stearic acid (7.0-9.0 %), arachidonic acid (0.5-0.8 %). Further tocopherols (26mg/100g), flavonoids are also found in Sclerocaryabirrea oil. Our results show that Sclerocaryabirrea oil exerted the most potent immunosuppressive effects on T cell proliferation and IL-2 mRNA expression.Sclerocaryabirrea oil-induced secretion of IL-4 by T-cells.The densitometric analysis of western blots revealed that Sclerocaryabirrea oilinhibited the phosphorylation of the three MAP kinases in T-cells.