This tree has always struck the imagination for its grotesque shape and size. It is considered sacred tree in many villages. All parts of the plant are used. Apart of its food uses, we can mention antidiarrheal antirachitic, anti-inflammatory, etc.
This herb gives off a scent when we crumple the leaves and this explains its use in medico – magic treatments and mental illnesses, it’s also used for eye diseases in instillations, on burns and in pneumonia by rubbing breast.
The lady’s mantle owes its name to the alchemists who considered the dew of its leaves as heavenly water indispensable for the preparation of the philosopher’s stone. In the Middle Ages, this plant was already used in herbal medicine, but it was supposed to giving back their virginity to women and shine to withered breasts. This is where its name comes from “lady’s mantle”, since the plant was known to firm the tissues of the device female genital by wrapping it like a coat.
The fruits of Acacia nilotica and the tannins they contain have the property of destroying the algae that invade the backwaters. Similarly, a decoction of the sprayed fruit thrown into the water kills the crustacea vectors of a terrible African disease, bilharziasis.