Fruit weighing 10kg and 1 meter long can fall deadly

Sausage fruit is abundant in Africa, can be used as a medicine but has caused many deaths due to falling head.

The sausage (Kigelia Africana) possesses one of the most exotic fruits in the plant world. The name of the tree is placed in the shape of a fruit. The sausage is very large, can be up to a meter long, weighs 10kg and takes a new year to ripen. It is not safe to sit under a tree because the world has recorded many deaths due to falling sausages.

Fruit-bearing sausage in Africa.(Photo: Dror Feitelson).

This plant is in the same family as the purple phoenix, which often grows near rivers and streams and can be as high as 20m. Every spring, it flowers in a few weeks. The sausage flowers are bright red, giving off the scent of many animals. They radiate the strongest flavor at night, attract fruit bats, the main animal that helps plants pollinate.

Unripe fruit is toxic if eaten. When ripe, this is an effective emetic, even used to brew beer. Safe processing is sun drying and incubation with sugar cane at least 24 hours, then drying again. Finally, place the fruit in a sugar container and continue fermenting for 4 days. Many herbivores like sausage leaves, such as elephants and kudu. Sausages are also food for monkeys, porcupines, hippos, and birds. When they fall down and then dry, the inside will have a soft, chewy, fibrous intestine and full of seeds. Seeds will be spread to other places by animals such as zebras or fruit giraffes.

The intestine is soft, fibrous and filled with seeds inside the sausage.(Photo: Southworld).

Sausage fruit is used as a medicine and has many uses, especially for the treatment of skin diseases and irritation . A traditional method for treating mosquito or insect bites is fruit slices, boiling, cooling and using water to wash stings many times. This helps reduce redness, eliminating the itching sensation.

Sausage cream can treat Eczema, skin cancer and psoriasis. It is also used in some beauty treatments and is considered an effective antioxidant, anti-aging. Fruit and some other parts of the plant also work to treat malaria, headache, rheumatism and intestinal diseases. Sausage wood is also very useful for its resistance to water and cracks, which can make boats or paddles.