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hydrocarbons. Kernels yield a non-drying oil and contain protein and some iodine.
The oil-rich seeds contain oileic acid, myristic, stearic and amino acids with a
predominace of glutamic acid and arginine (Mutshiyalo & Tshisevhe 2005).
3.2.15 Scientific name : Solanum aculeastrum Dun
Zulu name : iNtuma
Common name : Apple of sodom
Figure 3.19 Fruit of Solanum aculeastrum.
(www.plantzafrica.com/plantqrs/solanacul.htm).
Botanical description
This branched shrub, or small tree can grow up to 1-5 m high. It is usually heavily
armed with large, sharp, brown and straight to recurved, broad-based and laterally
compressed prickles which are up to 15 mm long. Its young branches are covered
with grey or pale-brown hairs, becoming glabrous and dark-brown with age. Its
leaves are shortly petiolate, ovate, up to 150 by 130 mm, usually deeply 5-7-lobed,
with their upper surface green and glabrescent. The lower surface of the leaves is
thickly, whitish, tomentose, and more or less prickly on the midrib on both surfaces.
The inflorescence is a few to 10-flowered racemose cyme with only the proximal
flowers female-fertile. The corolla is white to pale-violet, rotate-stellate, and about 20
mm in diameter. The fruit is a smooth, globose berry, often with a warty surface, up
to 60 mm in diameter, and green but ripening to yellow. Its seeds are 4 by 3 mm in
size. Its chromosome number is 2n = 24 (Welman, 2004).
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