Skip to content
Herbs & Cultures

Local African healing traditions →Kola nut: hospitality and ritual in West Africa →

Chewing bitter kola for a sore throat

Slowly chewing a piece of bitter kola: in West Africa a folk remedy for coughs, sore throats and colds.

Traditional use

Time
5 minutes
Makes
1 time
Bitter kola

Bitter kola (Garcinia kola) is, like the kola nut, a seed you share with guests in West and Central Africa. The seeds have been used in folk medicine for centuries: for bronchitis, throat infections, head and chest colds and coughs. You chew a piece slowly; the taste is bitter at first and then slightly sweet.

Ingredients

  • Half or one bitter kola (African shops)

Step by step

  1. Peel off the brown skin.
  2. Cut off a piece and chew it slowly.
  3. Swallow the juice and keep chewing for a few minutes.

Tips

  • Twigs of the bitter kola tree are also used as chewing sticks to clean the teeth.

Registry

Herbs in this recipe

Read more about effects and safety on each herb’s page.

  • Caution

    Africa · Food · № 814

    Bitter kola

    Garcinia kola

    A bitter seed that is chewed and offered as a sign of hospitality and at ceremonies; as a folk remedy also for coughs and sore throats.

    Local African healing traditions+1

Cultures and traditions

Where the herbs come from

The herbs in this recipe also appear in these traditions.