Unusual tree featuring 3-24" long sausage shaped fruits growing at the ends of long stems. The flowers are also quite showy and the fruit, while not palatable for humans, is popular with hippos, baboons, and giraffes.An alcoholic beverage similar to beer is also made from it. Traditional African healers use kigelia to treat a wide range of skin ailments from fungal infections, boils, acne and psoriasis, through to more serious diseases, such as leprosy, syphilis and skin cancer. It is also used effectively to dress wounds and sores. The Tonga women of the Zambezi valley apply cosmetic preparations of kigelia to their faces to ensure a blemish-free complexion. Young men and women also use it to enhance the growth of their genitalia and breasts respectively. Perhaps not surprisingly given its suggestive shape, the fruit has also found traditional use as an aphrodisiac.Several papers support the use of kigelia extract for treating skin cancer while the extract has found a market in Europe and the Far East as the active ingredient in skin tightening and breast firming formulations.