Editing Ricinodendron heudelotii (section)

== Fruit and uses ==

The marketed food is the kernel, not the whole fruit. Kernels are eaten boiled or roasted, ground into sauces and pastes (akpi sauce in Côte d'Ivoire, roasted paste in Gabon), pressed for cooking oil and used to thicken soups and stews; dried, pounded kernels are stored for porridge in food shortages.<sup>[[#cite_note-4|[4]]]</sup><sup>[[#cite_note-7|[7]]]</sup><sup>[[#cite_note-9|[9]]]</sup><sup>[[#cite_note-6|[6]]]</sup> The protein-rich leaves are cooked as a vegetable, and the seed product is not valued as food in every part of the range.<sup>[[#cite_note-4|[4]]]</sup>

Composition varies with provenance and method. One compiled table gives per 100 g of dried kernels about 21 g protein, 43 g fat (up to about 60% in some accounts), 23 g carbohydrate, 611 mg calcium, 926 mg phosphorus and about 530 kcal; the Agroforestree profile lists kernel oil near 47% of weight, with eleostearic acid about 44%, oleic about 16% and roughly 10% each of palmitic, stearic, linoleic and linolenic acids.<sup>[[#cite_note-4|[4]]]</sup><sup>[[#cite_note-7|[7]]]</sup> A 2014 laboratory analysis of dried Cameroon seed meal found 31.4% crude protein and 44.7% lipid, about 74% of the lipid polyunsaturated with notable long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, while alpha-eleostearic acid is placed at 30-51% of the oil in the monograph account.<sup id="cite_ref-12">[[#cite_note-12|[12]]]</sup><sup>[[#cite_note-4|[4]]]</sup>

Kernels are a traditional staple eaten after boiling or other processing, and that processed form is the basis of kitchen use across the region. One account repeats an older statement of no known toxicity, while another records unnamed traces of an alkaloid and resin in the seed.<sup>[[#cite_note-8|[8]]]</sup><sup>[[#cite_note-12|[12]]]</sup>