Garlic tree
Also known as divida, arbre à ail, garlic tree bark, Scorodophloeus zenkeri
Quick answer
The bark and seeds of Scorodophloeus zenkeri, a tall tree of the Central African forest, dried and ground into a garlic-scented condiment and sold in the markets of Cameroon, Gabon and the Congo basin.
- Tastes of
- garlicky, sulphurous
Other names
What this spice is called elsewhere, and where the translation is not clean.
arbre à ail
French — Cameroon, Gabon and the Congo basin
divida
English
The trade name of the timber; the same word is used for the tree.
Flavour and aroma
Gives food a garlic-like taste.
Garlic-like, from sulphur compounds. The main constituents of the bark oil are 2,4,5,7-tetrathiaoctane, 2,3,5-trithiahexane, 2,3,4,6-tetrathiaheptane and 2,4,5,6,8-pentathianonane.
Taste, smell and sensation, channel by channel
Smell, taste and the chemical sense of heat and cold are different senses. Each is listed with the compounds evidenced as producing it.
Smell
- Sulfurous
Garlic-like, from sulfur compounds. In the essential oil of the seed, analysed beside that of country onion, sulfur compounds made up 91.0 to 96.1 per cent across the two oils, and 2,4,5,7-tetrathiaoctane was the largest single compound in both, at 51.5 to 52.9 per cent. The abstract does not say which figure belongs to which seed. The oil was of the seed; the bark, the other part sold, was not analysed, and no panel smelled anything.
- Polysulphides (tetrathiaoctane, trithiahexane and relatives) — The garlic smell. Chains of sulphur and carbon that, like the sulphur compounds of garlic itself, smell of alliums though the tree is a legume.
Preparation and use
A garlic-scented condiment of Central African cooking, used as a dried powder or a paste. The source names no particular dishes.
Storage and freshness
| Form | Good for | Conditions | Fridge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bark | Not established | Cool, dry and sealed. | No |
Quality is not the same as safety
A faded condiment is a quality matter, not a safety one.
Forms
These forms differ enough to need separate answers: treating them as interchangeable produces a dish that is wrong.
Dried bark
Pieces of dried bark, ground before use.
Dried seeds
The flat brown seeds, dried and ground.
Botany
Fabaceae
The legume family.
Bark and seeds are the condiments; the wood and young leaves are used for their garlic taste too, and the young leaves are eaten cooked as a vegetable.
A medium-sized to large tree up to 40 m tall, with a straight bole branchless for up to 25 m and a yellowish-grey bark that becomes scaly with age. Every part of the tree, the bark most of all, smells of garlic. The fruit is a flattened pod of one or two shiny brown seeds about 2 cm across.
Commonly confused with
Afrostyrax, the other garlic-scented forest seed of the same region. A different tree in a different family.
How it is grown
The plant, how it is propagated and farmed, what threatens the crop, and where it is produced now. Crop diseases here are plant health, not food safety.
The bark, cut from the trunk in pieces, and the flat seeds of the pod, both dried and ground. Bark taken in stages every two or three years regrows thick; stripping too much at once often kills the tree.
How it is propagated
- Seed.
Easily raised from seed, which germinates quickly and at a high rate; sown in nursery beds or directly in the field, and planted out at two to three years.
A tree of the mixed evergreen forest of Cameroon, Gabon and the Congo basin, gathered from the wild; in Cameroon trees are spared when forest is cleared and are sometimes planted in coffee and cacao plantations.
Locally overexploited for its bark, though not considered threatened; near Kisangani it is the most abundant tree of the forest studied.
How it is farmed
- Wild harvest · Around Gribe, at the northern edge of Boumba-Bek National Park, Cameroon
Gathered from standing forest trees for seed and bark. A count along 160 ha of transects found it in seven of thirteen kinds of habitat, mostly in young secondary forest with Marantaceae, at 3.5 stems per hectare, and in periodically flooded forest, at 2.3; old fallows and swamp forest held almost none. The authors class it with the trees that are abundant there and cite earlier work that found it regenerates well, and they name logging and shifting cultivation as what breaks up the forest it stands in.
Most spices are grown in more than one way; none of these is the only one.
Where it comes from and how it is made
Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cabinda.
- Cameroon — native range. Bark and seeds sold in markets.
- Gabon — native range. Bark and seeds sold in markets.
- Equatorial Guinea — native range. Bark and seeds sold in markets.
- Democratic Republic of the Congo — native range. Near Kisangani the most abundant tree of the forest studied.
- Congo — native range
The bark is taken all year round, mainly by women. Taking pieces every two or three years gives thick bark of good quality; taking too much at once often kills the tree.
- Drying — Bark pieces and seeds are dried.
- Grinding — The dried bark and seeds are ground into a powder or a paste.
Mostly gathered from the forest. In Cameroon trees are spared when forest is cleared and are sometimes planted in coffee and cacao plantations.
Mixed evergreen forest on well-drained ground; it does not tolerate waterlogging.
How these steps work: milling and grinding.
Buying and quality
Whole bark or seed keeps its smell longer; it is ground for use in any case.
- A strong garlic smell from the bark or seed.
History and trade
Bark and seeds are sold in local markets in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; the timber, traded as divida, is used only locally.
Culture
Recorded by tradition rather than merged into one narrative — these are genuinely different practices.
The Central African forest
A popular source of garlic-like condiments, from bark, seeds, wood and young leaves; the bark is gathered mainly by women.
- Ground bark or seed as a condiment
- Young leaves cooked as a vegetable
The bark has many medicinal uses in Gabon, Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Recorded as context only; SpiceHQ makes no health claim.
What it is called
- French: arbre à ail
What we do not know
Published openly. A gap we have named is more useful than a gap we have filled with plausible prose.
Not yet established for garlic tree:
- Archaeological evidence
- Historical timeline
- Ceremonial use
- Regulatory limits
- Traditional uses