Soda Apple

Solanum aculeastrum, the soda apple, is a nightshade native from tropical East Africa through South Africa. It is a shrub or small tree 1 to 5 metres tall with hooked thorns. Wikipedia lists its other names as sodaapple nightshade, goat apple, poison apple and bitter-apple, and calls it poisonous, saying the berries contain high levels of the alkaloid solanine. It is used as a hedge and, being high in saponin, as a soap replacement. The article says traditional Zulu practices use the fruit in herbal medicine, and that the Taita of southern Kenya use the ripe fruit for paronychia. This entry rests on that one article. It describes no preparation or dose, and the article gives none.