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Bark
Chemical
In 1859 it is Eugène Caventou - also discovered quinine - was the first to isolate bitter component of Carapa bark called touloucounin after the Western african name Touloucouna which means bitter, as well as yellowed and red-colored matter, gum and starch from Carapa bark. He proposed to use these chemical component as colorant for tint, wine and sirup. Bark contain bitter triterpenes taht are non-toxic natural repellent.
In 1993, tests confirmed that bark have anti-bacterial properties. Carried out at the Museum of Medicinal Plants in Macapa, Brazil, these tests further suggested some anti-tumor activities (Amazonian Ethnobotanical Dictionary, by James A. Duke and Rodolfo Vasquez, CRC Press, Boca Raton). [see Source Rain-tree.com]
Tropical America
Bark and leaves are used by amerindians as decoction, to reduce fever, internal parasitism, and externally as a wash for skin problems, ulcers, and insect bites, as an insect repellent, and to cure imflammation (Fleury, 1991, Hammer et Johns, 1993).
Creoles uses bark and leaves against rhumatisms, flu land pneumonia (Correa, Pio. Dicionario de Plantas Uteis do Brasil e Exoticas Cultivadas, Vols 1-6, Brasilia: IBDF. 1984).
In Guyana, bark decoction is used against rhumatism and diarrhea (Coe & Anderson, 1996).
In Nicaragua, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, bark decoction is used against fever, malaria, parasites (Brandao & al., 1985, Duke, 1994, Schultes & Raffauf, 1994, Lemée, 1956). Anti-diabetic and digestive stimulant has also been noted in Brazil (Hammer & Johns, 1993).
The book "Pharmacopées traditionnelles de Guyane" by Pierre Grenand, Christian Moretti et Henri Jacquemin is a key source of information that is referenced by the Société française d'ethnopharmacologie.
Tropical Africa
Bark decoction of Touloucouna (Carapa procera) is used against rhumatisms, antiparasitic and to cure eye and skin problem (Seignot, 1991).
References
Caventou, E. 1859. Deuxième Mémoire sur les végétaux des familles Méliacées et Cédrélacées : Du Carapa Touloucouna (senegalensis), Impr. E. Thunot, Paris, 42 p. Ref.
Caventou, E. 1859. Du carapa touloucouna. Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie, 3ème série, Tome XXXV, (Mars 1895), pp. 189-197. Google ® pdf
Web
Prelude Medicinal Plants Database type 'carapa' in 'Search for medicinal plants'
Société Française de Pharmacologie