Ethnobotanical and consumer investigation of Prosopis africana seeds in Benin

The objective of this work is to carry out a survey on ethnobotanical knowledge and consumption of Propsopis africana seeds in Benin. This survey focused on a population aged between 27 and 90 years. The results revealed that the age groups of [27.37[, [37.48[, [48.58[ and [58.69[ years were the most represented with a total of 84.2%. These results also showed that the absolute frequencies of the age of the respondents varied from five (05) to one hundred and forty-four (144) and the relative frequencies varied from 0.8% to 23.20%. This study also showed that the seeds of Prosopis africana are less known for its consumption as a foodstuff but the stems, roots and bark are widely used in pharmacopoeia and traditional medicine. The results also showed that the majority of respondents recognized that the leaves, bark and root are used to make herbal tea and the seeds are specially used for the production of mustard (food condiment).