Abstract

Jean Lagarde BETTI , Salomon Janvier BELINGA and Dagobert SAMBA

Prunus africana is a species of the Rosaceae family, known under its trade/pilot name as pygeum or African cherry. The bark is the major source of an extract used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia, an increasingly common health problem in older men in the western world. A study for estimating the stock of the stems of P. africana was carried out in December 2010 – February 2011 on the Mount Cameroon forest, vast of 22 881.085 ha. The management inventory was conducted with a sampling intensity of 1.11% using the “Adaptive Clusters Sampling (ACS)” method. The average density of Prunus obtained is 3.43 stems/ha. The highest density of Prunus trees is recorded inside the national park of Mount Cameroon and is at least 1.5 times more higher than the density of trees recorded outside the park. This shows the key role of the Mount Cameroon national park in the conservation of P. africana. The total number of 79 660 Prunus trees was estimated, with 41 042 trees (51.52%) being the exploitable stock that can be harvested in sustainable manner by trade companies.