Plant Resources of Tropical Africa

Based on their primary use 16 commodity groups have been established as follows:

PROTA 1: Cereals and pulses / Céréales et légumes secs^a
PROTA 2: Vegetables / Légumes
PROTA 3: Dyes and tannins / Colorants et tannins
PROTA 4: Ornamentals / Plantes ornementales^b
PROTA 5: Forages / Plantes fourragères^c
PROTA 6: Fruits / Fruits^d
PROTA 7: Timbers / Bois d’oeuvre^e
PROTA 8: Carbohydrates / Sucres et amidons^f
PROTA 9: Auxiliary plants / Plantes auxiliaires^g
PROTA 10: Fuel plants / Bois de feu^h
PROTA 11: Medicinal plants / Plantes médicinalesⁱ
PROTA 12: Spices and condiments / Epices et condiments
PROTA 13: Essential oils and exudates / Huiles essentielles et exsudats^j
PROTA 14: Vegetable oils / Oléagineux
PROTA 15: Stimulants / Plantes stimulantes^k
PROTA 16: Fibres / Plantes à fibres^l

a including some non-graminaceous cereals (‘pseudo-cereals’)

b including hedge and wayside plants

c including feed for fish and insects such as silkworm

d including nuts

e including bamboos used for construction

f including bee plants; excluding cereals and pulses

g including shade and nurse trees, cover crops, mulches, green manures, fallow crops, live fences, windbreaks, erosion-controlling plants, land reclamation species, live supports and water-cleaning agents

h including plants used for the production of charcoal and as tinder

i including poisonous plants used as pesticide, fish poison or dart poison, and narcotic plants

j including aromatic woods, and plants producing camphor, latex, resin, balsam, gum, wax and aromatic resin

k including plants used for beverages, chewing and smoking; excluding narcotic plants

l including rattans, and plants used for packing and thatching, as tying material, and for making paper, baskets, mats, wickerwork and toothbrushes

All species in the SPECIESLIST database (covering all documented useful plants of tropical Africa) have been assigned to one of these commodity groups based on their primary use. Only in relatively few cases, more than one primary use has been assigned to a species. The assignment of species to commodity groups was sometimes hard to make, and changes are still common.

Once a commodity group has been completed, all articles are compiled into a book and CD-Rom of the PROTA handbook series. In some very large commodity groups (ornamentals, timbers and medicinal plants) more than one book and CD-Rom is published.