Healthy Cooking with Natural Spices (Uyayak)

Uyayak is the Ibibio name for this local food spice used as a seasoning mostly for pepper soup. The use of Uyayak is not exclusive to the Ibibio people of AkwaIbom State. It is used all over Nigeria by the Igbos, Yorubas and the Hausas.

In this post, I will be using the Ibibio name while the table below will provide its name in some common languages.

The Uyayak fruits have a dark purple-brown colour, it often slightly curved with four longitudinal wings that looks like ridges. Two of these ridges contains an oily-aromatic-pulp while the other two are woody in nature, the fruits also contains seeds which rattle in the pods.

There are some dishes that has Uyayak as it's main spice. It is use to spice up special dishes such as pepper soup, Banga soup and Ofe Nsala.
The efik people of Cross River use it in Afia Efere which interprets as White Soup and porridge. Some dishes may not have the Uyayak as it's main ingredient but as one that supports other ingredients to produce the desired flevour in fish pepper soup.
A basic combo containing Uyayak, African nutmeg, Njansang will create an aromatic flevour that would make you salivate in anticipation.
_^Uyayak

Besides being a food spice, Uyayak also has a lot of application in traditional medicine.
The Ibibios use Uyayak to help with post partum recovery. It is used as a primary ingredient in the meals of a new mother as it is believed to help the body return to near normal by shrink the uterus. It is also believed to boost breast milk production.
It is believed to boost the immune system, Promotes healthy Weight Loss, effective in the treatment of Gastrointestinal Diseases,

I got this information while researching for this post, the Uyayak fruit is also used to brew a sweet tea. The Uyayak fruit is soaked in water for a whole day then it is boiled to extract as much nutrients as possible. Then allowed to cool off.
It is said that you topically will not need to add sugar or honey to it because it's already Sweet.
I will try it, hopefully the flevour will not be too strong.

Based on publication by Researchgate.net the table below provide some of the major content of Uyayak and it's percentage content

The use of Uyayak is not limited to the people of AkwaIbom State and Cross River State, it is popular among the Igbo and Yoruba people. This spice is used beyound the shores of Nigeria, if you could identify this spice, please I will love to know how it is called in your are. I am inviting @udyliciouz, @goodybest, @salman22, @lirvic and @dave-hanny to please give the local or traditional name for this spice.