Ogbono is botanically known as Irvingia gabonensis (Aubry-Lecomte ex ORorke) Baill and is highly demanded due to its immense benefits. Ogbono is a specie of African trees that belongs to the genus Irvingia. The high demand for ogbono is due to its high socioeconomic, nutritional and medicinal values. Different parts of the world have different names for Irvingia gabonensis for example, it is known as ugiri or ogbono by the Igbo people, biri, goron, goronor by Hausa people, ogwi by the Benin people, mbukpabuyo by the Ibibio and Efik people, oro, apon or aapon by Yoruba, bobo, manguier or sauvage by French and apioro by the Deltan people. It is equally known as dika, sweet bush mango, odika, iba-tree, chocolatier, African mango, dika nut, duiker nut, manguier sauvage, wild mango, Irvingia and dika bread tree.
According to Ladipo et al., (1996), the Irvingia genus is made up of 7 species comprising of Irvingia wombolu, Irvingia gabonensis, Irvingia giarobur, Irvingia excels, Irvingia malayaria, Irvingia gradifolia and Irvingia smithii. Unlike the pulp of some other Irvingia spp., the pulp of Irvingia gabonensis is edible, sweet and juicy. Irvingia gabonensis is closely related to Irvingia wombolu. While Irvingia wombolu bears inedible and bitter fruits, the Irvingia gabonensis bears edible ones. Irvingia excelsa Mildbr fruit pulp is hard and inedible while Irvingia smithii Hook.f. fresh fruit is sweet and edible.
The ogbono tree measures between 15 to 40 meters with slightly buttressed bole. It bears edible mango-like fruits that are highly valued for their nutritious nuts. Ogbono tree is prevalent in the dry and wet tropical zones such as Nigeria, Angola, Uganda, Congo, Cameroon, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cte d'Ivoire and Southeast Asia. It can grow in a farmland, semi-deciduous forest, canopied bush or gallery forests. Although this fruit is also referred to as bush mango, yet it is in no way similar with mango fruit.
