Mijo,

Based on what I found, (because your post intrigued me), there is a species of tropical fig called the Weeping Fig or Benjamin Fig (which is not the same as our figs, but related). It does not produce fruit, by the way. The Weeping Fig may be toxic to birds, but I found NOTHING about burning wood. The sap of common figs is very irritating, but all in all, everything I found leads one to believe that figs, their leaves and most other parts (except the white milky sap) are very beneficial to health. Here is what I found concerning the figs we eat, and the trees they come from:

Toxicity

The latex of the unripe fruits and of any part of the tree may be severely irritating to the skin if not removed promptly. It is an occupational hazard not only to fig harvesters and packers but also to workers in food industries, and to those who employ the latex to treat skin diseases.

Other Uses

Seed oil: Dried seeds contain 30% of a fixed oil containing the fatty acids: oleic, 18.99%; linoleic, 33.72%; linolenic, 32.95%; palmitic, 5.23%; stearic, 2.1 8%; arachidic, 1.05%. It is an edible oil and can be used as a lubricant.

Leaves: Fig leaves are used for fodder in India. They are plucked after the fruit harvest. Analyses show: moisture, 67.6%; protein, 4.3%; fat, 1.7%; crude fiber, 4.7%; ash, 5.3%; N-free extract, 16.4%; pentosans, 3.6%; carotene on a dry weight basis, 0.002%. Also present are bergaptene, stigmasterol, sitosterol, and tyrosine.

In southern France, there is some use of fig leaves as a source of perfume material called "fig-leaf absolute"Âa dark-green to brownish-green, semi-solid mass or thick liquid of herbaceous-woody-mossy odor, employed in creating woodland scents.

Latex: The latex contains caoutchouc (2.4%), resin, albumin, cerin, sugar and malic acid, rennin, proteolytic enzymes, diastase, esterase, lipase, catalase, and peroxidase. It is collected at its peak of activity in early morning, dried and powdered for use in coagulating milk to make cheese and junket. From it can be isolated the protein-digesting enzyme ficin which is used for tenderizing meat, rendering fat, and clarifying beverages.

In tropical America, the latex is often used for washing dishes, pots and pans. It was an ingredient in some of the early commercial detergents for household use but was abandoned after many reports of irritated or inflamed hands in housewives.

Medicinal Uses: The latex is widely applied on warts, skin ulcers and sores, and taken as a purgative and vermifuge, but with considerable risk. In Latin America, figs are much employed as folk remedies. A decoction of the fruits is gargled to relieve sore throat; figs boiled in milk are repeatedly packed against swollen gums; the fruits are much used as poultices on tumors and other abnormal growths. The leaf decoction is taken as a remedy for diabetes and calcifications in the kidneys and liver. Fresh and dried figs have long been appreciated for their...