East Cape New Zealand
TAIRAWHITI PHARMACEUTICALS LTD.
TAIRAWHITI MANUKA OIL.
"Manuka Oil is a pure, natural essential oil effective, in the care and protection of the body and mind.
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The Maori people were very adept at using native trees and plants for food and for curing many illnesses that inflicted the people. Originally knowledge of medicinal plants was held exclusively by the tohunga (Maori Doctor) but the Maori could soon realise by the plants that he ordered them to use what special value a plant had for a certain disease. This knowledge was kept alive and passed down by the older women of the tribes who continued to use their old remedies today.
Both manuka and kanuka were used extensively by the Maori and later by the early European settlers as a medicinal plant -alone and in combination with other native plants.
Captain Cook gave manuka the name of "tea tree" and wrote of it... "the leaves were used by many of us as a tea which has a very agreeable bitter taste and flavour when they are recent but loses some of both when they are dried. When the infusion was made strong it proved emetic (induces vomiting) to some in the same manner as 'green tree"'. Early settlers gave it the name "tea tree" as they too made a drink of it.
Kunzea Ericoides (kanuka) was also used by Maori people with both plants having similar virtues. The leaves and bark were used in a variety of ways to cure their ailments and illnesses.
A decotion of leaves was drunk for urinary comlaints and as a febrifuge (reduces fever). The leaves were boiled in water and inhaled for head colds. Leaves and bark were boiled together and the warm liquid was rubbed on stiff backs and rheumatic joints. The leaves and young branches were put into many vapour baths. Polack wrote. - - "an infusion of the leaves of this herb is regarded as peculiarly serviceable to persons in a reduced state, whose previous mortalities will not admit of the strictest investigation. It is very astringent ·'. And this from James Neill. - "It is a well known diuretic when drunk in quantity; and I remember hearing of a doctor in Dunedin in the early days, who told a patient who had dropsy to go into the bush, gather a handful of manuka leaves, put them in a quart jug and fill up with boiling water and drink it often. she did this and was cured".
Young shoots were chewed and swallowed for dysentry.
An infusion of the inner bark was taken internally as a sedative and promoted sleep. It was also given as a sedative to an excited person or one in pain. Externally, this was rubbed on the skin to ease pain and was said to help heal fractures. The crushed bark was steeped in boiling water and the water used for inflamations, particularly for women with congestion of the breasts. A decoction of the barks of kanuka and kowhai, mixed with wood ash and dried, was rubbed Into the skin for various skin diseases. For constipation, pieces of the bark were bailed until the waler darkened in colour and the liquid drunk. The inner bark was boiled and the water used as a gargle, mouthwash and for bathing sore eyes.
The emollient whlte gum, called pia manuka, was given to nursing babies and also used to treat scalds and burns- It was also chewed to ease a bad cough and given to children to relieve constipation. Fresh sap was drawn from a length of the trunk and taken as a breath and blood purifier - (Adams)
The seed capsules were boiled and the fluid used externally to bathe bruises and lnflamation, in congestion of the chest for example. the fluid was also taken internally to treat diarrhoea and dysentry. The Maori people chewed the capsules for the same complaints. For colic, six or eight capsules were chewed every ten minutes until the pain subsided - (Poverty Bay Cookery Calender.) A poultice of the powdered capsules was used to dry up an open wound or running sore.
Clearly both manuka and kanuka were important medicinal plants, both to the Maori and to the early European settlers who, In the early years of settlement, depended on Maori knowledge of medicinal plants in treating. their own illnesses. The Maori people valued the medicinal qualities of manuka and kanuka just as the Aboriginal people of Australia valued their own native "tea tree".
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"New Zealand Medicinal Plants" written by S C Brooker, R C cambie, R C Cooper. Published by Heineman Publishers, Auckland, NZ. Third Edition, 1987.
"Medicine of the Maori written by Christina McDonald. Published by William Collins (NZ) Ltd, Auckland, 1974. Reprinted.1975.
All care has been taken in compiling these pages, but no responsibility can be taken for any errors or omissions.
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