THE EMPIRE'S WAR ACTIVITIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 6, 18 September 1942, Page 3

THE EMPIRE'S WAR ACTIVITIES

USE AGAIN

VALUE OF KOROMIKO

TREATMENT OF DYSENTRY

Years before the first, wltite men came to New Zealand the Maoris were curing their stomach-aches by chewing the leaves ol" the native plant, koromiko. To-day, their interest, stimulated by the successful use of the plant in the treatment of dysentry among soldiers, scientists arc trying to discover just what is the effective substance in koromiko and how it works on the human body. As a result, New Zealand may yet add a valuable drug to the pharmacopoeia. In actual fact, though the medicinal properties- of the plant have never before been scientifically investigated, its use is 110 secret to the older chemists of the country. Thirty or forty years ago they used to make from the leaves a tincture which had a considerable sale. Then its popularitj' waned, though even to-day many families make their own decoctions for home use. During the last war Maori soldiers serving in the Middle East received parcels of koromiko from their relatives at home. They distributed it among their pakcha comrades and apparent!}' it was fairly widely used, though without official recognition. Recollection of its success recently prompted SurgeonGeneral R. Downes of the A.1.F., to write to the Botany Division of the Plant Research Bureau, asking for some material for test. Trial in Middle East The director of the division had the material dispatched immediately. In addition, with the co-opera-tion .of the Director-General of Medical Services, Brigadier F. T. Bowerbank, supplies were sent for trial with New Zealand troops in the Middle East and tinctures and decoctions, prepared by army medical store headquarters, were authorised for use in four military camps within the Dominion. Reports were soon received that the medicine was having a very beneficial cflect in the treatment of acute dysentery, and further supplies were requested. Something in koromiko works; but what is it and how does it work? Those are the questions that scientists hope to answer; The plant material is now being analysed by the Dominion Laboratory to locate the active principle, and physiological experiments are being conducted by Professor Smirk, of Otago University, to find how it acts.

Preliminary results indicate that an extract of the plant material lias the eiTe-ct of relaxing tissue which has been thrown into muscular spasm.