VALUABLE MEDICINAL PLANT

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 289, 4 September 1942, Page 4

VALUABLE MEDICINAL PLANT

Koromiko For Dysentery USE IN TREATMENT OF SOLDIERS

Years before the first white men came to New Zealand the Maoris -were curing their etomach-aches by chewing the leaves of the native plant, koromiko; today, their interest, stimulated bv the successful use of the plant in the treatment of dysentery among soldiers, scientists are 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 no 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 popularity waned, though even today 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 pakeha comrades, and apparently it was fairly widely used, though without official recognition. Recollection of its success ’ recently prompted Surgeon-General R. Downes, of the A.1.F., to write to the Botany Division of the Plant Research Bureau, asking for some material for test.

The director of the Division had the material dispatched immediately. In addition, with the co-operation of the Director-General of Medical Services, Brigadier F. T. Bowerbank, supplies were eent for trial with New Zealand troops in the Middle East and tinctures and decoctions, prepared by army medical store headquarters, were authorized for use in four military cajnps within the Dominion. Reports were soon received that the medicine was having a very beneficial effect 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 has the effect of relaxing intestinal tissue which has been thrown into muscular spasm.