MAORIS' MEDICINAL OIL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24715, 18 September 1941, Page 11

MAORIS' MEDICINAL OIL

Maoris have found good medicinal uses for various native vegetation. One beneficial product in the old days was oil extracted from fruit of the titoki tree. The process is described by Mr J. W. Connell in the Education Gazette. A strong bag was woven from strips of flax leaves and the seeds placed in it. The bag was then pounded with a club to bruise the seeds, and then a man at each end held the bag and, turning in opposite directions, pressed out the oil. Sometimes the oil was scented with -crushed leaves of such plants as tall manuka, tarata, raukawa, kohukohu, and kawakawa. A hair-oil was made by mixing the oil with the extract of a sweet-smelling moss. Other uses of the oil were for treating sore eyes, earache, tubercular troubles, sprains, bruises and sores;