Traditional medicines in the Pacific | 279food and medicinally active species. Many of these are not specific to Fiji
but are found throughout tropical regions in south-east Asia and the Pacific.
Those used by the Indo-Fijian population are generally the ones favoured by
the ayurvedic tradition of medicine (discussed in Chapter 7). Those
discussed here are used mainly by indigenous Fijians.
The health of pre-European Fijians appears to have been generally good,
although diseases such as yaws, filariasis, malaria and other fever-producing
conditions were recorded. Post-European settlement, however, the Fijians
suffered from imported diseases such as gonorrhoea, diphtheria and measles,
so much so in fact that it was feared that the population might even die out
completely. Early Europeans could obtain little information about plants
used as medicines by the local population. One such person writing in the
1860s complained that the women who seemed to have knowledge of medi-
cinally useful plants could not be induced to part with this knowledge
because it was a source of income for them.^8 Later authors, however, seem to
have been more persuasive and a number of comprehensive accounts have
since been published.^9
Traditional remedies
Fijians generally have a strong respect for tradition and traditional remedies,
relying on a combination of physical and supernatural means to treat sick-
ness. Minor problems such as coughs and colds, headaches or earache, other-
wise known as mate vayano, were just accidental occurrences that were thus
responsive to physical treatments whereas mate ni vanua, ‘diseases of the
land’ were due to spirit interference and as such could be treated only much
more rigorously, usually with the assistance of sorcerers (dauvakatevoro) as
well as those who had knowledge of the medicinal plants required. The cere-
monies involved in treating such conditions, similar to many other ceremo-
nial occasions in Fiji, usually included the use of infusions of yaqona, a drink
prepared from the powdered root of the kava plant (Piper methysticum).
This drink is a mild sedative which is said to be effective in the treatment of
many different conditions, ranging from coughs and colds to filariasis^10
(Figure 10.4).
Most plants were (and still are) used to treat a number of different
complaints. Leaves and bark were frequently used, generally by soaking in
hot or boiling water. Sometimes, as above, the root and stem would be used
as the medicine and might be crushed before extraction to provide a
stronger preparation. Leaves could be chewed and their ‘juices’ swallowed
or the saliva-softened product used as a poultice. Pastes and ointments were
also prepared, by mixing powdered plant material with a little water or
coconut oil, respectively.
Vesi(Intsia bijuga) is a coastal tree that grows to a height of about 12
metres which has spreading branches that were used to make the traditional