New Zealand is home to about 1970 plant species, of which around
1600 are considered indigenous.^22 At least some of these plants may have
been used for generations by Maoris, although the identification and
specific usage of these have been hampered by the lack of a written Maori
language before European settlement in the nineteenth century.23,24
Earlier European visitors, such as whalers and missionaries, had noted
that a number of plants were used to treat wounds and other skin problems
while some were used to treat digestive problems. They did not record plant
usage for other conditions. Joseph Crocome, for example, who was the first
medically qualified person to practise in Otago (among the whalers and
missionaries in Waikouaiti in 1838), is reported:
... when his own scanty stock of drugs failed him [to have] turned to
the Maori for some of their medical lore and remedies. Koromiko
[Figure 10.5] for internal troubles, infusion of Phormium tenax[flax]
and the slippery gum from around the roots and leaves as a bath for
severe wounds, an infusion of ngaio for severe purpose: these simples
sopped into flax fibre, and teased out ribbonwood ‘jacket’ packed
over swellings and lumps, made useful substitutes for dressings of
abscesses and tumours.^25
286 | Traditional medicine
Figure 10.5 Koromiko (Hebe salicifolia).