Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 1, 1 Ianuali 1989 — He Mau Ninau Ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

He Mau Ninau Ola

Some Health Questions by Kekuni Blaisdell, M.D.

Taro As La'au

Ninau: I heard that the ancient Hawaiians cured allergy with taro. Does this mean that taro was medicine as well as food? _Pane: To pane your ninau first, ae (yes), there is ēvidence that taro was used in old Hap wai'i as lā'au (medicine) as well as mpa 'ai ffnndi

but probably without the sharp distinction between the two uses as in modern times. Consider the term lā'au whieh literally means plant, but also means medicine. Pēlā, it is likely that most if not all plants in Hawai'i kahiko were used as medicine at one time or another. Through trial and error, some were found to be more "effective" than others for particular ailments. The only reliable test of effectiveness was a practical one — whether the patient improved, worsened or remained unchanged. Since the body tends to heal itself, almost any plant could have been considered "effective" at one time or another by the practical test described above. While it is conceivable that some careful kūpuna lapa'au or kāhuna lapa'au patiently and systematically observed that some lā'au regularly and consistently were associated with a particular outcome, one should also keep in mind that ka po'e kahiko (the people of old) believed that many factors influenced the course of events, including the thoughts of the patient, the practitioner healer, 'aumākua and 'ohana, and varieties of other spiritual forces. Further, the reader should be aware that pre-haole Hawaiians did not have modern concepts of interacting ehemieal molecules, cells, infecting microorganisms, hormones and immune substances that are the basis of Western biomedicine today. Plants were considered effective as medicine then, in times of old, because they contained some mana, inherent through some godliness, such as taro as a kinolau (form) of the supreme god Kāne, or they acquired healing mana through the cere-

monial ritual with prayers that always aeeompanied the administration (lapa'au) of medicine (la'au). The above inference regarding the wide use of plants as la'au is strengthened by the evidence that there were no truly poisonous plants in Hawai'i kahiko. That is, there were none that were lethal or that contained fatal substances. True, one could get a bellyache from eating too many mai'a (banana), or from ingesting "irritating" roots, stems, leaves or flowers; or one's skin could become mane'o (itchy) from contact with parts of certain plants; or one's bowel could become sufficiently stimulated by coarse, fibrous plants to provoke some diarrhea, but rapid death from ingestion or exposure to a plant was probably unknown. As for taro as lā'au, the following medicinal uses of kalo are described in an assortment of writings, but whieh if any of these apply to pre-Western Hawai'i remains speculative. • Thickened poi was applied to "infected sores." Was this considered feeding the nourishing poi to the injured tissue in order to nurture it back to wellness? • Raw taro corm, from a variety of taro called lauloa with relatively few ealeium oxalate raphides (needle-like crystals), was scraped into a container mixed with wai ko (eane sugar juice) and or wai niu (coconut water), and then swallowed as a mild cathartic, to relieve piwa (fever) or for "pulmonary complaints, such as consumption." To the modern mind, the raw taro was the active cathartic, while the wai ko and the wai niu were pleasant flavoring. The kanaka maoli of old, however, was well aware that not only was taro kinolau for Kāne, but kō as well as niu were kinolau for another supreme god, Ku. What better reason to get well than incorporating the mana of these two great deities! Consumption, cited above, is an old name for tuberculosis. The best evidence refutes the existence of tuberculous infection in pre-Cook Hawai'i, so such a use for this medicinal preparation was probably post-European contact, and not "ancient." Uncooked taro corm mixed with burnt niu malo'o (dried coconut "flesh") was also applied to the mouth of an infant with "thrush." Thrush has the appearance of a sore on the inside of the mouth with a whitish-grey pus-like exudate on the surface. The modern name for thrush is moniliasis or Candidiasis, whieh means it is a fungous infection. Did such an infection occur in pre-Western Hawai'i? Perhaps, but we do not know with certainty. Raw taro corm from taro varieties with plentiful ealeium oxylate raphides induces troublesome mane'o (itching), so if uncooked taro had to be used for this medicinal preparation, it is unlikely that the eommon kinds of food taro were used. Cooking destroys the needle-like crystals and thus removes the itching-inducing properties of the taro. • The hoene variety of taro, apparently never eaten as food, has a small, elongated narrowshaped corm. When the corm was trimmed with a sharp bamboo edge or shell and was moistened, it formed a suitable anorectal suppository. Irritation of the lower bowel passage by the suppository provoked defecation. • A cut ha (stalk) was rubbed into insect bites. What insects? The only pestiferous insects in prehaole Hawai'i were those that kānaka maoli had brought with them from the South Pacific, 'oia ho'i, body ona (liee), domestic nalo (fly) and probably 'uku (fleas) with their 'ilio (dog). Nalo do not "bite," and "bites" from ona and 'uku are not serious, so any la'au for such "bites" were probably readily "effective." With the arrival of white men, eame also makika (mosquitoes), 'uku hipa (ticks), meli

(bees), mo'o niho'awa (scorpions), kanapi (centipedes), naonaolele (termites), naonao (ants), mu (bugs) and other harmful insects. With the haole, eame also their medicines many of whieh were also derived from plants. Since kānaka maoli during those early times did not have ready means to procure these relatively rare Western medicines, they devised their own from their own plants and from the many foreign lā'au (plants) whieh thereafter were introduced. Pēlā, mueh of what today is called "traditional" Hawaiian plant lā'au (medicine) may not neces-x sarily be pre-1778; indeed, most is probably postWestern contact. Akā (however), taro appears to have had an honored plaee in the pharmacopoeia of pre-haole Hawai'i, and probably even pre-Hawai'i Polynesia whenee eame taro to Hawai'i. I kēia mahina a'e_(next month), we will return to this month's mea ninau and his eoneem for taro in the treatment of "allergy." _ 'Oiai, e ho'omau e ha'awi mai nei i kou mau ninau ola, ke 'olu'olu.