A new study found that leaves from Samoa's plant could be as effective in lowering inflammation as ibuprofen. It could also be used to treat Parkinson's disease and cancer.
The psychotria Insularum leaves, also known as matalafi in Samoa, have been used for centuries to treat inflammation caused by fever, body aches and swellings, along with elephantiasis and respiratory infections.
When I first started researching, I was skeptical," Seeseei Molimau Samasoni, who is the study's author and manager of the plant and postharvest technologies division of the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa, said.
She said that there was a lot to be believed about this plant, especially in traditional medicine. However, I wanted to see if I could add scientific merit to traditional Samoan medicines.
Its potential as an anti-inflammatory drug can be highlighted now, as well as its potential for treatment of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes.
Molimau-Samasoni's and the findings of her colleagues have been peer-reviewed. They will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
The juice is extracted from the leaves. The juice is used by traditional healers to make a drink for their patients. Molimau-Samasoni said that they sometimes use the leaves to rub on someone who is ill or to heal a wound.
My maternal grandmother, who was a traditional healer, was my maternal grandmother. I am now a traditional healer because my grandmother passed on her techniques to me after she died.
Molimau-Samasoni admitted that traditional medicine was subject to a lot of doubt and hesitancy.
Modern medicine and traditional medicine have their challenges. In some cases, people may focus on one type of medicine first before they seek another. For example, if someone is seeking anti-cancer treatment from traditional healers, but later presents to the hospital with stage four cancer, it's too late to treat her.
So, while many believe traditional medicine is simply people mash leaves together and people are using it for the placebo effect or some other reason, you should remember that traditional medicine has contributed significantly to modern pharmaceuticals.
Molimau-Samasoni stated that it will likely take years for matalafi to become an approved medicine, but she said that it was just the beginning of research into Samoas traditional medicines.
We are only just beginning to understand the potential of matalafi. She said that there are hundreds of traditional medicines in Samoa that we can research.
There is now a laboratory that studies anti-microbial effects in traditional medicine, one that investigates anti-diabetes activity and another that examines anti-cancer activity. We're just beginning.
