Multiple uses for mamaki argue for its reintroduction

Mamaki (Pipturus albidus) was the first native Hawaiian plant that I gathered from the wild. I wanted to make tea.

Its habitat ranges from mesic to wet forests, at 200 to 4,000 feet in elevation, on all the major islands except Kahoolawe and Niihau.

This endemic plant features alternate, oval- to heart-shaped leaves with undulating serrated edges and three primary veins emanating from the base. Leaf veins are pale green or contrasting reddish. Growth shape is shrubby or as a small tree with a height up to 20 feet and trunk diameter of 12 inches, displaying languishing branches.

Tiny, stalkless, unisexual flowers are bunched at the leaf bases. Pale yellowish to yellowish-brown, mulberrylike fruits contain petite, flat, lustrous seeds. The wood is a lackluster reddish-brown, with pallid white sapwood. The delicate and fine-textured wood is easily used.

The light-brown bark is unwrinkled with intermittent raised dots. The inner fibrous bark is striated green and fairly viscous.

Besides the more commonly fashioned kapa from wauke, paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), Hawaiians also historically created kapa cloth from mamaki bark. Bedding material and clothing were fabricated. Cordage and kaula (rope) were also braided from the elongated, robust tissue fibers.

Mamaki plays a crucial role as the preferred host food plant of a plaintive green caterpillar that regally evolves into one of our two endemic pulelehua (butterfly), the aristocratic Kamehameha butterfly (Vanessa tameamea).

Medicinally, mamaki was administered in treating paaoao (general latent childhood disease, with physical weakening). Adults consumed mamaki leaves infused into a tonic as a "cleansing agent" or for "general debility." Fresh mamaki leaves were placed in a gourd (calabash) with pure spring water and heated stones.

The esteemed Beatrice Krauss, in her classic book, "Plants in Hawaiian Medicine," reveals the unique course of treatment for preventing ea (childhood thrush ailment): "When the mother was five months pregnant, she ate five m(a)maki fruit and continued until she was eight or nine months pregnant, when she ate eight fruits. After the child was born, the mother, after chewing the fruit to soften it, gave two fruits to the baby until he (or she) was four months old. Once the child could consume (chew and swallow) on his own, he ate six or eight fruits until he was a year old."

Scientific research has revealed that brewed mamaki tea contains a fair level of TAA (total antioxidant activity). Mamaki tea is referenced in Dr. Terry Shintani’s classic book, "Hawaii Diet." It also tastes great.

From a historic and medical viewpoint, mamaki deserves a reintroduction into the modern-day health regimen of Hawaii.

Duane Choy is a native Hawaiian plant specialist. Reach him at HanaHou@ecologyfund.net.