Traditional Treatment: Mavaeua & Tapitopito

Ancient Treatment of Unclosed Fontanels: Too Advanced for Modern Civilization?

Collecting Tongan medicinal plants was never an easy task, especially for a child who was just learning how to count, but looking back into those experiences, I am grateful that I did see them being used for the benefits of others. One of those experiences that I can recall was the collection of a funny looking, stemless plant, Centella asiatica L., commonly known as tono. Tāpitopito and mavaeua are two different types of diseases occur in babies, who are treated with this plant, tono. Tāpitopito is a Tongan name given to a condition of newborns in which there is hollowness around and discharge from the umbilical area. Similarly, mavaeua is a Tongan name for unclosed fontanel’s which may become hardened if not treated, resulting in other complications, deform head and/or sometimes death.

The leaves of the tono plant were bounded with a small volcanic rock on top of a much bigger one and both the juices and the smashed leaves were applied topically on the area that is affected, around the navel (pito) area or where the unclosed fontanels are located. Further, the leaves and the juice were sometimes mixed with the leaves and juice from the Oxalis corniculata plant, commonly known as kihikihi.

These two plants, tono and kihikihi, have shown their efficacy, and their potencies, in treatment of tāpitopito and mavaeua for over two thousands of years among our people and other Polynesian. That is real human clinical trial, unlike the double cross-over placebo control clinical trial of our time. Those plants worked, then and still are. We must continue to use them for sometimes Western medicine cannot cure these diseases and/or fall short in its promises, especially when side effects are taken into considerations. Consequently, we cannot, and should not, question the wisdoms of our ancestors but hold them up as heroes for our time, even in this great country. Concomitantly, we must share these types of treatments, and other treatments like these, with the younger generations. Do you think that our ancestors’ practice of medicine has proven to be superior to those of our days? You be the judge!

However, one must ask the question if he or she is curious enough, why were those plants effective, and they still are, in treating these two diseases? I believe that part of the answers come from science. It has been shown that the tono plant has wound healing, antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, and antiviral (Yoosook et al., Phytomedicine, 2000 Jan;6(6):411-9) and anti-inflammatory effects (Medicinal Plants of the South Pacific). As such, this plant’s anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antiviral and wound healing effects are responsible, at least in part, for its health benefits shown in the treatment of tapitopito and mavaeua. Interestingly, the cosmetic industries are “mining” this plant because of these health benefits for the skin while the dietary supplement industries are “mining” for its anti-inflammatory.

On a side note, this plant (tono, an extract was used) have been investigated and evaluated for its effects on leprosy (kilia) and found to be effective (Medda et al., Indian J Biochem Biophys. 1995 Jun; 32 (3):147-51). It seems like to me that we have a lot of medicinal plants in Tongan that could have been used if we have known to help us during that time of trouble.

In like manner, the kihikihi plant has also been shown to have hypoglycemic (good for treatment of diabetes-suka), antihypertensive (lowers high blood pressure-toto mau’olunga), chronotropic effect (affecting the heart rate-māmalie pē vave ‘a e tā ‘o e mafú), wound healing and brain stimulant (Hussin et al., Food Chemistry 100 (2007) 535-541), antibacterial properties, antioxidant (Medicinal Plants of the South Pacific). These health effects indentified from other researches, at least in part, verified the efficacy and potency of these plants and further support the rationale for “why” our ancestors were using them. But more importantly, why we should continue to use them because they passed these koloa, and other wisdoms to us.