Occasional Papers No. 10

The Third Eric Johnston Lecture delivered at

The State Reference Library of the Northern Territory on 4 May 1988

ABORIGINAL PHARMACOPOEIA

by Dr Ella Stack

NORTHERN TERRITORY LIBRARY SERVICE Darwin 1989

Cataloguing in publication data provided by the Northern Territory Library Service

STACK, E. M. (Ellen Mary) Aboriginal pharmacopoeia / by Ella Stack. Darwin : Northern Territory Library Service, 1989.

Occasional papers; no. 10 ISBN 0 7245 0525 3 ISSN 08 17-2927

1. Pharmacopoeias - Northern Territory 2. Ethnobotany - Northern Territory 3. Aborigines, Australian - Northern Territory - Food 4. Aborigines, Australian - Northern Temtory - Medicine i. Northern Territory Library Service. ii. Title. iii. Series (Occasional papers (Northern Territory Library Service); no. 10)

(The views expressed in this publication do not necessady represent those of the publisher)

OCCASIONAL PAPERS

1. John Stokes and the Men of the Beagle - Discoverers o f Pon Darwin, by Alan Powell. (1 986)

The History of the Catholic Church in the Northern Territory, by Bishop John Patrick O'Loughlin. (1986)

Chinese Contributio~l to Early Darwin, by Charles See-Kee. (1987)

Point Charles Lighthouse: and The Military Occupation o f Cox Peninsula, by Mike Foley. ( 1987)

Operation Navy Help: Disaster Operations by the Royal Australian Navy, Post-Cyclone Tracy, by Commodore Eric Johnston. (1 987)

Xavier Herbert.. a bibliography. compiled by David Sansome. (1988)

The Founding of Maningrida, by Jack Doolan. (1989)

Writing a History of Australia, by C M H Clark. (1989)

Katherine's Earlier Days, by Pearl Ogden. ( 1 989)

Aboriginal Pharmacopoeia, by Ella Stack. (1989)

iii

ERIC JOHNSTON LECTURES

1986 Commodore Eric Johnston Operation Navy Help: Disaster Operations by the Royal Australian Navy, Post-Cyclone Tracy

1987 Professor Charles Manning Clark Whiting a History of Australia

1988 Dr Ella Stack Aboriginal Phamacopoeia

INTRODUCTION

The Eric Johnston lecture series was established tofill a serious gap in Darwin's cultural calendar, since the city had no lecture series dealing in depth with the Territory's culture and history in all its diverse ramifications.

The series was named after the Territory's Administrator, who identified uniquely with the people of the Territory, and who experienced with other Darwinites the terrors and traumas of Cyclone Tracy. Commodore Johnston himself delivered the first lecture, and has taken a per- sonal interest in the series ever since.

The Eric Johnston Lectures will be delivered annually, probably during the Dry Season, alter- nating between a prominent Territorian and a reputable interstate/overseas personality. The topics of the lectures can cover any subject provided the central theme relates to the Northern Territory. The lectures will be published by the NT Library Service in its Occasional Papers series, and we are optimistic that the ABC will continue its established practice of recording and subsequently broadcasting the lectures.

The Eric Johnston Lectures have already established themselves as a prestigious and schol- arly annual event in Darwin and have made a real and lasting contribution to the spread of knowledge on Territory history and culture throughout Australia.

The 1988 lecture can only add to the prestige of this series. Dr Ella Stack is the currrent Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Community Services, and is also known to many Australians as the country's first lady Lord Mayor, when she assumed this role soon after Dar- win's devastation by Cyclone Tracy. Her topicAboriginal Pharmacopoeia is one that is very dear to her heart. The publication in the bicentennial year of TheNorthern Territory Aborzginal Phar- macopoeia was a majof event, to which this address was a worthy precursor.

ABORIGINAL PHARMACOPOEIA by

Ella Stack

Every race in the world has practised the ancient art of herbal medicine. The earliest record of medicinal usage ofplants, the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, was published about 3 000 BC. Most of the medicinal lore of other races has now been recorded.

It was time for an Aboriginal pharmacopoeia - a description of traditional medicines - to be written. A collection of descriptive monographs, photographs and botanic drawings of 65 plant and 5 non-plant substances will be published in September 1988. It will probably be the world's last original compendium of traditional medicine.

Traditional medicine is still practised by tribal Aborigines in central and north Australia and this knowledge will now be recorded. In most other areas of Australia it has been lost irrevocably.

At one stage, all members ofthe Aboriginal family knew their medicinal plants, their location, structure, value and their application. Their botanical knowledge committed to memory was both vast and essential for their survival. With no written language, they remembered the optimal seasonal time for selection and the correct method of preparation and indications for use. Such knowledge was passed on through example, song and dance.

Australia - 'a child of Gondwana' - began its slow separation 65 million years ago, severing its connection with Africa, India and Antarctica. On this floating continent there developed an abundance of unique flora and fauna. Our Old World species of crocodile links us back to Africa, the Indus River and down through South-East Asia to Papua New Guinea. If rocks are the history books of the earth and fossils the history of its inhabitants. then northern Australia holds many historic treasures. The oldest known rocks on earth, established by radioactive isotope dating to be 3.5 billion years, have been found here. Within them, microfossils have been identified. These are thought to be the first evidence yet found of early life on this planet. There are vast areas awaiting research in Australia's north.

The eminent and learned Dr Stephen Webb of the Australian National University, a specialist in both anthropology and anatomy, has, after intensive studies of skeletal remains, espoused the theory that the first Australians arrived here from South-East Asia between 60 and 70 thou- sand years ago. Nature was bountiful to these first arrivals and remained so until the onset of the last Ice Age, about 18 000 years ago. This was followed by the melting of the polar ice caps and glaciers in mountainous Australia. Sea levels rose separating New Guinea and Tasmania from the mainland. The climate became warmer and drier. Australia became less abundant, so survival was more difficult.

Aborigines were powerful observers and competent botanists. They were prepared to trial plant and non-plant substances for evidence of their healing value. Gradually a body of knowledge was developed. They continue therapeutic trials even to this day with new substan- ces or plants previously not used.

Aboriginal traditional medicine played no part in the lives of the emigrant Europeans of two hundred years ago who had their own diseases and their own traditional remedies. The spread of European infectious diseases to a non-immune population was often fatal for Aborigines.

Limited research with reports of Aboriginal traditional medicine was first published in the mid to late 19th century. There were further publications in the 20th century - by botanists, doctors, pharmacists, teachers, anthropologists and others.

It was determined that the data for this Aboriginal pharmacopoeia would be based, not on literature searches, but on direct verbal communications by Aboriginal informants. Each Aboriginal informant or tribal informant would he acknowledged as the originators of the data.

Their medications were applied either internally or externally for the alleviation of pain, the promotion of healing, or curing such ailments as were common to them. There do not appear to be any traditional medicines effective for those diseases introduced by colonising races.

The ritual for collecting leaves, seeds, roots, pods or bark is associated with traditional Aboriginal ownership of the country in which the plants grow. In some tribes it is the Custo- dian alone who can point out where the plants are and enumerate their uses, although all other members of the tribe have this knowledge.The time of collection of plants is important as they can vary in chemical content according to maturation or to the season of the year or the soil type. In the Central Desert, collecting medicinal plants is frequently associated with a com- plicated ritual. Special Dreaming songs must be sung as plants are collected and a special Dreaming path must be travelled, all of which is believed to ensure its medicinal value.

Aboriginal nomads confine their use to plants within their respective areas and do not recognise those outside this area as being of therapeutic value. The same plant growing in two tribal areas is often used medicinally in completely different ways. Again, different parts of the plant are considered to be more effective by one tribe than another, or, they differ in prepa- ration or indication for use.

An urgency to undertake this project was emphasised by the declining interest of young Aborigines in their traditional medicinal lore. Aboriginal elders in the Northern Temtory were still practitioners of the art. Approaches made to them were met with encouragement and offers of help.

In 1985, the Northern Territory and Federal Governments agreed to fund the project on an equal basis as part of a Bicentennial Commemorative program. An excellent and enthusiastic team, headed by Andy Barr as manager, started work on the project in 1986. Aboriginal infor- mants, a diversity of scientists, a photographer and a botanic artist were selected - all deeply committed to the project.

This group collected information directly and identified botanically those medicinal plants with a history of therapeutic efficacy. The principal components were extracted, identified, analysed and subjected to biological studies.

Collection trips were organised with Aboriginal family groups, much to the pleasure of the older people who enjoyed being consulted by members of the younger generation. The team botanist tape-recorded all information given him. Samples were collected and correctly iden- tified. At least two botanists were involved in this identification. Vouchers for all documented plants are now held in the Northern Territory Herbarium at Alice Springs and also in the Dar- win Herbarium. Frequently a photographer attended, filming the plants and their prepara- tion for use.

In May 1984, during the planning stages of this project. a fortuitous invitation to me to lecture in China with Jim Morrison, Professor of physical Chemistry at La Trobe University and Dr Geoffrey Vaughan, the (then) Dean of the College of Pharmacy, Victoria, resulted in their will- ing involvement in the chemical analysis and biological testing of plant substances.

Wu Cheng-shun, Professor of Phytochemistry, Institute of Botany, Beijing. was also willingly enlisted. With the co-operation of the Chinese Government and the Academia Sinica. he visited the Northern Territory in 1986 to assist with the development of a work plan. In associa- tion with local botanists and Dr Naseem Peerzada of the Darwin Institute of Technology. he collected the first ten verified plant samples and extracted their essential oils. He later worked from the La Trobe University Laboratory of Physical Chemistry in the analysis of the oils. He appreciated the many similarities between Aboriginal and Chinese traditional medicines and was proud to be scientifically involved.

The original samples collected were sent to the Darwin Institute of Technology for initial screening. Following this, samples for alkaloidal testing were sent to Dr Vaughan (now Direc- tor of the Chisholm Institute). The extracted oils were forwarded to Professor Jim Morrison at La Trobe. The excellent work of the staff of these three institutions is well documented in the appendices to the Pharmacopoeia.

Collection and analysis of the research team results, literature searches, botanic identifica- tion. preparation and indications for use were included in the monographs on each plant. A written summary of this information was returned to each community for verification. A des- cription of known constituents and their therapeutic properties was also included. Thus the medicinal knowledge of two cultures was shared.

A good example of the application of Aboriginal herbal knowledge is found in the use ofFicus opposita and Passiflora foetida by northern coastal communities for the treatment of itchy skin conditions such as scabies and tinea. The leaves of the Ficus are crushed and soaked in water to make a liquid application to relieve the itch. The rough sandpaper-like dry leaves ofFicus are rubbed on the skin for tineaform skin infections such as ringworm. After rubbing the area until the skin begins to bleed, the fruit ofPassiflora foetida is pulped and smeared over the area and left there for one day. There are many species of Ficus used medicinally throughout Asia.

Another is the Ipomoea of the family Convolvulaceae. Ipomoea pes-caprae grows widely throughout north Australia and along the eastern coast of New South Wales. It is found on sandy beaches above the high tide level. The flowers are trumpet-shaped, pink to reddish- purple in colour and darker at the base. Aborigines use it mainly for pain relief as a first aid measure when applied to stingray or stone fish stings. They heat the leaves on a hot stone by a fire before application. This plant is highly valued for its antihistaminic properties. It is also said to promote healing. Further indications for use include skin infections, green ant bites, insect stings and scabies. The juice may be drunk for its diuretic and laxative properties. As a pantropic plant, it is valued for its medicinal applications by all races in the tropical world who live near the sea.

I would like to describe some of the more outstanding contributions made by Aboriginals to world medicinal knowledge. The first is the kangaroo apple - Solanum laciniatum and Solanum aviculare. These are two Australian native shrubs whose fruit is used as poultices for joint swellings. They contain a steroid known as solasodine, important in the production of cortisone and other steroid compounds, especially the steroids used in oral contraceptives (i.e. 'the pill'). This plant is native to Australia and to New Zealand, but because of its value in the production of solasodine, has been imported into Russia and eastern Europe, where it is now cultivated on a very wide scale.

Euphorics and narcotics are used world wide and Aborigines are no different in this respect. Duboisia hopwoodii was used for the pleasant, narcotic effect that it produced. It provides the Aborigines with pituri, a powerful narcotic and the only known psychoactive drug regularly used by them.

Duboisia is a genus of plants belonging to the Solanaceae and the drug is allied to belladona. hyoscyamus and strammonium. Duboisia hopwoodii is a shrub or small tree with narrow leaves found in the arid inland of central Australia, extending from north-west New South Wales, through south-west Queensland, the south-east ofthe Northern Territory and the north-east of South Australia. although not abundant anywhere. The most effective and safe variety in pro- moting altered consciousness came from the Mulligan/Georgina area in south-west Queens- land. The local tribes were most adept at the preparation and curing of the small leaves. As a result. the Aborigines of the MulliganIGeorgina area. realising its value, exploited its use and maintained complete control of this valuable resource - just like any successful businessmen.

Individual plant analysis shows great variation in the concentration of nicotine in different plants, depending on the area of growth, the soil type and the season. One Duboisia hopwoodii plant could contain up to 14 times more active alkaloid than another plant. Again, the active alkaloid can be either nicotine or d-nor-nicotine. The latter is more powerful and is far more toxic than nicotine and predominates in the Duboisia of central Australia. This is another reason why the Mulligan/Georgina plants, which did not have such a concentration of the toxic d-nor-nicotine, were favoured among the tribes.

Pituri is small dried fragments of the plant Duboisia hopwoodii mixed with an alkaline wood ash. Chewed in small quantities for its intoxicating effect, it has a long tradition in Aboriginal culture and trade. It has been voluminously documented since the late 19th century by explorers and botanists. It was brought back by Leichhardt from his first expedition and in 1861 was recorded in the diaries of the early Australian explorers, Burke and Wills. It was sometimes shared with the early explorers. who found it excellent for the suppression of hunger sand exhaustion.

In the late 1880s pituri was used by many of the early European cattlemen who took over large pastoral leases in the arid regions of central Australia. It was both used and transported by the Afghan camel drivers, who traded up and down through central Australia. It was even transported to Sydney for the Chinese community there.

The source of this plant was protected from both Europeans and other tribes and the secret of the locations of Duboisia hopwoodii was preserved for many years.

Pituri is a masticatory narcotic with a pungent taste, promoting a copious flow of saliva. Its chewing releases a psychoactive drug that is certainly habituating and probably addictive. As one of the most desired possessions of Aborigines, it was so highly prized that no sacrifice of personal property was too much to acquire it. This fact supports addiction rather than habituation.

As a psychotropic drug, its effects can vary from mild stimulation to respiratory depression, coma and death. Within a few minutes of chewing it, a feeling of happy detachment results, with indifference to worry and physical hardship - the Aboriginal parallel to our use of alcohol.

As a sustaining drug, it was vital to their long treks through the desert and semi-desert regions to deaden the cravings of hunger and for support with excessive fatigue.

As a highly valued drug, the privilege of using it usually remained with the old men of the tribe who most jealously insisted that it was their's alone. Women and young men did not normally enjoy pituri.

In some tribes the old men, when faced with a serious undertaking such as a fight or a discus- sion of serious business, made sure that they masticated their quid of pituri first - chewing it from time to time and placing it behind the ear of the owner or that of the man next in line on ,

ceremonial occasions. As nicotine is well known to spread via the trans-dermal route, then the absorption of the drug continued while resting behind the ear. Used pituri was considered as valuable as the fresh.

Its use is also thought to play a major part in promoting altered consciousness in initiation rites and other special rituals. With heavy use, its ability to produce hallucinations would cer- tainly enhance the mystic power of the initiation rite.

Preparation of pituri -The secret of the preparation of pituri and of the location of the plants was jealously guarded by the old men, both from the younger men and from the women. Older

branches ofDuboisia hopwoodii were burnt to promote the growth of preferred young shoots, which are far higher in nicotine content. The old men built large fires, let them bum down suf- ficiently, then raked the coals down to the hard sand. The lanceolate and narrow leaves from small tips of the branches were picked and placed in these warm holes, covered with the very hot sand and left there for two hours. After this, the sand was raked off and the leaves placed to cool and dry. When thoroughly dry, they were broken up by beating. Twigs were removed and the clean dried tips bagged. The secret of this preparation was not taught to other men until their beards were grey.

The mixing of pituri with wood ash facilitates the release of the active alkaloid. Throughout North and South America addition of an alkali to a nicotine-containing plant is still used to potentiate its effect.

A special ash from the fine tips ofAcacia salicina branches is prepared. It is carefully picked, ignited, allowed to burn and the ash collected in a small bowl and then mixed with the dried leaves of Duboisia hopwoodii. It is interesting to note that the ash ofAcacia salicina is the most alkaline plant ash known.

The prepared pituri was then placed in special pituri bags. These bags were made from fibre- string from a plant growing in swamp country called Verbena and from the broombrush that grows on sandhills. This was twisted into a string and dyed with red and yellow ochre and woven with human hair. The bags were semi-lunar in shape with an opening at the top. Early writings state that the pituri bag was carried either around the neck or under the axillae of men. Women were never observed to be carrying it.

A trade was established with Aborigines walking great distances either down from the nor- thern coastal areas or up to the Georgina area from southern Australia.

The pituri owners would bring samples - then the trading would start. The pituri seller would throw down a bag and anyone who wished to buy it would throw down some treasures . . . perhaps a couple ofboomerangs or a grinding mill. The seller would leave his bag in the mid- dle of the circle until something that he really wanted was offered. Then the exchange would proceed. If the buyers were not satisfied, they would take back their offerings. Ifthe sellers were not satisfied, they would take back their pituri.

With the disruption of Aboriginal trade routes by encroaching pastoral leases; with the loss of the absolute authority and the pituri monopoly of the old men, pituri use has declined. It is now limited to a few tribes in central Australia and the occasional European who dwells with them. Instead of pituri, alcohol is now used to promote an altered state of consciousness.

Duboisia myoporoides

To complete this talk, I would like to make mention of Duboisia myoporoides (corkwood), whose leaves contain large amounts of hyoscine (useful for the treatment of motion sickness and gastric ulcers).

Leaves and twigs of the tree were sprinkled in waterholes to ensure that the emus which drank the water were stupefied and easily captured. The fish were similarly affected. Aborigines placed some strips of the tree beside the waterhole to indicate to others that the water had been poisoned.

Aboriginal knowledge of this drug was well applied towards the Allies'victory in World War 11 and the development of a thriving agricultural enterprise in northern Australia which sup- plies half the world's hyoscine, scopolamine and hyoscyamine. These drugs can now be syn- thesised. but it is more economic to extract them from plants.

To quote from an address given by Professor Geoffrey Blainey on 10 May 1977 to a group of graduating pharmacy students:

A strange episode happened in the Second World War. Some of the drugs based on alkaloids had previously been imported from Germany. Once the War began, Australia - and eventually her allies - lacked a supply of the powerjiul drug, hyoscine hydro- bromide. It was required as a sedative and as a way of coping with sea-sickness in troopships and air-sickness in air crews. The drug was powerful, and one dose equalled one hundredth of a grain.

Australian scientists searched for new sources ofhyoscine. They found it in one of the old Aboriginal drugs - in the leaves of the New South Wales and Queensland corkwood tree, known as Duboisia myoporoides, which in olden days had been thrown into water- holes to stupeb theJish. The leaves of the tree were nowgathered on a lalgescale andpro- cessed by the pharmaceutical industry.

Soon parcels of the drugs were beingflown - some of the most precious air cargoes ever to leaveAustralia - to the United States and Britain. When in 1944, D Day approached, the Allied invasion of France was about to begin, tens of thousands of troops, b e e they sailedfrom England in the invading armada, were dosed with this traditional Aboriginal drug. For Australia was now the world's main source of hyoscine and the pre-operative medication, atropine, both of which were extracted by chemists from species of the Duboisia tree. Here, in 1944, was th egreatest armada in the history of man, setting out towards a turning point in history; and much of thesuccess of that armada depended on a drug which had been discovered by forgotten. men and women in ancient Australia.

Any endeavour to determine the therapeutic effectiveness ofAboriginal traditional medicines cannot include the esoteric power and mysticism of deeply held beliefs that are neither analys- able nor reproducible. So, while the metaphysical can be respected, only the physical can be studied by modern scientific methods.

The wonderful Aboriginal story of trial and error, and sometimes serendipity with powerful observation, can never be told but there is no doubt whatsoever of the therapeutic efficacy of their traditional medicines.

The publication of an Aboriginal pharmacopoeia has turned into reality a dream shared by many Northern Territorians who, over the years, came to respect, understand and finally to be fascinated by this subject.

REFERENCES

AISTON, G. 1937,The Aboriginal Narcotic Pitcheri', Oceania vol. 7, no. 3.

BANCROFT, J. 1872, The Pituri Poison, Paper read before and published by the Queensland Philosophical Society, Brisbane: Government Printer.

BLAINEY. G.N. 1975, Triumph of the Nomads, Macmillan.

BLAINEY, G.N. 1977, Pharmacy 40.000 Years Ago, Pharmacological Society of Victoria.

CRIBB, A.B. & J.W. 198 1, Wild Medicisze in Australia, Fontana/Collins.

LASSAK, E.V. & McCARTHY, E.M. 1983, Australian Medicinal Plants, Methuen Australia.

LEVITT, D. 1981, Plants and People, Brown Prior Anderson.

McPHERSON, J. 1921, 'The Use of Narcotics and Intoxicants by the Native Tribes of Australia, New Guinea and the Pacific', Sydney Unive~rity Medical Journal.

PURDIE, R. 1982, 'Tomatoes, Tobacco and Intoxicant Weeds'. Australian National History, vol. 20, no. 10.

WATSON, P. 1983, 'This Precious Foliage', Oceania Monograph: 26, University of Sydney.