The healing properties of some plants used in traditional Samoan medicine have been scientifically proven in a new study.
Homalanthus nutans, or Mamala. Photo: [Mark Marathon / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) Mark Marathon]
Published on Friday in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology it looked at 14 Samoan plants.
The Samoa Observer reports all were found to have positive effects on wounds, burns and sores.
Fue Saina, Mamala and Fuafua were among 10 of the plants that successfully stopped the growth of staphylococcus aureus bacteria, which cause many common skin infections.
The other four including, Futu and Ifi proved effective in helping skin to heal faster.
The study was carried out by researchers from the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, with contributions from Samoan research scientist Fiti Laupu'a.
Their research stated that increasing bacterial resistance to antibiotics highlighted the urgent need for the identification and development of new antimicrobial agents.
With the exception of one of the 14 plants studied, 'Leva', which was found to be highly toxic, the report found the Samoan medicinal plants safe to use on humans.
It described the plants as promising materials for further research in the development of new plant-derived wound healing agents.