Ngā Rauropi Whakaoranga

tūtūmako, tūtae-kiore (Williams, Best)

eyebright

Tutumako roots used in a formula with harakeke, thistle and dock roots, and plantain, for expelling the placenta after birth. (Parsons 1985).

Euphrasia officinalis is widely used by herbalists to treat eye conditions.

Related pharmacology and chemistry in Brooker, Cambie and Cooper 1987.

One of the plants (along with harakeke, toetoe, bracken fern) used as a preferred pathway when the soul leaves the body. Used in spiritual cleansing.

In Nga Moteatea (Ngata & Te Hurunui, 1970; in Riley 1994), part of a text of a Ngati Porou lament for the dead reads: "What bitter waters can now revive you? One could only fetch the tutumako, bitter herbs indeed, from the forest of (Tua)tara."