MEDICINAL PLANTS
Aʼtaftak. The root of the wild gourd[1] is pounded up in mortars, boiled, and the extracted juice put into the ear to cure earache. It is poured into a hollow tooth to stop aching. "It kills maggots in open sores."
Ha’tam, Sphæralcea angustifolia. The leaves are boiled and used as a remedy for diarrhea. Another informant states that the root is boiled and the liquid extracted is used as a remedy for biliousness.
Kaʼkaitco u-us, "quail plant," Heliotropium curassavicum. The upper part of the light yellowish root is dried and ground in mortars, dried again, and ground very fine upon the metate, when it is ready to be applied to sores or wounds after they have been washed.
Kâkpitäm. The leaves of this bush are boiled and the extract used as an emetic.
Kŏĭ, Prosopis velutina. The black gum of the mesquite is boiled and the dilute liquid used as a wash for sore eyes and open wounds. The inner bark of the mesquite is boiled and the liquid used as an emetic and cathartic.
Kŏĭtcĭlt, Prosopis pubescens. The bark of the root of the screw bean is pounded up in mortars, dried, and again ground into a fine powder on the metate; or it may be boiled without pounding or grinding and the liquid used as a dressing for wounds. After a few days, as the wound heals, the dry powder is substituted.
Osikâkamûk, Pluchea borealis. The bark of the arrow-bush root is separated by pounding between stones and then placed in water for a few hours to extract a liquid for washing the face and for sore eyes.
Oʼsitc uwûtpat, Zizyphus lycioides. The root of this bush is pounded up in mortars and boiled, the liquid extracted being used as a remedy for sore eves.
Pihoȷ. An evil spirit that lives in the east is called Pihoȷ. He causes certain diseases, which have their appropriate songs. One informant declared that a tree that grows near the Maricopa village on the Gila was also called pihoȷ, and from it a medicine stick is made that will cure diseases of the throat. The writer was unable either to verify or to disprove this statement.
Rsios. Two unidentified species of Bigelovia are used as a dressing for scarified wounds. The bruised leaves are applied to bleeding surfaces that have been cut with broken glass.
Rsukaikokŭk, Larrea mexicana. The leaves of the creosote bush (pl. IX, a) are boiled and the liquor is allowed to cool a little, when it is drunk as an emetic. The boiled leaves are also used as a poultice.
- ↑ In pioneer days the whites used the roots of two species of wild gourds, Cucurbita palmata and C. digitata, as a cathartic, Doctor Palmer stating that they were "very much beliked by the soldiers."
