A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Thursday 21 January 2016

Historical Trekking Useful Australian Plants. The Bloodwood Tree.

Use in bush medicine.
Occasionally a bloodwood tree will shed a piece of bark, hence opening a "wound" through which a blood-like kino will flow. The sap flows until it crystallises, covering up the hole in the bark. Australian Aboriginals collect this substance as bush medicine. They apply the sticky gum directly to sores or cuts and it works as an antiseptic. If the sap is in a dried form, it can be crushed into powder and boiled in water to use as an antiseptic wash.[6]
Another use of the bloodwood sap by Aboriginal people is to tan "kangaroo-skin waterbags".[1]


No comments: