Mountain Horopito Benefits And Health Facts

Plants and trees have beautiful looks and stands out in many wonderful ways. There are lots of weird plants in the world that have funny looks.

Some of the plants that have weird looks are Monkey face orchid, Bat plant, Moth orchid, Corpse flower and the naked man orchid. These plants will look completely different from ordinary plant species. The naked man orchid will look extremely funny when it is observed very closely.

This topic will deal with a plant named Mountain horopito. The botanical name of this plant is Pseudowintera colorata.

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This exotic woody evergreen flowering plant comes under the family Winteraceae. This plant is found abundantly in New Zealand and endemic to this place. This evergreen shrub achieves a height of 2.5 m.
This is popularly called as pepperwood because its leaves have a hot taste. The other common names of this plant are New Zealand pepper tree, winter’s bark or red horopito.
Horopito appears in the fossil record for more than 65 million years. This plant grows slowly and does not have water conducting tubes like other flowering plants. These plants are attacked by insects and other parasites and susceptible to fungi.

• Mountain horopito is grown as an ornamental, medicinal and spice plant.
• The Maori populations who belong to New Zealand are using this plant for the past several years both internally and externally.

• The medical record that dates back to 1848 states that Horopito is useful for skin diseases such as ring worm or for venereal diseases.
• The leaves can be chewed or prepared as a tea.
• The leaves and bark are fragrant rich and used for diarrhea.
• Since it cures stomach ache it is popularly called as “Maori Painkiller” and “Bushman’s Painkiller.
• The barks were used as a substitute for quinine during 19th century.
• The patented medicine namely Karan has Horopito in it. The primary cause of peppery taste is the chemical compound polygodial.