Pothomorphe Peltata

Miq.

Inojo (D); Patza (Cu); Santa Maria (P) . The leaves are rubbed on the body as a tick repellent or, among the Bayano Cuna, to kill lice (!). Those of P. umbellata are eaten and used for toothache. The Bayano Cuna use Pothomorphe stems as a cold cure. The leaves of P. peltata are cooked with zapallo leaves in salt water and poulticed overnight on erysipelas and leishmanniasis sores (!). The following day the wound is dried with heat, washed with the decoction, and then a Pothomorphe leaf, dried over a flame, is pasted on with cacao butter (!). For pain, a tea of the leaves is drunk or mixed with alcohol for a massage. Los Tablas witch doctors claim the leaves are an effective external sudorific (!). Species of Pothomorphe are also used to treat venereal disease, and in Darien as an aromatic toilet paper substitute (!) and to facilitate parturition.