Herbs of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea has an amazing collection of herbs. All sorts of herbs for cooking, herbs for healing and herbs for just chewing. Some of these herbs are known by the West whilst others are native to PNG.

I have asked Uncle Joel to start collecting herbs from the village and bring them with him each time he comes to town. I’m thinking about documenting these herbs by way of photos and Tok Ples names.

Here’s a photo of the batch (seven types all up) that he brought with him this morning…

I’m certainly no herbalist - nor do I have any substantial knowledge of this fascinating field of study. But I have a feeling that there could be opportunities for some of the local farmers to get into herb farming, production and export.

So I have decided to take photos of each herb as Uncle Joel brings them back from Kaubasis - apparently he knows of dozens of different varieties - for some he knows the names whilst for others he just knows what its used for. So each photo I take will have a little sign at the bottom with the “tok ples” (local language) name of the herb.

Here’s one of the herbs I photographed today - it is called “Kuimoropa” by the locals and is used for for cooking…

(click on the image for larger view)

All of the herbs I photographed this afternoon can be viewed in the “Herbs of PNG” Photo Album.

And finally, I actually have a favour to ask - anyone reading this post that has got some knowledge of herbs or perhaps you know of a good reference that I can use to start giving these plants English names that would be greatly appreciated. I can be contacted via a comment, email or on the contact form accessible from the top of this blog (1st Contact).