What Is Kūmarahou Good For?

A New Zealand plant that often gets overlooked is the mighty kūmarahou. 

Alongside it's healing properties, the kūmarahou flowers contain saponins, which are natural surfactants that produce a foamy lather, which can gently cleanse your hands and your body without using the harsh chemicals that are normally found in soaps to create foam.

What is kūmarahou good for?

As a result of these saponins, kūmarahou is fantastic for cleaning skin. In the 19th century, bushmen found that when its flowers are rubbed with water they foam into a natural lather, which they could use to clean the kauri gum off their skin. As a result, kūmarahou is often nicknamed ‘gum-diggers’ or ‘bushmans’ soap.

Kūmarahou is good for all-round health, containing valuable flavonols - Quercetin and Kampferol, plus ellagic acid. Ellagic acid is a natural phenol antioxidant found in numerous fruits and vegetables. Bioflavonoids promote digestive health. Quercetin helps seasonal health, addressing symptoms like congestion and inflammation.

Kūmarahou is also rather good for the elderly or those with general worsening health and chemical clogging and build-up in their body’s natural systems, as it is a gentle detoxifier. A sympathetic blood purifier, it detoxes your lungs, liver, kidneys, skin, lymphatic and urinary system. This is why it often features in natural health clinic tinctures.

Traditionally Māori used kūmarahou for bronchial complaints and digestive disorders. They took it as a decoction or tonic. When brewed as a tea, the extremely bitter drink is thought to aid the respiratory system and boost immunity.

How do we make our kūmarahou soap and what’s in it?

We make our kūmarahou soap by first steeping the yellow flowers and leave. We use a cold, followed by a heat extraction process. After we have extracted the beneficial saponins, we add mānuka oil for it’s antibacterial properties. From here we include a bunch of natural ingredients such as manuka hydrosol and vegetable glycerine to create a gel/soap like texture. Our kūmarahou hand and body wash is 100% natural soap and a great alternative to artificial/chemical surfactants.

Click here to shop our range of Kūmarahou products