Ongaonga is one of New Zealand’s most poisonous plants. It can cause painful stings that last for days. In fact, it is so poisonous, interaction with it can sometimes be fatal. However, now scientists at The University of Queensland believe that ongaonga could be very useful – its toxins could one day be used to make potent pain medication.
Ongaonga looks angry and it is – it's one of New Zealand’s most poisonous plants, but scientists want to employ it to manage pain. Image credit: Karora via Wikimedia
Ongaonga, also known as the New Zealand tree nettle, is a large woody scrub, a tree, which has prickly leaves and stems. It can grow up to four metres tall, although most of them are up to 3 metres tall. New Zealand tree nettle mostly grows in coastal and lowland forests and shrublands in the North, South, and Stewart Islands in New Zealand. It is easy to recognize, but sometimes people still come too close.
Those stinging hairs penetrate the skin and deliver toxins that cause long-lasting pain. It can last for days and it can be so debilitating that you will lay down the entire time praying for the pain to leave you alone. This makes it a bit peculiar that scientists are looking into the Australian stinging tree and New Zealand ongaonga as potential candidates for future pain medicine. However, New Zealand natives, Māori people have used ongaonga for food and medicine, including pain treatment. For example, boiled young twigs have been used to treat stomach ache.
But it is actually not that weird. As scientists have noted, animal venoms have been studied for decades, including in pain research. Biological toxins, as scientists hope, could help manage pain efficiently and without side effects, such as addictions.
Professor Irina Vetter, one of the authors of the study, said: “Animal venoms have been studied for decades but plants have evolved toxins differently, and this gives us a chance to find molecules that work in a unique way. Our goal is to tackle pain more effectively without side effects and addiction.”
Toxins, obviously, affect nerves. If scientists could figure out the mechanism of how these poisonous plants work, what molecules are in action, they could reuse that mechanism for pain management. So while it seems weird that scientists are looking into pain-causing plants with hopes to cure pain, it actually makes perfect sense.
This research proved tricky for Australian scientists. Ongaonga is native to New Zealand and because of COVID-19 restrictions researchers couldn’t easily source samples of it. That is why they sourced seeds and grew their own New Zealand tree nettle in the lab.
Researchers believe that these stinging plants could hold a potent drug candidate for chronic pain. However, they are also studying other plants of the Urticaceae family from other parts of the world.
Source: University of Queensland