Gum from the bark was mixed with water to create a clear varnish with which kapa was sealed and waterproofed.The oily nuts were used as a cathartic.This sap was also used to seal wounds to promote healing without infection. The sap from the green nuts was used to treat ‘ea or thrush disease of the tongue and throat of babies.The soot of burned kukui nut shells was used to make a black dye that was used in tattoo work, for creating designs on kapa and for painting designs on canoes.Both of these colors were used to dye kapa. The inner bark of the trunk yielded a brownish-red dye, and the inner bark of the roots yielded a reddish-brown dye.The husk of the nut yielded a grayish/beige color that was used to dye fishing nets so that they were less visible to fish when cast.It is interesting to note that the Samoan name for this tree is lama, another word meaning light (with connotations also of enlightenment).
A second meaning for kukui in the Hawaiian dictionary is lamp, light or torch, which is descriptive of its primary and most outstanding use in Hawaiian life. This shows that the name has a common and likely ancient Polynesian origin. Tuitui is the name for this tree in such South Pacific islands as Tonga and Rarotonga. The name kukui is derived from an older name kuikui and thus appears to be a contraction of that word. diameter trunks, although they are often smaller in drier or more exposed sites. Kukui are most common in lowland, windward valley bottoms where they tend to form dense groves. Its large, pale-green leaves are of a color like no other tree and they can be recognized from great distances. Kukui is a very distinctive tree that is easily recognized in Hawaiian forests. It is no coincidence that the kukui is our State tree. Of the nearly thirty species of “canoe” plants that they carried with them during their epic migrations from the Western Pacific out into the vastness of the Central Pacific, no cultural plant has had a greater diversity of uses than has kukui. The kukui (Aleurites moluccana) is a tree that has stood by the side of Polynesian peoples for thousands of years and is one of the foundations of their cultures. Photo by Forest & Kim Starrby Robert Hobdy