The Polynesians who first came to Hawaii brought seeds of this plant with them. The nut has many uses -- for candles and lamp oil; this is the reason for its name, both in English (candlenut) and Hawaiian (kukui, which means light); for leis; and for a relish (`inamona).

The Hawaiians also used the nut for medicine, the raw meat (kernel) was used in bad cases of constipation as a purgative. For bad cases of ulcers and other skin sores, the Hawaiians used the pounded baked meat of ripe nuts mixed with other plants. The same mixture only using different plants was eaten to build up the body.

The bark was used for asthma. `Ea was a disease of young children; it gives them sores on the inside of the mouth and tongue. Two parts of the kukui tree were used to cure it.

1) The mother would chew the flowers and give this to her child,

2) If you pull off the stem of the green fruit a little "well" is left where the stem was fastened onto the fruit. This keeps filling with juice or sap. The mother would put some of this sap on her finger and rub it on the inside of the child's mouth and tongue.