In traditional herbal medicine: Plumbago auriculata Blume Plumbaginaceae Plumbago, Leadwort. Distribution: South Africa. It is used traditionally to treat warts, broken bones and wounds. It is taken as a snuff for headaches and as an emetic to dispel bad dreams. A stick of the plant is placed in the thatch of huts to ward off lightning.” Iwou (1993) reports other Plumbago species are used to cause skin blistering, treat leprosy, and to treat piles, parasites and to induce abortions.

The woodcut of Plumbago in Johnson's edition of Gerard's Herbal (1633) is of Plumbago europaea which (he writes) was known by Pliny as Molybdaena or Plumbago, by others Lepidium and Dentaria (although in Matthioli these are other genera) and not this scandent South African shrub. The genus name derives from the Latin for lead, but modern authors differ as to whether it was used as a treatment of lead poisoning or that when it was used for eye conditions the skin turned the colour of lead – observations not noted by the 16th-century herbalists. Lewis states that the root can be used for toothache and that it contains plumbagin which has antibacterial properties. Johnson pre-dated him by 400 years as his sole recommendation is for toothache, which might be assumed from the name Dentaria.

Plumbago auriculata Blume Plumbaginaceae Plumbago, Leadwort. Distribution: South Africa. It is used traditionally to treat warts, broken bones and wounds. It is taken as a snuff for headaches and as an emetic to dispel bad dreams. A stick of the plant is placed in the thatch of huts to ward off lightning.” Iwou (1993) reports other Plumbago species are used to cause skin blistering, treat leprosy, and to treat piles, parasites and to induce abortions.