After pounding her way to victory, and into the record books, in Sunday's London Marathon, Paula Radcliffe acknowledged a curious debt of gratitude. The athlete nearly missed the race after a collision with a cyclist during a training run in New Mexico only a month ago left her with a dislocated jaw, whiplash and injuries to her shoulders, knees and hip. On the recommendation of her pysiotherapist Gerard Hartmann, Radcliffe treated her wounds with an ancient Aborigianal cure reputed to have powerful healing and pain-relieving properties - emu oil. Hartmann, who had originally been alerted to the alternative therapy by Australian Olympic gold medallist Cathy Freeman, praised the curative qualities of the oil. "If you saw the photographs of the day after Paula's accident you'd never have thought she'd have been here," he said on Sunday. "Sonia [Singleton, former world 5,000m champion] had emu oil with her and then we got some flown in. It certainly seemed to aid Paula's recovery."

Although relatively unknown in this country, emu oil has been classified as a pharmaceutical product by the Australian department of health. A secondary product of the now multimillion dollar emu farming industry in Australia and the United States, the oil is derived from the fat of the flightless bird. Akin to the camel, emus have a fatty saddle on their backs which sustains the male of the species when nesting on developing eggs. (The emu population appears to have a thoroughly modern approach to childcare.)

John Renshaw, managing director of the Pioneer Trading Company, the UK's main importer of emu oil, says that demand for the substance has increased substantially since he began bringing it into the country in 1993.

"It's extremely popular, but the interest is mainly word-of-mouth. The oil is deeply penetrating and incredibly soothing - it has great vascularising effects, increasing the blood flow, and it's extremely effective in cases of inflamed joints. It's used a lot in arthritis care and for back injuries." Renshaw says that Australian athletes have been training with emu oil since 1988, when it became popular during the Seoul Olympics. "Sports pysiotherapists use it as a massage oil to reduce injuries and cut down on recovery time."

Also recommended for its cosmetic properties, emu oil is a natural emollient and some practioners claim that it can help to combat the effects of the aging process. In a recent study at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Dr. Robert Nicolosi, director of the center for chronic disease control and prevention announced that the oil had a "significant" anti-inflammatory effect, while the data suggested that its ability to deliver nutrients to the skin surface might be greater than other oils currently used in current over-the-counter remedies.

None the less, most of the evidence supporting emu oil's healing properties remains purely anecdotal. Osteopath and accupunturist Debbie Watt uses the oil regularly with her clients. "I think it's great, and I don't use anything else now. I mainly deal with muscular and skeletal problems, so I use it for its anti-inflammatory properties, applying it topically. I used to be pretty sceptical and think that things that were rubbed on were of limited use, and that it was as much the process of massage that made the difference, but with emu oil I've had a lot of feedback that it does actually work of itself."

Although the oil is hailed for its anti-inflammatory properties, the Arthritis Research Campaign says it remains dubious about the substance, pointing out that it has not come across any clinical trials of the oil in this country. But at the Margaret Hill clinic in Warwickshire, which specialises in the natural treatment of arthritis, nutritional practitioner Christine Horner describes emu oil as one of her favourite treatments. "We concetrate on diet, but if people have a stubborn pain in one particualr joint then it can be helpful to apply something externally. Emu oil works well as an anti-inflammatory, and patient feedback has been good, though sometimes something as simple as extra virgin olive oil can do the trick." She admits that she was suprised when she heard Paula Radcliffe ex tolling its virtues in the national media. "You tend to assume that people don't know about these things. I'm sure that the people who make it are delighted."

But those working directly with sports injuries remain uncertain about the treatment. As John Brewer, joint director of the sports injury and human performance laboratory at Lilleshall national sports centre, notes generously: "All things heal eventually." If athletes are going to try out less conventional therapies, he says, they tend towards those that have been tried and tested, accupuncture for example. "Sports medicine is a huge area, and we're regularly inundated with quack cures. I'm not suggested that this hasn't worked for Paula, but people do have to be careful."

Professor Graham Smith, chair of the Society of Sports Therapists, remains rather confounded by emu oil's sudden elevation to healing elixir of repute. "I've never come across it. Listening to Paula Radcliffe on the radio I was almost as surprised as the interviewer was when she mentioned it. It was obviously something that Sonia Singleton had recommended to her and if it works for her then fine. "

The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and Clarifications column, Wednesday April 13 2003

The above article misnamed Irish athlete and former 5,000m world champion, Sonia O'Sullivan. Her surname was mistakenly given as Singleton. Apologies. In the same piece the word "accupuncture" appeared. It only has one c in the first syllable.