PAU D'
ARCO
is a natural grown herb that is derived from the inner bark
of the Tabebuia Avellanedae or Tabebuia
Impetiginosa (Taheebo) tree grown in
South America
.
Pau
d' Arco Tea has been used for many centuries by the
Indio
tribes of
South America
.
Pau D' Arco or
Lapacho is an evergreen tree,
with rosy colored flowers, belonging to the Bignonia family.
Nearly 100 species of lapacho trees are known, but only a
few of these yield high quality material, and it takes
extremely skilled gatherers to tell the difference. (Half or
more of the battle involved in bringing high quality lapacho
to the marketplace is finding and retaining qualified
gatherers.) The medicinal part of the tree is the bark,
specifically the inner lining of the bark, called the phloem
(pronounced floam). The use of whole bark, containing the
dead wood, naturally dilutes the activity of the material.
Lapacho is also known by the Portuguese name of
Pau
D'Arco, and by tribal names such as
Taheebo and Ipe Roxo.
Some texts distinguish between
Lapacho
colorado
(red lapacho-ipe roxo) (scarlet flowers) and Lapacho morado
(purple lapacho) which grows in cooler climates such as high
in the Andes, and high places in
Paraguay
. Recent evidence suggests that these two varieties of
lapacho possess superior medicinal properties above all the
rest.
CONSTITUENTS
Most of the chemical analyses
of lapacho have been performed on the heartwood of the tree,
rather than on the phloem, or inner lining of the bark,
which is used medicinally. It is unclear why this has
occurred. One reason may be that the heartwood contains
enough quantities of a couple of important constituents,
mainly lapachol and tabebuin, to satisfy current research
interests. Once the therapeutic activity of those
constituents has been thoroughly investigated, perhaps
researchers will turn their attention to the phloem. Until
then, it is probably safe to assume that the living bark
contains a similar set of active constituents as the
heartwood plus some others that make it more effective and
would account for the living bark's greater popularity as a
folk medicine. Traditionally, as anyone who chooses to
examine the herbal literature of the world can verify, it is
the living bark of a plant, especially a tree or shrub, that
is used medicinally--not the heartwood. The reason is
simple: the nutrients and representative families of
chemical substances used to sustain the life of the tree are
found in greatest concentration in the cambium layer and
phloem of the living bark.
The life processes of a mature
tree are carried out in the thin corridor lying between the
outer bark and the inner heartwood. Pull the bark off a tree
and you will notice moist, very thin layers of tissue that
seem to shred when picked at with the hands. This is the
cambium layer. Its purpose is to create new tree tissues,
such as phloem, through cell division. The newest, youngest
phloem cells are just outside the cambium. As new phloem is
added, older cells are crushed and pressed into the bark.
Younger, newer cells added to the inside of the cambium
layer are called xylem. Newer xylem is called sapwood; older
xylem is crushed and pressed into the heart of the tree. It
is therfore known as heartwood. The actively conducting
tissues of a tree are the thin layers of fresh xylem and
phloem on each side of the cambium. The outer bark and
heartwood are, essentially, inactive materials that only
serve to provide strength to the tree. Indiscriminate
combining of older, less active layers of bark and tree with
the younger, living tissues results in a dramatic dilution
of active principle and medicinal value. Yet it is a common
practice.
Lapachol is just one of a
number of plant substances known as napthaquinones
(N-factors) that occur in lapacho. Anthraquinones, or
A-factors, comprise another important class of compounds.
The N-factors are not common except in herbal tonics. Seldom
do both N- and A-factors occur in the same species. Several
of the remarkable properties of lapacho may be due to a
probable synergy between A- and N- factors.
Quercitin, xloidone and other
flavonoids are also present in lapacho; these undoubtedly
contribute to the plant's effectiveness in the treatment of
tumors and infections.
* I
know exactly where our pau d'arco comes from and what is in
it... ONLY the 100% pure inner bark is used. Our Pau D'arco
tea / Taheebo / Lapacho is manufactured by a Brazilian
government quality controlled nutriceutical company.
