Lapacho Side Effects

Lapacho is an evergreen tree that grows in the Central and South American rain forests. It is known by several names, including Pau d'arco and trumpet bush, which describes its pink or purple flowers. The inner bark of these trees has been used for medicinal purposes for more than 1,000 years by the Incas and their descendants. It has been deemed about a 10th as toxic as caffeine and side effects from drinking tea made from the whole bark are minor. Serious side effects have been reported in studies using the extracted active ingredients of lapacho, which suggests that there are natural buffering components in the bark itself.

Features

• The bark of the lapacho is traditionally harvested without killing the tree, which may grow as tall as 125 feet and have trunks as much as six feet wide. Lapacho has been used successfully to combat infections from colds and flu to skin ulcers. It effectively kills many kinds of cancer cells, bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi without harming healthy cells.

Effects

• Most of the attention paid to lapacho has been due to impressive successes in its use as an anti-tumor agent. It is now commonly used in treating some kinds of cancer, leukemia and even AIDS in Brazil and Paraguay.

Side Effects

• The primary immediate side effects observed were nausea and diarrhea. Herbal practitioners note that the body rids itself of toxins through the urine and bowels and that these symptoms could logically be due to release of toxins. These symptoms were strong enough to have caused some experimental subjects to drop out of studies.

  The FDA cleared lapacho bark as non-toxic in 1981 and it is even used as an antibacterial, antifungal medication in veterinary medicine.

Considerations

• Researchers in the United States discount South American clinical research as not adhering to its own standards, while many herbal practitioners fault U.S. researchers for studying only the active factors in lapacho and not investigating the methods that have produced healing results for centuries when the whole bark lapacho is used as a tea or poultice, .

Theories/Speculation

• A 1970 study by Chase Pfizer & Co. researchers found that the toxic effects of lapacho--such as elevation of toxins in the blood and the so-called anti-vitamin K effect, which produced blood thinning and anemia--dissipated and had reversed by the end of the study. This seems to indicate that detoxification rather than toxicity was resulting.

Warning

• Pregnant or nursing women, infants and small children should not take lapacho.

  Lapacho has a natural blood-thinning action and should not be taken by those who are already taking anti-clotting or blood-thinning medications such as heparin, Ticlid, Lovenol, Fragmin, Plavix and Coumadin or NSAIDs such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Motrin or Advil), naproxen (Naprosyn, Anaprox, Aleve), ketoprofen, Relafen, Indocin,Toradol, Clinoril, Feldene, diclofenac (Voltaren, Cataflam) and Daypro.

  Herbal blood-thinning preparations also should not be combined with lapacho, these include: angelica, anise, arnica, asafoetida, capsicum, celery, chamomile, clove, fenugreek, garlic, ginger, ginkgo, panax ginseng, horse chestnut, horseradish, licorice, onion, papain, passionflower, red clover, turmeric and willow.