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Guaraná -
Guaraná is a creeping shrub native to the Amazon (and
particularly the regions of Manaus and Parintins). In the lushness of the
Brazilian Amazon where it originates, it often grows to 12 m high. The fruit is
small, round, bright-red in color, and grows in clusters. As it ripens, the
fruit splits and a black seed emerges - giving it the appearance of an "eye"
about which Indians tell legends.
TRIBAL AND HERBAL MEDICINE USES
The uses of this plant by the Amerindians predates the
discovery of Brazil. South American Indian tribes (especially the Guaranis, from
whence the plant's name is derived) dry and roast the seeds and mix them into a
paste with water. They then use it much the same way as chocolate - to prepare
various foods, drinks, and medicines. The rainforest tribes have used guaraná
mainly as a stimulant and as an astringent (drying agent) for treating chronic
diarrhea. It is often taken during periods of fasting to tolerate dietary
restrictions better. Botanist James Duke cites past and present tribal uses in
the rainforest: as a preventive for arteriosclerosis; as an effective
cardiovascular drug; as an pain-reliever, astringent, stimulant, and tonic used
to treat diarrhea, hypertension, fever, migraine, neuralgia, and dysentery.
Over centuries the many benefits of guaraná have been
passed on to explorers and settlers. European researchers began studying guaraná
(in France and Germany) in the 1940s, finding that Indians' uses to cure fevers,
headaches, cramps, and as an energy tonic were well-founded. Guaraná is used and
well known for its stimulant and thermogenic action. In the United States today,
guaraná is reputed to increase mental alertness, fight fatigue, and increase
stamina and physical endurance. Presently, guaraná is taken daily as a health
tonic by millions of Brazilians, who believe it helps overcome heat fatigue,
combats premature aging, detoxifies the blood, and is useful for intestinal gas,
obesity, dyspepsia, fatigue, and arteriosclerosis. The plant, considered an
adaptogen, is also used for heart problems, fever, headaches, migraine,
neuralgia, and diarrhea. Guaraná has been used in body care products for its
tonifying and astringent properties, and to reduce cellulite. Guaraná also has
been used as an ingredient in shampoos for oily hair and as a ingredient in
hair-loss products. In Peru the seed is used widely for neuralgia, diarrhea,
dysentery, fatigue, obesity, cellulite, heart problems, hypertension, migraine,
and rheumatism.
Today the plant is known and used worldwide (and is the
main ingredient in the "national beverage" of Brazil: Guaraná Soda!). Eighty
percent of the world's commercial production of guaraná paste is in the middle
of the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil-still performed by the Guarani
Indians, who wild-harvest the seeds and process them into paste by hand. The
Brazilian government has become aware of the importance of the local production
of guaraná by traditional methods employed by indigenous inhabitants of the
rainforest. Since 1980, FUNAI (the National Indian Foundation) has set up a
number of projects to improve the local production of guaraná. Now, under the
direction of the FUNAI regional authority in Manaus, many cooperatives in the
rainforest support indigenous tribal economies through the harvesting and
production of guaraná.
PLANT CHEMICALS
The first chemical examination of guaraná seeds was
performed by the German botanist Theodore von Martius in the 1700s. He isolated
a bitter, white crystalline substance with a remarkable physiological action.
Von Martius named this substance guaranine, and it was later renamed caffeine.
Many today still believe guaranine to be a unique phytochemical in guaraná . It
is, however (according to chemists), caffeine. As one group of researchers put
it, guaranine is a product of crude laboratory processes and "should be
considered non-existent, being in reality impure caffeine." Guaranine is
probably just caffeine bound to a tannin or phenol. In living plants, xanthines
(such as caffeine) are bound to sugars, phenols, and tannins, and are set free
or unbound during the roasting process. Guaraná seeds contain up to 4-8%
caffeine (25,000 to 75,000 ppm), as well as trace amounts of theophylline (500
to 750 ppm) and theobromine (300 to 500 ppm). They also contain large quantities
of alkaloids, terpenes, tannins, flavonoids, starch, saponins, and resinous
substances.
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