Description
Camu Camu is traditionally made into a juice by people of the rainforest to support the immune system, ward off viral infections, and help maintain optimal health, especially under conditions of stress and anxiety, which tend to deplete the immune system. It also contains bioflavonoids, the amino acids serine, valine, and leucine, plus considerable quantities of thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. Camu Camu helps to promote healthy gums, eyes, and skin and supports the functions of the brain (nervous system) and heart (circulatory system).
Camu Camu (Mycaria Dubia) is a bushy tree that grows in black water rivers, especially along abandoned watercourses known as cochas. Each year, the river floods, bringing nutrients to the soil and avoiding the depletion associated with typical farming methods; these are ecosystems of great social and economic importance to the Amazon jungle in Peru. Growing in these swampy areas, it takes years for the tree to become mature enough to bear fruit. The fruit of the tree is approximately 2 centimetres in diameter and has a purplish red skin with a yellow pulp.
Benefits: Traditionally, native medicine practioners and herbalists have recommended Camu Camu for:
- Strengthening the immune system
- Improving symptoms of herpes infections, including mouth blisters, genital blisters, shingles blisters and other viral infections
- Promoting energy and vitality of people with chronic immune dysfunction
- Strengthening the nervous system
- Supporting healthy levels of white blood cell formation
- Detoxifying the body, especially the liver
- Promoting health of upper respiratory organs, including lungs, sinuses, nasal passages
- Promoting a healthy heart and circulatory system
It has the additional benefit of being non-irritating to sensitive stomachs and bladders.
Although the number of milligrams of Vitamin C, which Camu-Camu contains, is low compared to the milligrams in synthetically derived Vitamin C tablets, the effects on the human body are incomparable. Because of its food form, with bioflavonoids and other phytochemicals, clinical evidence suggests that it is far more effective, milligram for milligram, than synthetic Vitamin C (ascorbic acid).
