Camu-Camu

Chacruna

Chuchuhuasi

Lepidium (Maca)

Sacha-Inchi (Oil)

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Camu Camu: What is it? | Quick Points | Health Benefits | Composition & Nutritional Value | Traditional Use, Sustainability, & Cultivation | Camu Camu in the News | Preparation & Storage | Research & Studies

Intro: What is Camu Camu Mega-C?

Camu camu is a wild harvested plant from small lakes in the center of the Amazon jungle.

The most sought after species of the plant, Myrciaria dubia, occurs abundantly in wild swamps along rivers and lakes in Amazonian Peru, Brazil, and Venezuela. The base of the trunks of the shrubs are often under water and during the rainy season the lower branches may also be submerged for long periods of time.

The wild jungle berry this fascinating plant produces contains the highest recorded source of vitamin C on the planet- a product we call Camu Camu Mega-C- yeilding about 30 times the C content than oranges or lemons and much higher than acerola fruit.

Camu Camu also contains powerful phytochemicals and amino acids, including serine, valine, and leucine, all of which create numerous health benefits.

The grape-sized red and purple berries of the Camu Camu plant are juiced directly after harvest and then freeze dried onto a tapioca root starch base; an ideal semi-sweet carrier for blending into juices and for use as a supplement in fresh fruit smoothies and candies. Its dried pink powder adds a fruity and semi-sweet acid flavor to most types of food and drink.

Health Benefits of Camu Camu:

The Camu-Camu fruit has a surprising range of medicinal and therapeutic effects as measured both by traditional use and a variety of phytochemical compounds which experimentally have demonstrated a multitude of effects including energy boosting, mood-lifting and strengthening the immune system, among others.

It has documented astringent, antioxidant, emollient, and nutritive properties as well.

The Vitamin C Factor
Because Camu Camu is one of the world’s richest sources of vitamin C, the fruit has a surprising range of health-promoting effects including strengthening the immune system, (especially against viruses), and maintaining healthy gums, eyes, skin, and connective tissue to name just a few...

Read about how Camu Camu works to fight against Herpes, Shingles, Chicken Pox, & Other Viruses

Vitamin C also appears to provide nutritional support for the brain to optimize its own mood balancing chemistry. Published research suggests that Vitamin C supports an increased serotonin level in the brain. Some health care practitioners have reported that patients who took Camu-Camu had relieved depression and anxiety, and they have weaned some of their patients off pharmaceutical anti-depressants.

Extraordinary Properties
Some extraordinary properties of this Amazon rainforest fruit are described by Gary Null, Ph.D., a nationally known nutritionist and researcher.

In his Clinician’s Handbook of Natural Healing, (1998), Null lists disease conditions and the herbs that have been found effective for their health promoting properties in reference to specific organ/system weaknesses and problems.

In discussing the holistic treatment of depression, he lists 19 plants containing chemical compounds with antidepressant properties, in order of potency, Camu-Camu is #2 on his list.

Null also lists 19 plants which contain anti-herpetic phytochemicals. The plant with the largest amount of these phyto-chemicals is Camu-Camu.

Null’s assessment of Camu-Camu has proven to be correct although the Camu-Camu fruit as such has hardly been studied at all.

Visit our Research & Studies page to learn more about the science behind Camu Camu

Health Effectiveness Rankings Against Other Herbs

In a comparative study of hundreds of botanicals, Dr. James Duke, retired chief botanist for the U.S.Dept.of Agriculture, ranked Camu Camu among hundreds of herbs in order of their effectiveness for various health conditions as follows:

Contraindications
There are no side effects, such as photo-sensitivity or gastrointestinal problems, from Camu Camu, and it can be used safely in combination with pharmaceutical antidepressants. There have been no reports of its interference with the effectiveness of any pharmaceutical drugs.

Composition & Nutritional Value:

The Camu Camu fruit contains natural rutin and bioflavanoids, which increase the effect of vitamin C and provide prime bioavailability. Compared with an orange, Camu-Camu Mega-C™ contains ten times more trace elements, such as iron, two times more phosphorus, proteins, beta carotene, calcium, vitamin B1, B2 and B3 as well as a comprehensive complex of minerals and amino acids.

Because Camu-Camu is in a food form, with bioflavanoids and phytochemicals, evidence suggests that it is far more effective, milligram for milligram, than synthetic Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), even Ester C.

Other components of Camu Camu include ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, calcium, iron, leucine, niacin, phosphorus, potassium, protein, riboflavin, serine, thiamin, valine.

Ascorbic Acid Comparisons of Camu Camu to Other Fruits

Nutrition Amounts per 100 gram Serving of Camu Camu

Comparison of Antioxidants Per Serving of Camu Camu

You can buy Camu Camu Mega- C at our online Superfoods outlet, Herbdealer.com

Traditional Use, Sustainability, & Cultivation

Until recently, Japan bought most of the entire world harvest of Camu Camu berries, making it a rare commodity even in the Amazon jungle.

Today, tribes are beginning to care-take wild plantations and increase production by maintaining local trees. Planting orchards with grafted trees has become more widespread.

Although it takes four to five years for the Camu-Camu tree/ bush to bear fruit, a forest of Camu Camu is worth much more then the amount to be gained from cutting down the forest and replacing it with cattle.

In Peru, Camu-Camu seedlings are available free of charge from the government to forest dwelling native peoples for them to plant, tend, and harvest.

Amazonian rainforest communities are now realizing their opportunity to create a sustainable economy based upon their ancient tradition of wildcrafting Camu Camu berries- which means that they can share their Camu Camu berries with us while saving their homeland from the destructive practice of clear-cutting. Good news!

Camu Camu in the News

Camu camu enjoys many news stories about it. Here's a tidbit for your perusal...

Hi-Vitamin Fruit May Help Save Amazon

by Mario Osava - (IPS) RIO DE JANEIRO

Tropical fruit from the Amazon, which have been found to be extraordinarily rich in vitamins C and B5, are being touted as the new market winner from the still largely unexplored region. Camu-camu, the fruit of a tree which grows along river banks and lagoons in the Brazilian Amazon, contains high amounts of acerbic acid or vitamin C. The plant contains 2,880 milligrams of acerbic acid per 100 grams of pulp, surpassing the 1,790 milligrams contained in the acerola, the Caribbean fruit which has one of the highest known vitamin content.

Oranges, on the other hand, contain only 40.9 milligrams of vitamin C, according to scientific measurements. The camu-camu, which looks like an eight-gram plum and is known to the local Amazonian population as “cazar” or “araz-de-agua,” is also rich in collagen - a substance used for slowing down the aging process - and in flavonoids, which help prevent cancer, said Conrado Todesco, president of an environmental organization in Sao Paulo.

Preparation & Storage:

Instructions for Use

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Storage

Camu Camu
Quick Points

Botanical Taxonomy:
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Myrtales
Family: Myrtaceae
Genus: Myrciara
Species: Myrciaria dubia

Common Name:
Camu Camu