Articla by: Pure Healing Foods

Botanical name: Myrciaria dubia

Camu camu is a low-growing shrub found throughout the Amazon rain forests of Peru and Brazil. It produces a lemon sized, light orange to purplish red fruit with yellow pulp. This fruit is packed with more natural vitamin C than any other food source recorded on the planet, in addition to beta-carotene, potassium, calcium, iron, niacin, phosphorus, protein, serine, thiamin, leucine, and valine. These powerful phytochemicals and amino acids have a surprising range of therapeutic effects. Camu camu has astringent, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, emollient and nutritional properties.

Benefits of Camu Camu:

Vitamin C - more than any other food!
(1/2 teaspoon of powder provides more than 400% the Daily Value!)
Strengthens immune system.
High in anti-oxidants
Balances Mood - effective and safe antidepressant.
Supports optimal function of nervous system including eye and brain functions.
Provides arthritic protection by helping reduce inflammation.
Anti-viral
Anti-hepatitic - protects against liver disorders, including liver disease and liver cancer.
Effective against all forms of the Herpes virus (i.e. Epstein-Barr, Mononucleosis, cold sores, etc.)
Camu Camu Powder is about 15% Vitamin C by weight. In comparison to oranges, camu camu provides 30-50 times more vitamin C, ten times more iron, three times more niacin, twice as much riboflavin, and 50% more phosphorus.

Natural Vitamin C versus Synthetic Vitamin C

Vitamin C is the most famous and perhaps most important of all vitamins. It cannot be manufactured by the body and must be ingested.

Dr. Szent-Gyorgi won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1937 for isolating vitamin C and recognizing its important role in human health. In his studies he demonstrated the many benefits of consuming vitamin C in its whole food form. Even though he was the original scientist who isolated ascorbic acid, he insisted that the superior benefits of vitamin C are much more pronounced when consumed from natural foods.

Natural food sources of vitamin C also contain other co-factors which enhance vitamin C’s efficiency and utilization by the body. The natural vitamin C content in Camu Camu is enhanced by a full profile of naturally occurring minerals and amino acids.

Emotional & Mental Well Being

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 mood-balancing properties, in order of potency. Camu Camu is #2 on his list. Camu Camu appears to provide nutritional support for the brain to optimize its own mood balancing chemistry. Additionally, published research suggests that Vitamin C supports an increased serotonin level in the brain. Some health care practitioners have reported that Camu Camu has same day mood-balancing effects. There are no side effects, such as photo-sensitivity or gastrointestinal problems, and it can be used safely in combination with pharmaceutical antidepressants.

Other Health Conditions

Health care practitioners report that a premium quality Camu-Camu has provided very effective nutritional support for putting shingles into remission, cutting the expected time for reduction of symptoms in half, by supporting the body’s natural defenses. Users report that “cold sores,” resolve in one day, genital herpes will often resolve in 48 hours, and the Epstein-Barr type of chronic fatigue will show some improvement in one or two weeks. Camu-Camu may also be taken on a daily basis to provide highly effective support the body’s immune defenses against the herpes virus when it is lies dormant in the body.