Pau D’Arco is one herb which the Indians used a as remedy for a wide range of ailments. Pau D’Arco is also known as Taheebo, Ipe Roxo, Lapacho or its botanical name of Tabebuia. The medicinal uses of pau d’arco dates back thousands of years to the native Indians of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. For centuries the native Indians have use the inner bark of this tree for medicinal purposes. The bark of the pau d’arco tree, a longtime folk medicine in South America, has in recent years brought hope to the millions of people worldwide who are turning to botanical medicines. Traditionally used to treat a wide range of ailments, pau d’arco is today one of the most widely used immunostimulants.
Pau d’arco is the name of a tree found growing in the forests of Brazil. Lapacho is a name given to the same tree, which some believe grow in more abundance and potency in Argentina.
In South America during the 1960’s, millions of peoples lives were touched with hope and controversy when the media reported that a tea, brewed from the inner bark of a timber tree was being successfully applied in the treatment of wide ranges of disease, some of them serious. For nearly 20 years afterwards, the use of pau d’arco (pow-darko) remained largely unknown to all but South Americans.
The bark of the pau d’arco tree is a traditional folk medicine used in many countries of the tropical Americas. When Europeans arrived in South America they learned herbal medicine from the Indians as a matter of survival in the New World. Since their arrival, use of the bark has been adopted and handed for generations. Brazilians recall the bark from childhood as something their mothers kept on hand to make tea whenever someone in the family became ill.
In most recent times, pau d’arco has become a source of inspiration for investigators in search of promising new drugs and the multitude turning to botanical medicines throughout the civilized world. In our contemporary folk medicine, pau d’arco is today very much a part of the home medicine chest. Pau d’arco finally reached the United States in 1981. It all begin with a newspaper article highlighting the news from O’Cruzeiro in the 1960s. In the United States where the bark has been available for many years now, pau d’arco continues to inspire testimonies from formerly ill individuals who often tried the herb when all else failed. In Canada, pau d’arco became widely reputed as an alternative treatment for cancer.
