Purple ipe tea: what is it for

Purple ipe tea is made from the bark of the tree and helps to treat inflammation and ulcers.

purple IPE

Image: purple ipe by Lucas Silva Pinheiro Santos, available on Unsplash

The purple ipe is a scientific name tree Handroanthus impetiginosus found in South America. Also known as piúva, pau-d'arco, piúna, ipe-roxo-de-bola, ipe-una, ipe-roxo-grande, ipe-de-minas, piúna-roxa, the ipe tree -purple is well known for its medicinal use and as hardwood, being classified as Panc (Non Conventional Food Plant).

The purple ipe comes from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, but also occurs in the cerrado, being a native tree of Acre, Pará, Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Bahia, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul , Minas Gerais, Goiás, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

However, the purple ipe tree is also widely found in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, French Guiana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama and Mexico.

Medicinal use of purple ipe tea

purple IPE

Purple ipe image by Natiibio, is available on Pixabay

In traditional popular knowledge, purple ipe tea is used to treat inflammation, ulcers, bacterial and fungal infections.

The medicinal use of the purple ipe is through the ingestion of tea from the bark of the tree.

A study published by the journal Phytotherapy Research evaluated the healing property of the ethanol extract from the bark of the ipê-roxo tree and arrived at results that meet the traditional knowledge already consolidated in the popular.

The study induced the development of chronic gastric ulcers in rats and treated them with Ipê-roxo ethanol extract twice a day for seven days.

At the end of the analysis, there was a reduction in almost half of the gastric ulcers treated with the purple ipe extract. The study concluded that the compounds present in the bark of the ipê-roxo tree have significant properties capable of providing healing of gastric ulcers. The effect is due to the increase in mucus content and cell proliferation, confirming the usefulness of purple ipe for the treatment of this type of condition.

A study published in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" concluded that the purple ipe bark has a component capable of eliminating a type of cancer cell.

According to the study researchers, this component present in the purple ipe bark, called "beta-lapachone" has the potential to be used in the treatment of lung cancer.

How to make purple ipe tea

Unlike the more traditional way of consuming tea, which is made from the leaf of the plant, purple ipe tea is made from the bark of the tree.

To make the purple ipe tea, bring a liter of water to the fire. After it starts to boil, add two tablespoons of purple ipe tree bark and turn off the heat. Let the capped mixture sit for ten minutes. Consume 2-3 cups a day.

Heads up

Do not bark any purple ipe trees by yourself. It could kill her. Look for suppliers that do sustainable extraction.



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