The Amazon rainforest is a treasure of natural resources that is envied around
the world.
It has the richest biodiversity on the planet, with plants and seeds
with therapeutic and medicinal properties known to the natives for
several generations, who use many of them for their health and survival.
Recent scientific research did nothing more than confirm what the natives already knew.
A brief lesson in exotic good-for-you Amazon plants
The Amazon is often referred to as
"The world"s largest medicine cabinet"
Many of these plants are not even known or sold outside Brazil.
They have names like: Andiroba, Babassu, Bacuri, Buriti, Copaíba, Cupuaçu, Murumuru, Patauá, Pracaxi, Tucumã, Ucuúba, Urucum, just to mention a few.
How many of these fruits and plants have you heard about?
Don’t feel bad if the answer is zero.
Most Brazilians who don´t live in the Amazon region wouldn’t know about them either.
So, let’s go through an overview of some of the main botanicals found in the Amazon jungle and how they are used for skincare.
Açaí - has been a staple food in the Amazon for generations.
The fruit’s seed oil, which is rich in antioxidants, protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and vitamins A, B and E plus Omegas 3, 6 and 9, is a recognized anti-aging substance. It’s also great for reducing inflammation.
Stimulates the production of healthy cells.
Andiroba (Carapa guianensis) is a tall tree from
the mahogany family.
Its seed oil has been used as an anti-inflammatory, antibacterial medicine as well as for skin renewal.
It’s also good for bruises and muscle pain and
for easing the discomfort of arthritis.
Add to this, its property of natural insect repellent.
The myristic acid found in Andiroba oil is known
to accelerate the skin’s healing process, and lab analysis has shown that the substance is
an excellent helper against cellulite.
Pracaxi, which has properties similar to those found in Neem, is a tree whose seeds produce an extraordinary oil with several cosmetic and medicinal properties.
Amazon people use it, among other things for snake bites as well as for healing ulcers and stretch marks.
Pracaxi oil is often used by rural doctors throughout the Amazon to treat burns, cuts and wounds and in after surgery in addition to helping fight skin disorders such as severe acne, rosacea and psoriasis
The oil is also good in controlling dandruff and hair loss.
Among natural products, pracaxi oil possesses one of the highest levels of behenic acid that is known.
Copaíba is used in cosmetic preparations thanks to its antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and soothing properties.
Its oil or balsam is extracted from the copaíba’s tree trunk.
Research shows that copaiba has diuretic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, expectorant, disinfectant and stimulant properties and is the best known natural source of caryophyllene, a well-known plant chemical that has documented strong anti-inflammatory effects.
Indigenous have used the balsam as wound healer, to stop bleeding as well as for pain and for dealing with skin disorders.
Cupuaçú is from the same family of cacao. In the Amazon region, it is known as big cocoa and is commonly used in juices and sweets, as well as a type of chocolate, known as cupulate.
Cupuaçu butter is an outstanding ingredient for cosmetics; it has the same properties as cocoa butter, it provides lasting hydration, and helps to restore skin elasticity.
It’s commonly used in moisturizers and anti-aging products. Cupuaçu contains phytosterols, omega-3 and omega-6, as well as the antioxidant vitamins A and C.
Tucumã is an evergreen palm. Its fruit is used in the Amazon region to make sweets, jams, ice cream and wine.
The Tucumã butter is an excellent emollient that’s easy to spread all over the skin being quickly absorbed, leaving it velvety and smooth.
It is rich in omega-3, omega-6 and omega-9 as well as lauric, myristic and oleic acids.
Ungurahua, also known in the Amazon as Patauá, it has been used for centuries as a powerful stimulant for hair. Regenerates the cells of the follicle, increasing circulation and capillary strength, leaving the hair silky, malleable, and controlling curly hair. Helps maintain natural hair color and brightness. Traditionally, Patauá oil is used by the Amazon communities for frying, has properties very close to olive oil. It is known as the Amazonian olive oil because of its similarity in taste and smell.It is also used in the cosmetics industry, since it is widely used by the natives as a hair tonic, to soften the hair and also in the treatment of hair loss.
Murumuru is a palm tree native to the Amazon rainforest.
The oil, extracted from its pulp or its seeds, is rich in Vitamin A and oleic and linoleic acids, which helps fight environmental damage that results in premature aging signs.
As natural moisturizer, murumuru is known for working beneath the skin’s surface to reduce wrinkles and loss of elasticity.
Buriti It´s a palm tree, which in the indigenous language, ITI, means high tree. It´s also known as the tree of life.
The buriti fruit is shaped like a hen’s egg, and its yellow pulp is rich in beta carotene, which is used in the Amazon as a sunscreen.
Buriti oil besides protecting against sunburn is also valuable to repair damage caused to the skin by lack of moisture.
It promotes naturally the production of collagen and elastin, keys for a youthful, glowing skin.
Ucuúba - The name of the tree means in the indigenous language UCU (grease) and YBA (tree). It is a tree native to the floodplain of the entire Amazon region. It produces high-fat (60 - 70%) seeds with 70% trimeristine, a myristic acid triglyceride, which is an essential aromatic oil widely used by the cosmetics, pharmaceutical and food industries. In medicine in the Amazon region, it is used successfully in the treatment of rheumatism, arthritis, cramps, and thrush, as well as in the treatment of the skin. Butter produced with ucuuba oil is hard and yellowish and can be used in combination with other ingredients for the production of soaps and creams as it is a natural plant product. It replaces with advantage the paraffin which is a chemical derived from petroleum. It has properties with anti-inflammatory, healing, revitalizing and proven antiseptic properties.
Brazil nut oil - The Brazil nut oil (Bertholletia excelsa) is highly nutritious, containing 75% unsaturated fatty acids composed mainly of palmitic, oleic, and linolenic acids, as well as the fat-soluble vitamins A and E.
The Brazil nut is a source rich in magnesium, thiamine, and has the highest known concentrations of selenium (126 ppm), with antioxidant properties.
Due to its anti-free radicals, antioxidants, and moisturizing properties, the cosmetic industry uses the Brazil nut oil for anti-aging formulations.