PIRI-PIRI Capsules

Piri-piri is a type of reed-like tropical grass called a “sedge-grass.” It can attain the height of 6 feet and grows in damp, marshy and flooded areas along the rivers and streams (where it can help control soil erosion) in the Amazon basin. It grows in clumps from dividing rhizomes which are about 2 cm long and 1.5 cm in diameter

THE INDIGENOUS TRIBAL AND HERBAL USES

The indigenous Indian tribes of the Amazon region ascribe magical properties to piri-piri. The tall stems and/or the rhizomes are dried and powdered, or are prepared as a tea and used as a good luck charm or a love potion (called a pusanga).

Women will cultivate the plant and bathe their children with it to prevent sickness and injury, and give it to their husbands to bring good luck in hunting and fishing. Piri-piri is also well used as a medicine by the indigenous people and the rhizome is the part of the plant which is used.

The Shipibo-Conibo Indians of the Peruvian Amazon grind up the fresh rhizomes to extract the juice and use it for a nerve tonic in cases of stress and nervous and mental disorders (including epilepsy), to treat and prevent a wide range of digestive and gastrointestinal disorders, to facilitate child birth or to induce an abortion, as a contraceptive, and for throat cancer.

It is also put on the head as a hair tonic and to treat or prevent baldness, and used externally to heal wounds and treat snake bite. The Secoya Indians in Ecuador mix the ground rhizome with water and use it to treat fever, flu, and to allay fright and nervousness. The Ese’eja Indians use it for diarrhea and dysentery.

In the Amazon region of the Guyanas (Surinam, Guyana, and French Guiana) ayapana is considered a febrifuge (reduces fever), alexiteric (anti-infective), sudorific (causes sweating), digestive, and laxative.

A leaf infusion is employed for headaches, colds and flu, mouth sores and ulcers, and hypertension. The whole plant is decocted to relieve nausea and vomiting caused from malaria by the Palikur of French Guiana and this same decoction is used in Surinam for chronic diarrhea.

Piri-piri also has a long history of use in herbal medicine systems in South America. It is a very common remedy to treat nausea, vomiting, stomachaches, and intestinal gas throughout the continent.

In Peru, piri-piri is considered as an abortifacient, anticonvulsant, anti-epileptic, antivenin, carminative, contraceptive, hemostat, nervine, stomachic, tonic and vulnerary. It is used for diarrhea, dysentery, digestive disorders and intestinal infections, intestinal worms, epilepsy, to stop bleeding (internally and externally) and to heal wounds. In Africa, piri-piri is used for malaria, toothaches, headaches, diarrhea, indigestion and coughs.

Piri-piri has also been around for quite a few years in the United States. In the late 1800s and early 1900s a fluid extract of the rhizome was prepared and sold as a herbal drug (called “adrue”) for the treatment of nausea, vomiting (including morning sickness), digestive disorders and intestinal gas.

In herbal medicine systems in the U.S. piri-piri is attributed with anthelmintic, anti-emetic, carminative, demulcent, nervine, stomachic, tonic, and sedative actions.