page_title: Handroanthus impetiginosus
section_title: Uses
hierarchical_section_title: Handroanthus impetiginosus / Uses
caption_attribution_description: Baumrinde des Lapacho zur Teezubereitung
context_page_description: Handroanthus impetiginosus, pink ipê, pink lapacho, or pink trumpet tree is a native tree of family Bignoniaceae of the Americas, distributed from northern Mexico south to northern Argentina. Lapacho is the national tree of Paraguay, and it is also a common tree in Argentina's northeastern region, as well as in southeastern Bolivia. According to Native Trees of Trinidad and Tobago, this tree is not indigenous to Trinidad, it is introduced.
  It is a conspicuous and well-known species with a long history of human use. Consequently, it has a range of local names: ipê-cavatã, ipê-comum, ipê-reto, ipê-rosa, ipê-roxo-damata, lapacho negro, pau d'arco-roxo, peúva or piúva. The timber is sometimes traded as "Brazilwood", which properly refers to the unrelated Pernambuco tree.
context_section_description: Handroanthus impetiginosus, as well as other species of this genus, are trees naturally found in the wild of central to South American forests. It is also used as a honey plant, and widely planted as ornamental tree in landscaping gardens, public squares and boulevards due to its impressive and colorful appearance as it flowers. Well-known and popular, it is the national tree of Paraguay. It is also planted as a street tree in cities of India, like in Bangalore.
  The inner bark of Handroanthus impetiginosus is used in traditional medicine. It is dried, shredded, and then boiled, making a bitter brownish-colored tea known as lapacho or taheebo. The unpleasant taste of the extract is lessened when taken in pill form, or as tinctures. Lapacho bark is typically used during flu and cold season and for easing smoker's cough. It apparently works by promoting the lungs to expectorate and free deeply embedded mucus and contaminants during the first three to ten days of treatment.
  In ethnomedicine, lapacho plays an important role for several South American indigenous peoples. In the past decades it has been used by herbalists as a general tonic, immunostimulant, and adaptogen. It is used in herbal medicine for intestinal candidiasis.
  However, the main active compound lapachol has since turned out to be toxic enough to kill fetuses in pregnant rats and reduce the weight of the seminal vesicle in male rats in doses of 100 mg/kg of body weight. Still, lapachol has strong antibiotic and disinfectant properties, and may be better suited for topical applications. Lapachol induces genetic damage, specifically clastogenic effects, in rats. Beta-lapachone has a direct cytotoxic effect and the loss of telomerase activity in leukemia cells in vitro.
  The ethnomedical use of lapacho and other Handroanthus teas is usually short-term, to get rid of acute ailments, and not as a general tonic.  Usefulness as a short-term antimicrobial and disinfecting expectorant, e.g. against PCP in AIDS patients, is yet to be scientifically studied. Handroanthus impetiginosus inner bark seems to have anti-Helicobacter pylori activity. and has some effects on other human intestinal bacteria.
caption: Lapacho tea
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