Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Track Breadfruit leaf with reminders and record whether it helped, in the app.
Breadfruit leaf is the big, lobed leaf of the breadfruit tree, Artocarpus altilis. In the Caribbean it is boiled fresh or dried to make a bush tea. Haitian Creole speakers call the tree lam veritab; in Jamaica the drink is called breadfruit bush tea.
People drink the tea for high blood pressure, high blood sugar, coughs and poor sleep. The fruit is a well known staple food. The leaf is not a food; it is a home remedy.
Here is the honest verdict. Almost all the research sits in test tubes and rats, and good human trials are missing. Long use in a tradition is not proof that something works, and it is not proof that it is safe.
No one has shown how breadfruit leaf works in people. The ideas below come from laboratory and animal work only.
In test tubes, leaf extracts slow enzymes that break starch down into sugar. That could in theory blunt a rise in blood sugar. Whether it does anything in a person drinking tea is unknown.
In test tubes, extracts also slow ACE, an enzyme that helps raise blood pressure. In rats, some leaf extracts lowered blood pressure and blood sugar. The extracts used were strong and measured, unlike a home-brewed cup.
Lab studies also report antioxidant activity, meaning the plant chemicals mop up reactive molecules in a dish. Antioxidant activity in a dish does not predict a health effect in a body.
Most people use it as a hot tea made from the leaf.
Forms you may meet: - fresh green leaves, boiled at home - dried cut leaf, sold loose in markets - tea bags from Caribbean brands - dried leaf powder in capsules - liquid extracts and tinctures
The leaf is also used as a mouth rinse and as a wash for the skin in some households.
Most products are not tested for strength or purity. Many labels do not say how much leaf a dose holds.
Breadfruit reached the Caribbean from the Pacific in the late 1700s. It was brought in to feed enslaved people on the plantations.
The leaf then entered local bush medicine. Healers in Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and the wider islands used the tea for high blood pressure, high blood sugar, coughs and sleep.
The practice passed down through families and market sellers. Doses, limits and side effects were not written down. That gap is why so little is known today about safe use.
Stop the tea and get urgent help if your lips, tongue or throat swell, or you struggle to breathe. That can be a severe allergic reaction.
Stop and call a doctor the same day if you feel shaky, sweaty or confused, which can mean low blood sugar. Do the same if you faint or feel very dizzy on standing.
See a doctor if your skin or eyes turn yellow, or if stomach upset lasts more than two days. Always see a doctor rather than self-treating a pressure, sugar or asthma problem.
In the United States it is sold as a food or dietary supplement. The FDA has not approved it to treat any condition.
In the UK and the EU it is not an authorised medicine, and health claims on the label are not allowed.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
Reviewed by the HealisticMD editorial team How we grade evidence →
The published evidence for Breadfruit leaf is weak or absent. That usually means no controlled trial has tested it, not that a trial found it ineffective — the two are different, and we grade only what has been published.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
One email with the summary. We'll also send a short weekly evidence update — unsubscribe any time.
