Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Copper leaf is a garden shrub with bright, mottled leaves. The colours run from copper and red to cream and green. Its botanical name is Acalypha wilkesiana, and it is also called Jacob's coat.
In West Africa it is grown as a hedge and a yard plant. The Yoruba name is Aworoso. Healers used the crushed or boiled leaves on the skin, and sometimes as a tea.
Long use in tradition is not proof of effect, and it is not proof of safety. Lab tests show the leaves slow some fungi and bacteria. Human evidence is thin: one small skin study with no control group.
Most of the proposed action comes from lab dishes, not from people.
The leaves are rich in tannins and flavonoids. In test tubes, leaf extracts slow the growth of several fungi, including ones linked to ringworm. They also slow some skin bacteria.
Tannins bind protein. In lab work this appears to tighten and dry raw tissue, which is the old reason given for the wound use. Whether it helps a real wound heal is not established.
In animal studies, extracts have lowered blood sugar and blood pressure readings. These findings are early. They have not been repeated in people.
Most use is on the skin, not by mouth.
Common forms are: - Fresh leaves, crushed into a paste or poultice - Boiled leaf water used as a wash - Leaf tea or decoction, taken by mouth in folk use - Ointments, creams and soaps made with leaf extract - Dried leaf powder, sold loose in markets - Capsules and tinctures, mostly sold online
Labels rarely say how much leaf is in the product. Imported goods are not tested the way medicines are. Some market powders have been found mixed with other plants.
Copper leaf has a long record in West African home and market medicine, mainly as a skin remedy.
Yoruba healers in Nigeria knew it as Aworoso. They rubbed crushed leaves on ringworm, rashes, boils and sores. Leaf washes were used on itchy scalps and on babies, and leaf teas were given for fever and stomach upset.
The plant also travelled to the Pacific islands and the Caribbean as a garden plant. Similar skin uses were recorded there.
These records describe what people did. They are not reports of tested results, and this page does not suggest copying them.
Stop using it and see a doctor if the skin where you applied it turns red, swollen, blistered or more itchy.
See a doctor promptly if: - A skin patch spreads, weeps pus, or the skin around it feels hot - You get a fever along with a skin problem - Your skin problem is no better after two weeks - You feel sick, vomit or have belly pain after drinking the tea
Get emergency help for trouble breathing, swelling of the face or lips, or yellowing of the skin or eyes.
In the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, copper leaf is not approved as a medicine. It is sold as a garden plant, and sometimes as an unlicensed herbal product with no tested strength. In Nigeria and Ghana it is traded openly in markets as a local remedy.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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