Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Likucha is the bark, heartwood and fruit of Artocarpus lakoocha, a large tree of India and South-East Asia. It is also called monkey jack. In Ayurveda it is used as a single drug, most often to clear worms from the gut.
The best known form is a dried water extract of the heartwood. Thai medicine calls the same extract puag-haad and uses it for tapeworm. The ripe fruit is eaten as food and made into chutney and pickle.
Here is the plain verdict. The traditional record is long and steady, but good human trials are missing, so we cannot say how well it works in people. A long history of use is not proof of effect, and that point is made once here rather than repeated in every section below.
The short answer is that nobody has proved how it works in people.
The heartwood is rich in oxyresveratrol, a plant compound related to resveratrol found in grapes. In lab dishes this compound damages the outer layer of tapeworms and roundworms. Whether enough of it reaches a worm inside a human gut is not settled.
The same compound blocks tyrosinase, the body enzyme (a protein that speeds up a reaction) that makes skin pigment. That is why creams made from the wood are sold for dark patches on the skin.
Lab tests also show it mops up free radicals, which are unstable particles that can damage cells. Test-tube results like these often do not carry over to the human body.
The traditional worm remedy is a dried water extract of the heartwood, sold as a coarse brown powder. In Thailand it is called puag-haad. It is usually given as a single dose stirred into water.
Other forms you may meet include dried bark powder, bark decoctions (simmered water drinks) and creams or serums made for dark skin patches.
The ripe fruit is a food, not a medicine dose. It is eaten fresh, dried, or made into chutney and pickle.
Likucha appears in classical Ayurvedic texts as a sour fruit and as a wood used against worms in the gut. Folk healers across northern and eastern India used the bark for stomach complaints and skin problems. In Thai traditional medicine the same heartwood extract, puag-haad, has been a standard tapeworm remedy for generations, usually followed by a laxative to clear the worm out.
See a doctor promptly if you vomit repeatedly, cannot keep fluids down, or feel dizzy and weak after taking it.
Get medical help the same day if you see blood in your stool, have severe belly pain, or have a fever.
Go to an emergency department if your lips or face swell, you come out in hives, or you struggle to breathe. These are signs of a serious allergic reaction.
Also see your doctor if you still pass worms or worm segments after treatment, or if your skin becomes very sore where a cream was used.
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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