Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Sucuuba is a tall Amazon tree, best known in Peru as bellaco caspi. Its botanical name is Himatanthus sucuuba. The parts used are the bark and the milky sap, called latex.
In Latin American folk practice it was used for pain, swelling, worms, stomach trouble and skin sores. Traditional standing is not proof that a remedy works. It is also not proof that it is safe.
Here is the honest evidence verdict. No human trials of Sucuuba have been published. Everything on offer comes from lab dishes and animals, so no health claim for it is proven in people.
The tree belongs to the same plant family as oleander and frangipani. That family contains several irritant and toxic species. Sucuuba is not oleander, but the latex is a known skin and eye irritant and deserves respect.
No one has shown how Sucuuba acts inside the human body. The ideas below come from test tubes and animals only.
In cell studies, bark extracts appear to lower some markers of inflammation. In rodents, extracts have reduced swelling and dulled pain responses. Whether a person feels any of that is unknown.
In test tubes, iridoid compounds from the plant slow certain bacteria, fungi and parasites. That does not mean they reach or clear an infection in a person.
Lab work also reports that plumericin is toxic to some cancer cell lines. Many ordinary plant chemicals kill cells in a dish. This is not an anti-cancer effect in people, and you should not read it as one.
Some animal work hints at effects on blood sugar and on stomach lining. These findings are early and have not been repeated in humans.
Most products are dried bark, bark powder in capsules, or an alcohol tincture (drops).
Bark decoctions (long-simmered teas) are the traditional home form. Raw latex is tapped from the trunk in the Amazon. It is thick, sticky and irritating, and was used on skin or stirred into water.
Some products are labelled Bellaco Caspi rather than Sucuuba. Others are sold as a generic "Amazon bark".
Quality control in this trade is weak. Mix-ups with the related tree Himatanthus drasticus, sold as janaguba, are common. You often cannot tell from the label which species is in the jar.
Sucuuba has a long record in Amazonian plant medicine, in Peru, Brazil and Colombia. Written reports of its use date from the twentieth century, though the practice is older.
Healers applied the latex to wounds, warts, boils and fungal skin patches. Bark teas were taken for stomach pain, gut worms, coughs and joint pain.
The sap was also used to try to end a pregnancy. That use is a warning sign, not a recommendation, and it is one reason the plant is kept away from pregnancy.
This page describes what was done in tradition. It does not suggest you copy it.
Stop taking it and call a doctor if you get vomiting that will not stop, bad stomach pain, or blood in your stool.
Get urgent medical help for yellow skin or eyes (jaundice), dark urine, a spreading rash, swelling of the lips or face, or trouble breathing.
If latex gets in your eye, rinse with clean water for several minutes and go to an eye service or emergency department the same day.
See a doctor rather than self-treating if you think you have worms, or if a skin sore is growing, hot or oozing.
In the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, Sucuuba is not approved as a medicine. It is sold as a herbal supplement or ethnobotanical item, with no regulator checking the claims on the label. In Peru and Brazil it is a traditional plant sold in markets rather than a licensed drug.
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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