Common names | Pau d’arco, Taheebo, Lapacho tree 

Scientific name | Tabebuia avellanedae

Used part | Bark

Known active compounds | β-lapachone
Potential benefits in cosmetics | anti-inflammatory, wound-healing 

Product name | Taheebo-ANB

 

 

Plant Story

Pau d’arco (Tabebuia avellanedae) is a tree native to South and Central America’s tropical rainforest. The common name is used specifically in reference to the inner bark of the tree, which has been found to have many health benefits. The tree produces a variety of pink to purple flowers. The bark is incredibly dense and rot-resistant, making it a viable source for creating tools and hunting bows by native tribes. It has also been traditionally used as a folk medicine to treat bacterial infections, blood coagulation, inflammatory diseases, and even cancer. The Callawaya tribes used a poultice of this bark to treat a variety of skin inflammatory diseases, such as eczema, psoriasis, skin infections, and even skin cancers. There have been speculations that pau d’arco extract have anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties by inhibiting their process of producing oxygen and energy.

 

It has long been known that pau d’arco bark has anti-inflammatory effects. Using immunoblotting analysis and NO assays, one study was able to find that the bark extract significantly suppressed the production of prostaglandins, nitric oxide, and inhibited the mRNA expression of their catalyzing enzymes iNOS and COX-2 in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells. It has been speculated that these effects were due to a unique bioactive constituent in pau d’arco bark, β-lapachone and further research suggests that this compound enhanced the proliferation in several cells by facilitating the migration of fibroblasts and human endothelial cells through different MAPK signaling pathways, thus accelerating wound healing in vitro.