Thursday, February 20, 2020

The Rainforest Medicinal Plant Guide Series

I am excited to present my new series of books featuring the important medicinal plants of the rainforest that I've  studied and used for more than 20 years. These new plant guides provide up-to-date factual, scientific, and vital information on how to use these powerful medicinal plants effectively to improve your health. I struggled with whether to update my big rainforest plant book, The Healing Power of Rainforest Herbs, since it really needed updating with all the new research that has been conducted on all these wonderful rainforest plants. There was just too much new information on all the plants in the book to do a second edition.  It would be huge and probably necessary to print in two volumes.

Instead, I am doing individual plant guides books on each plant. This will allow me to provide much more information on each plant, provide disease-specific dosages, and more fully explain the main uses that I recommend the plant for, and how the plant can address these uses in much greater detail. These books are between 80 to 150 pages in length.  All will be available through amazon.com as both eBooks and printed books.

Keep in mind, I don't sell herbal supplements or herb products other than books. The books in this series do not promote any specific brands or herbal supplement products however, I'll share my insider information and my research on the plants in a comprehensive consumer guide to help you choose a good product, prepare it correctly, and take it in the proper dosages. These definitive medicinal plant guides concern the plants and their researched effective actions and uses. The information in these guides is more extensive, complete, and unbiased than natural product companies who sell these plants as supplements can provide.  They will contain all the information that you need to use the plants effectively which companies who sell these plants simply cannot legally provide.

The first books in this new series include:


HIBISCUS FLOWER: Nature's Secret for a Healthy Heart

Learn how to address high blood pressure, high cholesterol and clogged arteries, and more naturally without the negative side effects of prescription drugs.
More Information
BUY eBook
Buy Paperback
Buy Wholesale



ACEROLA:  Nature's Secret to Fight Free Radicals

Discover how fighting free radicals with acerola promotes healthy aging and weight loss,  prevents many chronic diseases, and more.
Available March 2020



CAMU-CAMU: Nature's Secret for Disease Prevention

The highest source of natural vitamin C combined with the “Power of Polyphenols” in this Amazon super-fruit provides amazing health benefits
Available March 2020

CHANCA PIEDRA: Nature's Secret for Kidney Stones

Discover how to use this powerful and effective rainforest plant for kidney stones, gout, viruses, and more.
Available April 2020


GRAVIOLA: Nature's Secret for Cancer

Learn about exciting new research that reports this power plant of the Amazon may well be the most powerful natural aid in the battle against cancer. 
Available May 2020



PAU D'ARCO: Nature's Secret to Fight Infections

Learn about the infection-fighting actions of this powerful rainforest plant to kill bacteria, yeast, mold, candida, viruses, and more.
Available July 2020

CAT'S CLAW: Nature's Secret for the Immune System

Learn how to boost your immune system, reduce inflammation, and protect your brain with this effective rainforest vine.
Available June 2020




17 comments:

  1. Great! Terrific! There certainly is pent-up demand for your books, Dr. Taylor ... will I be able to get these in wholesale quantities and, if so, from whom? Also, I've spoken to the publisher of your classic Healing Power of Rainforest Herbs but, of course, they don't have any copies left and can only refer folks to used booksellers. By any chance do YOU have copies you can part with? If so, let me know and I'll buy them! Thank you for all your hard work! We appreciate you more than you know. Derek Clontz

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    1. Hi Derek,
      Thanks so much, and you are most welcome! Yes, the new plant guides in the series will be available for wholesale purchase through most major book distributors. I'll be putting up wholesale and retail purchasing links on the new book series page (rain-tree.com/books.htm) early next week, at least for the Hibiscus Flower book that should be available to purchase next week.

      My publisher of the The Healing Power of Rainforest Herbs, Square One, has that book being reprinted now. It should be available for you to purchase again soon. Give them a call next week and they can tell you more.

      Best wishes,
      Leslie

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  2. Hello dr. Taylor,

    Thank you for all the information you have shared on your website and in your book, The Healing Power of Rainforest Herbs.

    I have looked through your database of formulas and am wondering if N-Tense 2 is very effective for CLL (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia)? My 20 year old brother is on "watch and wait" and we are looking for natural products to help him heal. I read you had a similar challenge yourself and am hopeful you can point us in the right direction.

    Thank you very much for any suggestions of what you would do in this situation.

    Thank you!

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    Replies
    1. You are most welcome! And yes, personally, if I had CLL, I would be supplementing with the NTENSE-2 formula. I have had the personal experience of seeing many benefit from this formula.

      Best wishes to you both,
      Leslie

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    2. Thank you so much for your reply!

      Can NTENSE-2 be taken continually with no breaks at the dosage of 4 capsules 3 times daily? Also, will adding Graviola and Pau d'arco tea be helpful?

      Thank you again so much for your help!

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    3. You're welcome! Ye, the formula can be taken without any breaks and at the labeled dosages of 3-4 capsules three times daily based on body weight (4 x 3 in people over 185 pounds). Based on everything I've read on graviola, it won't be much help for CLL. Pau d'arco tea might help however. Just make sure you prepare it as a decoction (boil the inner bark for at least 10 minutes) rather than just a tea for the best effects.

      Best wishes,
      Leslie

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  3. Thank you dr. Taylor! How long should you take NTENSE-2 for to know if it is working for your CLL? When do you know if the protocol is working or not?

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    1. Personally, I would take it for two months and ask my doctor to run blood work again to see if there were positive changes noted.
      Best,
      Leslie

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  4. Dear Dr. Taylor,

    These books all look wonderful and thanks so much for your work!

    I had a specific question about Pau D'Arco and a disturbing in vivo rat model research study I found. Perhaps you address the study in the Pau D' Arco book though?

    Anyway, I have a rather unusual autoimmune condition and it seems to be connected with pathogenic gut flora imbalances. I have tried MANY rainforest herbs and the one that seems to help most profoundly is Pau D'Arco/Lapacho but this study has me frightened to continue using the herb.

    Essentially, an alcohol extract was found to incur a significant amount of genotoxic DNA damage in specific organ systems tested in a Wistar rat model that were administered different concentrations of the Pau D'Arco extract. Perhaps there is an aspect to this study which I cannot discern and which would put my mind at ease to continue using it but it seems to me that it should be a concern here for anyone wishing to use this herb until any further studies are conducted which further explore and verify more data concerning its mutagenic potential. I am very sad because Pau D'Arco helps me as no other herb so far but am also a bit frightened that I have harmed myself as I have been taking it for a while. Here's the study and thank you for any help you can offer here:

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3389539/


    Sincerely,


    Wayne Maloney

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    1. Hi Wayne,
      The study you are referencing was performed on a concentrated extract of pau d'arco flowers. The bark and flowers may share a few of the same phytochemicals, but the overall chemical profile of each part is quite different. Not sure why these researchers used a flower extract instead of an inner bark extract since the bark extracts are widely sold around the world, and the flower extracts are not. Unless, for whatever reason, they wanted to set up a protocol to say pau d'arco was genotoxic. I've never even seen a pau d'arco flower extract sold commercially here in the US.

      The biggest difference is that inner bark contains a huge amount of antioxidant polyphenol chemicals. The flowers do not. The "genotoxic" results of the flowers in this study were thru oxidative stress by increasing free radicals. Probably if you mixed the flowers with the bark, the antioxidant actions of the bark polyphenols would mitigate (reduce or eliminate) the oxidative/genotoxic action of the flowers.

      There are plenty of other earlier toxicity studies on pau d'arco bark and inner bark showing a non-toxic effect and even an anti-genotoxic effect thru its antioxidant actions. It's best to use those studies to evaluate the toxicity since I'm assuming you are taking a bark extract or tea. This study on the flowers isn't really applicable.

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    2. Dear Dr. Taylor,

      Yes, it stands to reason that the flowers of Pau d'arco share chemical characteristics with the bark but the study, unfortunately, does not even address that specifically nor the antioxidant mitigation angle that you mention. Many chemicals in which antioxidant and anti-mutagenic effects are observed are often dose dependent as well and when dosage ranges increase the same chemicals have been shown to exhibit pro-oxidative and mutagenic effects. I've noted this being the case with studies involving many phytochemicals and flavonoids. I found a study of a whole plant extract of Carqueja which resulted in in vivo genotoxicity, for example. I also realize there are limitations to both in vitro and in vivo tests and test models as well as to comparing the effects upon heavily processed cells and other chemical and biological materials in culture beds and also within the cellular and organ systems in rodents to that of human models.

      Note in the conclusion discussion portion of that flower extract study that it cites the bark extracts being used medicinally in human populations and implicitly correlates the results of their study of the flower extract with the use of the bark extract in human models and suggests caution be exercised and further studies done to understand the mechanism and potential for DNA and mutagenic damage.

      Do you know of and can you send me the links to any genotoxicity studies of the inner bark extract of Pau d'arco? Searching myself I could not find any genotoxicity studies of Pau d'arco whole bark extracts. I did find some chemical isolation studies which suggest there is a genotoxic DNA and chromosomal damaging mechanisms in animal in vivo models relative to one of the main chemical components of Pau d'arco, namely beta-Lapachone, but all but one of the studies are behind a pay wall and I cannot access the full papers and studies' details to critique them. Perhaps you can access them yourself?:

      https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9639674/

      https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17421057/

      https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20112181/

      https://www.scielo.br/pdf/jbpml/v54n5/1676-2444-jbpml-54-05-0279.pdf

      https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12413627/

      Of course in theory, any chemical that inhibits, kills, or alters cancer cells in a potentially therapeutic manner can, unfortunately, possibly exert a simultaneous negative effect upon healthy cell and DNA expression as well. When a study isolates a specific chemical component from a whole plant I realize that caution must be exerted in interpretation of its results in comparison with whole plant extracts and the presence of other antioxidant and anti-mutagenic compounds within the whole plant could potentially mitigate, prevent, or reverse such damage induced by say, a specific dosage level of beta-Lapachone and likewise other chemical components relative to other supplements as well as nutritive intake occurring simultaneously could do the same. Also, dosage levels inducing the genotoxic effects of the chemicals involved are important factors. The troubling thing about the flower study is a whole extract was used. Do you know for a fact that the chemical constituency of the flower extract is markedly different than the bark in that, as you say, the flowers contain far less or no chemicals which exert antioxidant and anti-mutagenic actions? Do you have a comparison analysis of flowers to bark extracts you could link or post?  

      If you can locate any specific studies in vivo animal models which show that a whole bark extract of Pau d'arco was not genotoxic and was actually anti-mutagenic please do send them to me! I hope you can understand my concern here based upon what I have been able to find. I am really upset about it as I love the effects of the Pau d'arco but I am somewhat scared to continue using it right now based upon the data I have seen.


      Thanks in advance for all of your assistance!


      Sincerely,

      Wayne

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    3. p.s.

      To note, Many chemicals in which antioxidant and anti-mutagenic effects are observed are often dose dependent as well and when dosage ranges increase the same chemicals in higher concentrations have been shown to exhibit pro-oxidative and genotoxic mutagenic effects. I've noted this being the case with studies involving many phytochemicals, polyphenols, flavonoids, etc. I found whole plant extract studies on Carqueja and Damiana as well as other herbs which indicate this and often the concentrations are not beyond the possibility of human intake from an extract. So these studies can often become confusing. I also realize there are limitations to both in vitro and in vivo tests and test models as well as to comparing the effects upon heavily processed cells and other chemical and biological materials in culture beds and also within the cellular and organ systems in rodents to that of human models as in many respects, despite similarities, there are marked differences between humans and typical laboratory rodent models in terms of their alimentary and metabolic systems and how those process and break down same chemicals which then get translated into overall systemic effects. Much big pharma funded research is also likely seeking to disparage herbs and treatment potentials which they cannot patent and profit from themselves though big pharma also fears wellness as the assurance of disease is critical to its hundreds of billions of dollars in worldwide annual intake.

      Thanks again, Leslie!

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    4. Hi Wayne,
      All of this will be covered in my new book on pau d'arco. I think these books on these rainforest plants are important because I help make sense of all the research and download and read ALL the research. Regardless of what these researchers say in the first study, a flower extract is NOT a inner bark extract, because many chemicals that are found in the bark are not in the flowers and there are some chemicals in the flowers that are not in the bark. These researcher didn't even study the phytochemistry of the extract they used... how can they scientifically claim it's applicable to a bark extract?

      I'm currently finishing up the book on graviola and will start on the pau d'arco book shortly thereafter. And yes... a whole chapter had to be devoted on toxicity studies on graviola to help explain how invalid some the toxicity studies really were - I'm assuming funded by big pharma trying to protect their profits. I'll ethically look at the new pau d'arco research in the same way.

      More to come.

      Best,
      Leslie

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    5. Thanks again, Leslie! I am very much looking forward to the pau d'arco book! I found another isolated Lapachol genotoxicity study which might be of interest if you do not all ready have it yourself:

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3036112/

      Best,

      Wayne

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  5. pps

    I am presuming that you'll covert this in the pau d'arco book but I am perplexed to some extent as to why no supplements seem to be available that are derived from the heartwood as it seems concentrations of Lapachol are highest within the heartwood though perhaps to an imbalanced degree relative to other polyphenol and phytochemical compounds? I searched and cannot find a heartwood extract anywhere.

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  6. Never mind about that last comment though I'm sure you'll cover this aspect in the book as I found this:

    Most of the chemical analyses of pau d’arco have been performed on the heartwood of the tree, rather than on the phloem, or inner lining of the bark, which is used medicinally. Traditionally it is the living bark of a plant, especially a tree or shrub, that is used medicinally and not the heartwood. The reason is simple: the nutrients and representative families of chemical substances used to sustain the life of the tree are found in greatest concentration in the cambium layer and phloem of the living bark. The outer bark and heartwood are, essentially, inactive materials that only serve to provide strength to the tree. This may explain why a 1994 review of pau d’arco products on the Canadian market found no or low levels of lapachol in all of the products. While poor quality of products is probably one reason for this finding, levels of lapachol also depend on whether the inner bark or wood is used. Typical levels of total naphthoquinones expressed as ‘lapachol’ are 1 to 2% for the inner bark, but lapachol itself is likely to be only a minor constituent of this plant part.

    The rationale of using the inner bark of pau d’arco is exquisitely explained in popular terms by Mowrey:‘The life processes of a mature tree are carried out in the thin corridor lying between the outer bark and the inner heartwood. Pull the bark off a tree and you will notice moist, very thin layers of tissue that seem to shred when picked at with the hands. This is the cambium layer. Its purpose is to create new tree tissues, such as phloem, through cell division. The newest, youngest phloem cells are just outside the cambium. As new phloem is added, older cells are crushed and pressed into the bark. Younger, newer cells added to the inside of the cambium layer are called xylem. Newer xylem is called sapwood; older xylem is crushed and pressed into the heart of the tree. It is therefore known as heartwood. The actively conducting tissues of a tree are the thin layers of fresh xylem and phloem on each side of the cambium. Indiscriminate combining of older, less active layers of bark and tree with the younger, living tissues results in a dramatic dilution of active principle and medicinal value. Yet it is a common practice.’

    http://cdn2.webninjashops.com/ariyahealth/product-download/hepau25_sl1.pdf

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    Replies
    1. Yes, Wayne, it will all be covered in the new pau d'arco book. Including how to source the best products which is very importance for this important rainforest resource. Some pau d'arco "bark" that is imported in from Brazil to make pau d'arco herbal remedies comes from lumber operations where huge trees are processed into lumber. Literally all the bark (outer and inner) and any remaining branches are stripped off the trees mechanically, then swept up into a pile to be processed into "pau d'arco bark" for export. The heartwood has a higher profit for lumber than an herbal remedy product. I don't know of any heartwood herbal supplements either.

      Best wishes,
      Leslie

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Welcome to Leslie Taylor's New Blog

Hello! My name is Leslie Taylor and I am the founder of Raintree Nutrition, Inc ., a company that was a leader in creating a world-wid...