Chanca Piedra and Coronavirus

As many of you know, I’ve been working on a new series of books on the effective rainforest medicinal plants I’ve used for over 20 years as a health practitioner and product formulator to treat many types of diseases and conditions.  I wanted to share with you some vital information on one of these remarkable plants I’ve long used for viruses in light of the current events about viral concerns.
  

In fact, I’m working on the medicinal plant guide book for this plant right now, but it won’t be available for at least a month. The plant is called Chanca Piedra (Phyllanthus niruri) and it’s currently available as an herbal supplement under various labels in the marketplace.

I’ve used chanca piedra for many years as an effective herbal antiviral. It’s been the subject of clinical research in humans to treat hepatitis B and C. It’s also been confirmed to be effective against several herpes viruses (including the chicken pox virus in children), HIV, influenza, dengue, and others.  It works by inhibiting enzymes and other substances that viruses need to divide and multiply (transcriptase and protease), while also providing a direct toxic effect to some viruses (as well as bacteria). Researchers have confirmed the presence of at least 8 natural plant chemicals in the plant with antiviral actions.  It has not been scientifically tested against this current coronavirus, however I used it effectively with several clients (including my own granddaughter) when the country was fighting the H1N1 swine flu virus years ago.

In addition to being a good antiviral, significant new research on chanca piedra confirms it is an effective immune modulator.  It significantly increases the production and activation of immune cells responsible for fighting infections, while lowering the production of immune cells that cause inflammation.  This has also been confirmed in human research.  In human trials, adults and children with pneumonia, tuberculosis, hepatitis, chicken pox, and Hanson's disease (leprosy) mounted a much stronger immune response to fight these infections which sped healing and viral/bacterial clearance.  It was also noted that immune cells responsible for immunity were also increased, and those taking chanca piedra for their infections had no relapses or secondary infections and had higher levels of antigens (cells responsible for immunity). The small trial on leprosy patients led researchers to surmise that it's strong and immediate immunity response might be helpful as a preventative/anti-infection remedy to protect caregivers of this devastating disease.

In the people with pneumonia, asthma, and tuberculosis that were studied, a significant reduction in lung inflammation was also noted with significantly less pro-inflammatory immune cells causing lung cell stress, damage and cell death. Chanca piedra’s many strong antioxidant plant chemicals were probably one reason for this noted effect.  However, other research has been published on chanca piedra’s effective anti-inflammatory actions delivered by other novel anti-inflammatory chemicals in the plant.

I don't know if chanca piedra can kill this particular coronavirus outright like it can other viruses. That it boosts the immune system to fight both bacterial and viral infections naturally, as well as protects the lungs from inflammation and cell damage bacteria and virus causes in the lungs was enough for me to stock up on chanca piedra to protect myself and family, just in case, during these trying times.  

  

If you want to get chanca piedra to have on hand, just in case, look for a supplement that uses chanca piedra that was harvested (preferably wild-harvested) in Peru or Brazil. Buy a whole-herb in bulk, capsules, or tablets and avoid the dry or liquid extracts that used alcohol to prepare them.  The active ingredients in chanca piedra are water soluble and don't much like alcohol.  Also there are other species of Phyllanthus plants being sold as “chanca piedra” harvested in China, India and Southeast Asia that are not as effective and don’t contain as many natural plant compounds as the South American Phyllanthus niruri species does (lots of research confirms this).  Personally, I purchase chanca piedra from Rainforest Pharmacy (rainpharm.com) since they are wild-harvesting it from Peruvian rainforest. You can also get their product from Amazon.com.

I’ve just uploaded all the new research on Chanca Piedra in my Tropical Plant Database at http://rain-tree.com/chanca.htm  so you can see all the new research conducted on this effective rainforest plant with many active chemicals and many medicinal uses.  Hopefully, the new rainforest medicinal plant guide book on chanca piedra that updates all the information shown in the plant database will be available very soon. But effective dosage information for the plant is already shown in the database file. As soon as the new chanca piedra book is available, it will be announced on this page:  http://rain-tree.com/books.htm

Stay well and take care,

Leslie Taylor

UPDATE  April 15, 2020

The new Rainforest Medicinal Plant Guide for chanca piedra is now available.  If you have a kindle account you can read the ebook for free now.  Follow the links below:

eBook

Paperback

Wholesale