Cold weather. Stress on the job. Financial pressures. All these things can take a toll on your health. Even if you’re sailing through life with the greatest of ease, you never know when something could bring you down.

There’s too much to enjoy in life to waste time feeling low. Especially when you’ve got a miracle fruit from the Amazon like Camu Camu, with its cornucopia of phyto-nutrients proven to support good physical, mental and emotional well-being.

Top among these is vitamin C. No other plant in the world is known to have as much natural vitamin C as Camu Camu. And since it’s a whole food, it also contains cofactors necessary for vitamin C to be absorbed and utilized by the body.

Vitamin C plays a key role in mental and emotional health by catalyzing the production of serotonin, a mood-balancing chemical in the brain associated with a sense of well-being and happiness. Low serotonin levels result in low mood, lack of concentration and difficulty sleeping. Inability to tolerate normal stress levels is another characteristic of low serotonin.

Serotonin is depleted through improper diet, use of stimulants, alcohol or recreational drugs, and emotional stress. Long-term use of antidepressant drugs can also lower serotonin levels. The vitamin C and natural cofactors in Camu Camu, along with other dietary and lifestyle changes, help bring serotonin levels back to normal.*

It Gets Even Better

Camu Camu also contains three essential B vitamins -- thiamin, riboflavin and niacin. Like vitamin C, these play important roles in health.

Thiamin (vitamin B₁) affects energy and learning capacity and enhances circulation. Riboflavin (vitamin B₂) is important for growth and red blood cell production, and is required for metabolizing food.*

Niacin (vitamin B₃) helps reduce stress by supporting the nervous system and proper metabolism. It also helps flush toxins out of the body.*

When you’re healthy, you’re happy. Read on to discover what else Camu Camu can do for you...

Camu Camu and Nature’s Secrets to Healthy Aging

By-products of normal metabolism, environmental toxins and other harmful microscopic critters all produce free radicals in the body. Free radicals wreak havoc by damaging cell membranes and polluting intracellular fluid. This weakens tissues, organs and glands and accelerates the aging process. The high antioxidant action of Camu Camu’s vitamin C helps stop and repair this damage.*

Phytonutrients in Camu Camu ascorbic acid (vitamin C), bioflavonoids, beta-carotene, calcium, iron, leucine, niacin, phosphorus, potassium, protein, riboflavin, thiamin, serine, valine, alpha-pinene, d-limonene

“Camu Camu’s bioflavonoids, important cofactors and the many attributes of the full vitamin C complex provide a myriad of benefits to the body,” says naturopathic physician, Dr. James Hawver. “They help strengthen the capillaries and arteries, help the body utilize oxygen more efficiently, and promote general healing.”*

Camu Camu also contains leucine, an amino acid that helps with the growth and repair of bones, skin and muscles. Leucine stimulates the production of growth hormone, and aids in regulating blood-sugar levels.*

To Plant or Not to Plant?

When the decision was made to make Camu Camu available to the rest of the world, the choice was made to plant trees rather than harvest wild fruits. The choice was easy to make. It was clear the fruit would become popular, but over-harvesting wild Camu Camu threatened to compromise the species. Planting provided the best way to ensure an ongoing, consistent supply for generations to come. The rich soil of the Amazon basin, where the Amazon Herb Company’s own Camu Camu grove is located, was the perfect spot to begin this multi-year process.

Nourished by the Amazon River

Four months of the year, the trees are covered with floodwaters. Heavy rains cause the river to rise, which then moves plant debris from all over the Rainforest, creating a rich deposit of nutrients in areas where Camu Camu is growing. The trees then use this enriched soil and river water to grow and produce fruit. No chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides are used.

Floodwaters bring nutrient-dense debris
to areas where Camu Camu is grown.

After the Flood ~ Caring for Young Trees

When the floodwaters recede, plant debris covers the Rainforest floor. Special care must be taken at this time to ensure young Camu Camu trees are able to push through this debris and grow strong and tall. Workers meticulously scan the area, removing obstacles and providing stakes to hold the tender young trees.

Harvesting the Fruits of Time & Patience

New trees can take up to eight years to first produce fruit. Once they begin, however, fruiting can be quite abundant, with two or more harvests per year. Harvesting is often done from boats or canoes during periods of high water.

Camu Camu fruits are hand-picked
before being loaded onto a boat for
transport to a processing facility.

Drying Ensures Quality & Potency

After picking, the fresh Camu Camu fruits are transported by boat across a lagoon to the Amazon Herb Company’s state of the art drying facility in the Rainforest. There the seeds are removed and the fruit dried slowly and carefully under controlled conditions and low temperatures. The result is a highly concentrated fruit powder with all the nutrients of Camu Camu intact for your body to use.

“With this letter we express to you our deep gratitude in the name of the communities of the Rio Pisqui region, for having given us such significant support with the formation of the Federation of the Native Communities of the Rio Pisqui Basin. We have already obtained scholarships of study for the young students of the Pisqui region that we thought we would never obtain.

Thanks to the Federation, we are already beginning to work on the titles for the addition of territory to the communities, which has been one of the fundamental problems for each community.”

~ Hidelfonso Del Aguila Flores,
President of the Rio Pisqui Federation

Clarifying Territorial Boundaries

The words above, written in a recent letter to Amazon Herb Company, are welcome news for anyone who cares about the future of the Amazon Rainforest. The Rio Pisqui Federation, founded in 2006 with support from Amazon Herb Company, comprises ten Shipibo communities along a remote 100-mile stretch of the Rio Pisqui in Peru. Establishing the Federation was an important step toward gaining recognition and greater say over what happens within their ancestral land.

Conducting a land survey to determine exact territorial boundaries is another crucial step. In 2007, Amazon Herb Company sponsored a team of engineers to help accomplish this task. If all goes well, over one million acres, a territory over fifty times the size of Manhattan, will be deeded indigenous land. All due diligence is underway.

Understanding the Dangers of Oil Extraction

During the engineers’ survey, it has come to light that the region contains a significant amount of oil. Enough to attract oil companies, who are actively looking for oil reserves in the area. Fortunately, because the Rio Pisqui Federation was founded, oil company representatives must get permission from the communities before setting up operations.

To help the members of the Rio Pisqui Federation understand the dangers associated with oil operations, Amazon Herb Company presented them with a video documenting devastating oil-related contamination in Ecuador, and encouraged them to meet to discuss the issue. After watching the video, eight out of the ten communities decided not to permit oil representatives to meet with them. Chiefs of each community were presented with copies of the video to support them in sharing the information.

Supporting Formal Education

Education is one of the core values of the Rio Pisqui Federation, and establishing formal schools in each of the communities a central goal. Through formalizing education, they seek to protect their traditional knowledge and way of life, strengthen their communities, and more effectively engage with the outside world.

Amazon Herb Company is lending a helping hand in two important ways. First, by providing scholarships to enable some of their youth to attend school in a neighboring community. And secondly, by actively pursuing avenues to provide educational programs to each of the communities.