Jaborandi

Pilocarpus microphyllus

Jaborandi is a perennial shrub reaching heights of four to five feet. Jaborandi has large grayish green leaves covered with tiny oil-producing glands; smooth grayish bark; and small, reddish purple flowers.

If you hold a leaf of the jaborandi tree up to the light, you will see that its surface is sprinkled with translucent dots, as though it were under attack by tiny insect pests. Each dot is a gland that secretes an alkaloid-rich oil, and it is for the sake of this oil that jaborandi leaves are regularly harvested in the wild. From them are extracted several substances, the most important of which is the alkaloid pilocarpine, a weapon in the medical battle against the blinding disease glaucoma.

A tea made from the leaves has long been important in Brazilian folk medicine. When drunk, jaborandi acts as a diuretic and sweat-inducer. Applied to the scalp, it is said to prevent baldness, although no scientific study yet supports this belief. Elsewhere, an infusion of the powdered dried leaves has been used as a stimulant and expectorant, and has been incorporated into the treatment of a number of diseases, including rheumatism and pleurisy. In the United States, doctors once used extracts of the leaves to stimulate the flow of urine in patients whose normal bladder functions had been shocked into inactivity by surgery, but this job is now done in other ways.

All these effects hint at the way pilocarpine works in the human body. It behaves much like a substance in the body that helps transmit impulses from the ends of autonomous nerves- the ones that trigger the body's automatic functions, such as the beating of the heart and the focusing of the eye- to the muscles that do the work. As such, it stimulates the heartbeat, peristaltic contractions in the intestine, and contractions of the uterus.

When applied to the eye of someone suffering from the early stages of glaucoma, it stimulates the muscles that contract the pupil, and in the process relieves the pressure within the eye. Since the disease blinds by building up pressure until the mechanisms of the eye can no longer function, this relief-while no cure for the disease-can save the eyesight of its victim. An application of pilocarpine takes effect in less than 15 minutes and continues to protect the eye for about 24 hours.

Parts used

Leaf.

Uses

The name "jaborandi" derives from an Amazonian word meaning "slobber weed", as the use of it causes intense salivation. Jaborandi, also known as alfavaca in parts of South America, is marketed in the United States and in Latin America as an ingredient in shampoo. In earlier times, Brazilians believed that if they applied jaborandi to their heads it would prevent baldness.

Native Brazilians used jaborandi to treat diabetes and to induce sweating. It was the latter that first attracted the attention of foreign scientists. In the 1870s, Symphronio Continho brought the plant to Europe, where its ability to make people sweat and salivate translated into medicines for dry mouth, a symptom it still combats, especially in people undergoing chemotherapy. Contemporaries of Continho isolated pilocarpine and discovered its use in ophthalmology to contract the pupil and treat glaucoma in early stages. In homeopathic medicine jaborandi was one ingredient in treatments for mumps. Oil from jaborandi leaves contains the alkaloids pilocarpine and jaborine. Pilocarpine mimics or enhances the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine - the primary transmitter of nerve impulses of the parasympathetic system. Pilocarpine controls saliva, sweat, and tear glands, as well as contraction of the eye. Pilocarpine can counteract the effects of atropine by stimulating paralyzed nerve endings. Jaborine has qualities similar to atropine.

Habitat & cultivation

The jaborandi is native to Brazil.

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