Tell your healthcare providers about any dietary supplements you’re taking, such as herbs, vitamins, minerals, and natural or home remedies. This will help them manage your care and keep you safe.
What is it?
Camu-camu has not been shown to prevent or treat cancer in humans.
Camu-camu is a small plant that grows in South America. Laboratory studies and a small study in humans have shown that the fruits have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. More research is needed. Because camu-camu has high amounts of vitamin C, it may interfere with certain chemotherapy drugs.
What are the potential uses and benefits?
Cancer
Camu-camu has not been shown to prevent or treat cancer in humans.
Immune support
There is no scientific evidence to support this use.
Atherosclerosis
There is no scientific evidence to support this use.
Arthritis
This claim is not backed by scientific research.
What else do I need to know?
Do Not Take if:
You are taking chemotherapy drugs: Camu-camu has high amounts of vitamin C, which may interfere with their activity.
Camu-camu is a shrub native to the Amazon region of South America. Due to its sour taste, it is not generally consumed as food. However because of the fruit’s high vitamin C content, camu-camu is marketed as a dietary supplement with superfruit and immune boosting properties, and as having benefit for various conditions including diabetes and cancer.
Camu-camu fruits showed antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects (5)(6)(7) with pharmacological activity exhibited by the leaves as well (4). In murine models, camu-camu fruits showed protective prebiotic effects against obesity (8); and shifted gut microbial composition that translated into antitumor activity along with a stronger anti-PD-1 response (9). A study is underway to determine if camu-camu can modulate gut microbiota in AIDS patients on antiretroviral therapy (10).
Due to its high vitamin C content, camu-camu may interfere with certain chemotherapy drugs. However, vitamin C content in frozen camu-camu pulp was shown to decrease progressively (1).
Purported Uses and Benefits
Cancer
Immune system
Atherosclerosis
Arthritis
Mechanism of Action
The compounds isolated from the leaves of camu-camu, ellagic acid, 4-O-methylellagic acid and 4-(alpha-rhamnopyranosyl) ellagic acid, were found to exhibit noncompetitive inhibition of aldose-reductase, a possible target for diabetes mellitus (4). Camu-camu juice decreases inflammatory and oxidative stress markers such as 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine, total reactive oxygen species, C reactive protein, IL-6, and IL-8 in smokers (5).
Herb-Drug Interactions
Camu-camu has a high amount of Vitamin C which is an antioxidant. It may interact with certain chemotherapy drugs that rely on the generation of free radicals for their cytotoxic effects.
