Chaparral, also referred to as greasewood
and creosote bush, is an herb derived from the common desert
shrub Larrea tridentata. Native to the Southwestern United
States, the leaves of this desert plant have been used for
centuries by Native American healers as a tonic for the treatment
of cancer, snake bites, infections, arthritis, tuberculosis and
venereal disease.
Modern herbalists had come to view chaparral as
an effective herbal antibiotic and as a treatment for intestinal
parasites. Chaparral was also widely employed as a remedy for the
treatment of colds, flu, cancer, and diarrhea.
Chaparral contains a compound called
nordihydroguaiaretic acid, or NDGA, for short. NDGA is a powerful
antioxidant, that is widely used in the food industry as a
preservative for lard and animal shortenings. Early studies had
raised hopes that NDGA might prove to be an effective treatment
for cancer when it was revealed that NDGA was able to inhibit the
growth of cancer cells in animals.
Human studies were disappointing, however, and
raised new concerns about NDGA's toxicity after researchers
reported finding lesions on the kidneys and lymph nodes of
animals. Subsequently chaparral was removed from the FDA's list
of products that are generally recognized as
safe, or "GRAS".
NOTE: Isolated Substances do NOT contain the MANY other Factors,
which are in the WHOLE Herb and which PROTECT the Body and can
AMPLIFY the Actions of a Particular Herb!