Unleash your inner Tarzan: The potent erectile dysfunction remedy swinging from a South American jungle vine
I wasn’t even sure how to spell the plant’s name-that’s how obscure it is. But sex and science have merged at this herb to produce an awkward Siren song, so I’ve been listening, following for months. But I suppose I should start at the beginning and explain to you how I met the phantom vine.
A small cohort of college professors and students at the Borough of Manhattan Community College wanted to conduct some important biomedical research at the school. The college administrators told them that if they could find the space (always at a premium in New York City), the school would find the money, so they set up a laboratory in an abandoned dark room the size of a suburban closet. The school came through with the funding, and the group began work on three projects. The first two related to cancer and the natural processes that the human body has to suppress the growth of tumors. The third project was designed to study the effects of an “herbal remedy” on tissue samples. The remedy is a Third World treatment for erectile dysfunction, and the scientists were looking for indications of efficacy and also any potentially risky side effects. When I caught wind of the research they were undertaking, I asked the scientists’ permission to document their work. They agreed, and I moved into their closet.
The herb is actually a vine called Capadulla or Kapadulla, depending on whom you ask. It grows in the forests of Guyana, South America, which is located on the north end of the continent between Venezuela, Brazil, Surinam, and the Atlantic Ocean. For as long as anyone knows, the locals have been steeping the bark to produce tea and wine that the men drink to preserve or rejuvenate their virility. Occasionally, a man will have an adverse reaction. Some attribute this to overdosing (although “proper” dosing is done entirely by feel), while others attribute it to poor vine selection. (There are vines that look like Capa-dulla that are known to be toxic.) These poisoned men often require sophisticated medical care, and the relatively few airlines that service Guyana know that they must respond quickly when notified of such a case.
But in spite of how commonplace Capadulla is in Guyana, no one knows anything about it beyond what it looks like and what it is purported to do. The active chemical compounds are not known, nor is the mechanism by which those compounds work to support sexual function. The results of the experimentation in the New York lab/closet are too rudimentary to be meaningful yet. A Guyanese chemist at the school (the scientist who first expressed interest in the plant and got his hands on samples) is also working on the Capadulla mystery by mapping the chemical compounds found in the plant. His results are also too cursory to be deemed reliable. “But,” he says, “early indications are that the remedy is indeed effective.”
Filling in the blanks
In this day and age, it seems incredible that there is anything left in the world without an Internet presence. The idea that a plant is beyond the reach of Google and Lexis Nexis and all the other search engines, with their tentacles that reach into the nooks and crannies of every sort of documentation and private existence, did not occur to me when I began my quest to fill in Capadulla’s blanks. “What is Capadulla?” I asked Jeeves. He shrugged. I typed “Kapadulla” into the colorful Google box, and two links popped up. One was a press release that I had written about the scientists’ shoebox-sized lab, and the other was a report on “Sustainable Logging and Saw-milling Operation in the North West District, Guyana.” I opened the report. Under the heading of “Biological Environment: Flora,” the sum total of information about Kapadulla was this: “The forest is to about 40 m high with a closed canopy and is roped with liana such as monkey ladder, Fire rope, and Kapadulla.”
I was getting nowhere fast, so I went to one of the City University’s libraries and sought the assistance of a reference librarian. With her help, and the vast resources of the university, I was just able to catch glimpses of Capadulla and overhear snippets of an underground conversation about the herb. I found the lyrics of a song called “West Indian Weed Woman” that mentioned it. The verse went like this:
She had Fat Bush, Elder Bush, Black Pepper Bush,
French Toyo, Coopera, and Capadulla,
Tamarind Leaf, Money Bush, Soldier Fork Leaf,
Pumpkin Blossom, and even Devil Due,
Leeman, congo Pom, Pingalor, Physic Nut, and Lily Root
In fact the only bush that she didn’t got,
Was bush in the everyday suit!
I also found a website called Guymine.com run by a man named Whiddon Sibdhannie, Jr. (He says you can call him Junior.) He is a native of Guyana, and his website promotes and sells Guyanese products–including Capadulla wine. I e-mailed him, asking him about his products and expressing interest in obtaining some of his Capadulla wine. I even set up a local Guyanese email address in an attempt to appear less American. He never responded.
Finally, I found an article called “Pineapple Wine Tasting Success” in a Guyanese newspaper called the Stabroek News. The piece was run on Sept. 26, 2005, and it told the story of Elbert Jack, “the proprietor of Jack’s Pineapple Farm, which manufactures ‘Jack-Up Stud Wine.'” The wine, as its name suggests, is designed in part to alleviate erectile dysfunction and is made from crushed fermented pineapples and Capadulla. The Capadulla grows wild around the farm. I tried to locate a phone number for Jack’s Pineapple Farm, but Guyanese directory assistance listed no such business.
It was like eavesdropping on the subway in Queens, hearing exotic phrases and references by people who don’t bother to elaborate because for them it’s a way of life. Plus they’re not that interested in quantifying and qualifying and codifying in the first place. The Guyanese don’t explain Capadulla for the same reasons that Americans don’t explain why their favorite jeans, sport jackets, or little black dresses make them feel good when they go out for the evening with someone special-it’s just so obvious in that “you-know-what-I-mean” kind of way.
What I needed was a Guyanese- American, a man fluent in both cultures, a man whose time away from Guyana had allowed him to see what is so remarkable about Capadulla. Toward that end, I contacted the Guyana Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The Guyanese ambassador’s name was listed as “Bayney Karran,” his title, “His Excellency, Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary.” (I looked up “plenipotentiary.” It means “invested with complete authority to act independently.”) Slightly intimidated, I sent him an e-mail.
Dear Sir:
I am investigating a Guyanese remedy for erectile dysfunction that is made from the Capadulla vine that grows in Guyana. I am having some difficulty finding information. Could you refer me to a Guyanese scientist or some other source of information on the herb, or could I speak with you about Capadulla wine and tea?
Thank you,
Heather Harris
I received no answer. My thoughts turned again to the Guyanese chemist and BMCC professor who brought the herb back to the United States to be studied. Though I knew he considered his results to be inconclusive so far, I decided to ask him for an interview anyway. He agreed, tentatively, and I rushed down to his office before he had time to change his mind.
Growing pains
I found Dr. Dewprashad amid stacks of books and what looked like leaves and twigs. He handed me a woody section of vine that was about the circumference of the circle I can make with my thumb and middle finger, and about the length of my hand from wrist to fingertip. It was a medium shade of brown, and the outer layer of bark was flaking off in half-inch to inch pieces.
“That’s Capadulla,” he said.
I held the rough sample in my hand and tried to imagine it growing in the forest. “How do you make the tea or wine?” I asked.
“You put the bark in boiling water,” he replied.
“You don’t use the leaves?” I asked. He shook his head no.
He handed me a sealed plastic bag full of more dried brown plant matter. “We used that to make a tea for high blood pressure. We used this,” he pointed to yet another dried herb, “to treat fevers.” His office was full of plants whose medicinal properties had been discovered by trial and error and communicated through word of mouth from one generation to the next in the isolated forests of Guyana. His hope was to systematically work his way through the samples, studying their chemistry and evaluating their potential efficacy and toxicity.
“Do you think your research will affect the way the Guyanese use these remedies?” I asked.
“No,” he said dispassionately. “It’s an extremely isolated country.”
I asked Dr. Dewprashad to talk about what it was like to grow up in Guyana with this kind of medicine, but he refused. He said it didn’t matter. He said that he hoped to publish a scientific article about Capadulla by the beginning of next year, and that I could read everything I needed to know then. He suggested that if I was interested in Guyana, travel writer Lawrence Durrell had written an excellent book. He smiled politely, and I thanked him for his time.
Navigating around the roadblocks
All my roadblocks aside, I have no doubt that someone in the very near future will pluck Capadulla out of the forests of Guyana and try to put it on the road to becoming the next natural Viagra. Someone will determine its chemistry, compare it to what we already know, evaluate the production costs, and predict the liabilities.
If it is declared “safe and effective,” maybe Capadulla will help people. Maybe it will give men who are aging or have a debilitating disease a chance to enjoy longer and more gratifying sex lives, and maybe it will be safer and more effective than our current remedies for erectile dysfunction. But the modernization of Capadulla, like all forms of progress, will come at a price-most likely one that will be paid by the locals in Guyana. Or the same one that the pharmaceutical companies have put on so many other helpful natural remedies: Changing the original molecules into a synthetic, patentable form that will carry risks Mother Nature never intended.
But we’ll keep tracking the story, looking for sources of the real thing, and you’ll be among the first to know when an all-natural Capadulla source is available here in the U.S. In the meantime, there is life beyond Viagra. For some of HSI’s top erectile dysfunction remedies, visit www.HSIBaltimore.com , click on the “Members Archive” option at the top of the page, log on with the username and password listed on page 8 of this issue, and download the July 2004 and April 2000 issues of Members Alert.
