Guarana

[MrBumpy]

Now, I'm sure you've all heard of Guarana from those adds for V and Red bull and all those energy drinks. Now, I'm jsut wanting something confirmed of falsified.

I hear alot of people saying that those drinks give them heaps of energy and such, I'm jsut wodnering if that could be a placebo effect? From my reading I thought the Guarana only contained caffine. Is that true? if not, could anyone tell me what else Guarana contains?

-bumpy

[Guest reville]

I think its guaranine or something like that . similar to caffeine in activity but takes longer to break down

thats all i know

has anyone seen a guarana vine in australia?

paullinia cupana i think

[Guest Ramon]

Can't comment on the caffeine things although I have also heard the same but as to the other effects.

A few years ago whilst climbing I was having a excellent day. I made comment a few times that day regarding how energenic I felt.

It was not for a while until I remembered that I had taken some Guarana capsules.

To my mind this confirmed that it was not placebo because I had forgoten I had taken the capsules until much later in the day.

[MrBumpy]

ok, I should probably explain what I was meaning when I said placebo, I had a conversation with someone who said that caffiene didn't give them energy or anything, but the Guarana did. I can remember reading that Guarana only contained caffiene, but in higher amounts then coffee or tea.

Could they jsut be thinking that the Guarana effects them differently?

-bumpy

[MrBumpy]

ok, I found the Guarana Vault on Erowid.

FAMILY : Sapindaceae

GENUS : Paullinia

SPECIES : cupana

COMMON NAMES : Guarana, Fruits of Youth (seeds)

IDENTIFICATION :

The Guarana plant has a few pinnate leaves and yellow racemes. The chestnutlike red fruits with two to three white and black seeds which look like eyes.

RANGE :

The humid and hot tropical rain forests of the Amazon.

USES :

The seeds contain 5% caffeine. It is traditionally used as a stimulant and as an aphrodesiac

I knew I'd read it somewhere.

-bumpy

[Guest Ramon]

I have no scientific proof but I feel that there is something more then just caffeine. I did not have shaky hands as I do when I take too much caffeine.

[Guest mulga]

I did indeed see somehing recently that suggest guaranine isn't exactly the same as caffiene, though tha has long been the assumption. I can't remember where I saw that at present though.

Never heard of a Guarana vine in Oz, despite many other notable ethnobotanical species is around, aside from Chaliponga and a few other obscure Sth American ones. Yerba Mate is available for example.

[Torsten]

The main active principle in guarana is caffeine. There are also a few other purine alkaloids, but these are minor in comparison.

Guarana can contain 2-4 times the amount of caffeine as coffee, and also has a higher tannin content. Some of this tannin is bound with some of the caffeine into complex molecules, which are not readily available to the body, but are broken down to caffeine in a slow release fashion.

These tannin / caffeine complexes used to be called guaranine, but this is technically not a correct description.

The guaran vine needs to be kept in rainforest climate at all times, and cultivation outside the amazon rainforest has generally failed. There are a couple of places in the US and one in Israel that cultivate guarana vines, but their cultivation has not allowed for plant sales as yet.

[Guest theobromus]

Someplace referred to as NHE appears to sell baby Guarana plants. Seedlings, presumably.

Yoco, Paullinia yoco always intrigued me. In this it is the bark that is used. It was preferred by R E Scultes.

[Guest UV1]

Theobromine(the chocolate drug) and theophylline are in Guarana in very small amounts and are both stimulants.

Caffeine has the ability to potentiate a hell of alot of stimulants - ephedrine and phentermine are 2 I'm personally familiar with. It could be possible the synergy with caffeine might "activate" theobromine and theophylline. I also know people that make out guarana to be speed like, could just be in their minds.

[MrBumpy]

This may be straying off-topic, but...

does pseudoephidrine effect the body the same way ephidrine does? just curious

-bumpy

[rkundalini]

Red Bull etc also contain a few other stimulants, about which I have only been able to find tidbits of info. Off the top of my head, they were glucuronolactone and taurine. Neither seems to have been very well studied in terms of long term health effects. But no the email going round about the US military testing glucwhatever in vietnam was a hoax.

In my view, their popularity is largely attributable to clever marketing. In terms of caffiene content, in a $3-5 can of red bull you get about as much caffiene as a $1-$3 cup of coffee and in my view about the same level of stimulant effect. When I really need legal stimulation I tend to go for double shot espressos ... ahhhhhh ...... mmmmm ......