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Carapichea ipecacuanha
Ipecac (Carapichea ipecacuanha) is a slow-growing understory subshrub of the coffee family, native to wet tropical forests from Central America to Brazil. It is grown mainly for its medicinal roots, and it is seldom cultivated for this purpose.
Carapichea ipecacuanha is a species of flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae. It is native to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil. Its common name, ipecacuanha (Portuguese pronunciation: [ipekɐkuˈɐ̃ɲɐ]), is derived from the Tupi ypekakûãîa (lit. 'duck penis'). The plant has been discussed under a variety of synonyms over the years by various botanists. The roots were used to make syrup of ipecac, a powerful emetic, a longtime over-the-counter medicine no longer approved for medical use in the West for lack of evidence of safety and efficacy. An example of emetic compound from the roots is emetine.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Carapichea ipecacuanha by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
