Guanábana Health Dictionary

Soursop (Annona muricata).

Plant Part Used: Leaf, fruit.

Dominican Medicinal Uses: Leaf: tea, orally, for common cold, flu, musculoskeletal injury, menopausal symptoms, nervousness/anxiety; externally as a bath for fever in children. Fruit: eaten, diuretic and fever-reducing.

Safety: Fruits are commonly consumed; reports of toxicity from ingestion of leaves in humans; contradictory results from animal toxicity studies; possibly implicated in atypical parkinsonism in the Caribbean.

Laboratory & Preclinical Data: In vivo: antioxidant (stem bark alcohol extract).

In vitro: human serotonin receptor binding activity, antiviral (HSV-1), cytotoxic in cancer cells, molluscicidal in schistosomiasis vector (plant extracts and constituents).

* See entry for Guanábana in “Part 3: Dominican Medicinal Plant Profiles” of this book for more information, including references.