PAU D'ARCO / LAPACHO for Horses (Tabebuia impeteginosa) | Gut & Microbial Balance Support

Pau D'Arco appears throughout the EquiNatural range wherever microbial terrain forms part of the wider biological picture.

You'll find it within BioCARE, BiomeTonic, EyeTonic, LKLCARE, MetaTonic and OptimaCARE – each time working alongside other botanicals with their own specialist jobs.

Now there's a good question.

We've spent a lot of time talking about the importance of your horse's microbiome – the enormous community of bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms living inside the digestive tract.

So why would we then introduce a herb traditionally valued for its antimicrobial properties?

Because microbial balance isn't about having more microbes or fewer microbes. It's about who's living there – and how they're behaving together.

Think of the hindgut as a busy neighbourhood. A healthy neighbourhood doesn't need to be empty to be safe. Quite the opposite. When it's thriving, every available space is occupied, resources are being shared and competed for, and established communities help make it harder for opportunistic newcomers to simply move in and take over.

Problems begin when that ecology changes. It could be that the microbial diversity falls, or the digestive environment shifts, or perhaps particular organisms suddenly find themselves with more room, more food or less competition than they had before.

And that's when an opportunist can become rather too comfortable. This is where Pau D'Arco becomes interesting.

Its inner bark contains a complex collection of naturally occurring plant compounds – including the naphthoquinones for which it has become particularly well known – and it has a long traditional history wherever microbial and fungal balance has been part of the picture.

But at EquiNatural, we're interested in something bigger than simply “killing bugs.” We're interested in the " environment".

That's why Pau D'Arco rarely works alone in our formulas. You'll find it alongside herbs chosen for digestive function, microbial diversity, gut integrity, circulation and the body's wider housekeeping systems.

Different herbs, different jobs, one ecosystem. Think of it as the Neighbourhood Watch. I'm half joking, but biologically that captures its place perfectly.

💧Organic pau d'arco/lapacho tincture

Our human-grade, certified organic tinctures give you a ready-to-absorb potent source of phytonutrients at the highest-strength available, for immediate absorption straight into the bloodstream and to the body’s cells.

• Hydroanthas impeteginosa (Pau D'Arco/Lapacho Tree), Inner Bark, Cut
• Decocted 1:3 35%
• Wild Harvested

~ Feed Guide - 6ml/100kg bodyweight, daily in feed.

🌿Dried pau d'arco/lapacho bark

Grown, harvested and dried without the use of agri-chemicals, non-irradiated and GMO free - see our Quality page for Quality Management & Certification Documents.

• Hydroanthas impeteginosa (Pau D'Arco/Lapacho Tree) Inner Bark, Origin Brazil (Not certified organic), Inner Bark, Cut
• Wild Harvested
• Origin Brazil

~ Feed Guide - 5g/100kg bodyweight per day, i.e. 25g for a 500kg horse.

Footnotes

Functional nutritional value

Constituents: Naphthoquinones such as lapachol, lapachone and xyloidone ; phenolic acids such as veratric acid ; tannins; coumarins; flavonoids; catechins; calcium oxalate, iridoids, carnosol.

When it comes to herbs and herbal formulations, you may have heard herbalists talk about energetics . It's simply the way we describe how a herb or formula has been designed to support the body in a balanced and purposeful way. The science helps us understand why that structure works.

Pau D'Arco isn't about creating a sterile gut - it's about supporting the conditions that allow a healthy microbial community to stay balanced, diverse, and resilient.

Think of it as helping the neighbourhood remain well run, so opportunists find it much harder to gain a foothold.

How Pau/Lapacho works

Rather than focusing on one single action, Pau D'Arco contributes to several interconnected aspects of gut ecology.

1. Supporting microbial balance
   - The naturally occurring naphthoquinones and other phytochemicals behind Pau D'Arco's traditional reputation make it particularly interesting wherever we're thinking about the balance of organisms within a wider microbial community.
2. Supporting gut resilience
   - Pau D'Arco rarely works alone in our formulas. We pair it with herbs chosen to nourish digestion, diversity and the intestinal environment – because healthy microbial balance depends on the ecosystem around those organisms too.

Together, it's less about targeting one organism and more about supporting the conditions in which a healthy community can hold its own.

Big picture

One of the things I find fascinating about the microbiome is that success isn't measured by how many microbes we remove - it's measured by how well the whole community works together.

That's why Pau D'Arco has remained such an interesting botanical for centuries – not because we're trying to create a sterile environment, but because microbial health has always been about balance.

Advisories

• If your horse is receiving prescription medication – particularly long-term medication – check with your vet before introducing Pau D'Arco.

Contraindications

• Not advised for pregnant or nursing mares due to limited safety data.

The tree that wears its armour on the inside

Some herbs come from flowers, some from leaves, some from roots - Pau D'Arco asks us to look a little deeper - quite literally.

Because the part herbalists have treasured for centuries is the inner bark - the living layer tucked safely beneath the tree's rugged outer skin.

Almost as though the tree keeps its greatest strength hidden where it matters most.

Pau D'Arco - also known as Lapacho or the Pink Trumpet Tree - grows throughout the forests and open landscapes of South America.

If you've ever seen one in flower, you'll understand why it's so admired. For much of the year it looks like a sturdy, unassuming tree, then suddenly it erupts into clouds of spectacular pink blossom.

But while most people admire the flowers, generations of Indigenous communities were quietly paying attention to something else - the bark.

What traditional healers noticed

Across South America, Pau D'Arco became a respected part of traditional herbal medicine. Not because anyone understood naphthoquinones , or antioxidants or microbial ecology. They simply noticed patterns.

The bark seemed particularly useful whenever the body was under pressure from persistent imbalance.

Different communities described it in different ways. Some valued it for the skin, others for digestion, others whenever resilience seemed to have been worn down over time.

Nature's own neighbourhood watch

One of the things I love about Pau D'Arco is that it produces an extraordinary collection of protective compounds.

Not for us though - for itself, because trees can't run away, or swat insects, or relocate when fungi, microbes, or environmental pressures arrive. Instead, they rely on an astonishing chemistry that evolution has spent millions of years refining.

Long before scientists isolated individual compounds from the bark, the tree had already perfected its own survival strategy - and herbalists found out.

Why Pau D'Arco still matters today

When people hear the word antimicrobial , they often imagine wiping everything out - but nature rarely works like that.

Healthy woodlands aren't healthy because they contain no microbes, and healthy guts aren't healthy because they're sterile.

They're healthy because balance has been maintained.

Is Pau D'Arco an antibiotic?

Not in the conventional sense. Whilst Pau D'Arco has a long history of traditional use for supporting microbial balance, we don't think of it as a herb that simply "kills bugs."

Over the years we've become far more interested in the environment those microbes are living in.

Think of the hindgut as a busy neighbourhood. The goal isn't to empty the street – it's to help the good residents stay established so opportunists find it much harder to move in.

That's exactly how we think about Pau D'Arco.

Why would you use an antimicrobial herb in a healthy microbiome?

Great question.

A healthy gut isn't a gut without microbes. It's a gut where the right microbes keep one another in balance.

Pau D'Arco is one of those fascinating herbs that has traditionally been used wherever microbial harmony has become disrupted. Rather than working against the microbiome, we use it to support the conditions in which a healthy, diverse microbial community can flourish.

Why is Pau D'Arco included in so many EquiNatural blends?

Because healthy microbial balance sits at the heart of so many different systems.

Whether we're looking at digestion, metabolism, the skin, liver support, or the wider gut ecosystem, we often find ourselves coming back to the same place – the hindgut.

That's why Pau D'Arco appears throughout the EquiNatural range, supporting the microbial "terrain" while the other herbs in the blend each get on with their own specialist jobs.

Is Pau D'Arco only useful for horses with digestive issues?

Not necessarily. Although we often think about Pau D'Arco in relation to the hindgut, healthy microbial balance influences far more than digestion alone.

One of the things we've learnt over the years is that when the hindgut is functioning well, many other systems throughout the body seem happier too.

That's one of the reasons Pau D'Arco appears in blends supporting everything from digestion to metabolic resilience and everyday wellbeing.

Can Pau D'Arco be fed long term?

Many owners choose to feed Pau D'Arco for longer periods, particularly as part of a broader herbal programme.

Rather than viewing it as a short-term "fix," we see it as one contributor to maintaining a healthy, balanced internal ecosystem over time.

As always, we encourage looking at the whole horse – good forage, appropriate management, and a diverse, healthy hindgut provide the strongest foundations of all.