Guarana

Guarana is a woody liana, or climbing shrub, with compound leaves and clusters of small yellow flowers. The fruit is a small pod about the size of a coffee cherry, turning red-orange and splitting open to reveal a single glossy black seed partly covered by a white aril, so that it resembles a human eye. Seeds are about 1 cm across and very hard. Roasted and ground, they yield a dark brown powder with a bitter, astringent and slightly chocolate-like taste. Sold forms include powder, capsules, extracts, sticks of dried paste and beverage syrups or soft drinks.

Guarana is native to the Amazon basin and is associated with the Sateré-Mawé people of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, who are credited with domesticating the plant. The name derives from the Tupi word waraná, which Europeans transcribed as guaraná. The genus Paullinia honours the seventeenth-century German botanist Christian Franz Paullini, and cupana comes from a local name for the plant. Today the main production area remains in Brazil, with Maués often described as the guarana heartland.

Among the Sateré-Mawé, guarana has a central place in origin stories and ritual. They traditionally dried and roasted the seeds, ground them with water on a rough stone and shaped the paste into sticks that could be grated into water to make a stimulating drink. The practice was used for hunting trips, long journeys and social gatherings.

European accounts date from the seventeenth century, when missionaries and travellers described the drink. In the nineteenth century, scientists identified its stimulant, first called guaranine and later recognised as identical to caffeine. Guarana entered Brazilian pharmacies and tonics, and in 1921 the company later known as Antarctica began producing guarana soda, which became a national favourite.

In the late twentieth century, guarana became a common ingredient in energy drinks and weight-management supplements worldwide, and Brazil developed cultivation programmes and varieties selected for yield. The Sateré-Mawé continue to produce traditional guarana and have sought recognition for it as a protected product of their territory. The plant remains economically important for small farmers in the Amazon region.

Traditionally the paste is grated into water, sometimes with sugar, to create a refreshing stimulating drink. Industrially, guarana extract flavours and caffeinates soft drinks, energy shots, chewing gum, candy, tea blends and sports supplements, while capsules and powders are sold for alertness. In Brazil, guarana soda is among the most popular soft drinks. It is also used in cosmetics and in folk medicine for fatigue and headaches. Powder can be stirred into smoothies or oats in small amounts, keeping total caffeine in mind.

Guarana seeds contain about two to four times the caffeine of coffee beans by weight, along with theobromine, theophylline and tannins. Evidence supports short-term improvements in alertness and attention, mostly attributable to caffeine. Studies on weight loss, fatigue in illness and mood are mixed and often small. Guarana is not a replacement for sleep, and its effects are similar to other caffeine sources, so total daily intake from all sources matters.