6 Chanca Piedra Benefits + Dosage & Side Effects

Chanca piedra long remained a well-kept secret, though it was widely used in both Amazonian and Ayurvedic medicine. While its name translates to “stone breaker”, this herb may also protect the liver, lower inflammation, help with diabetes, and combat infections. Find out if it can really clear your kidney stones, and learn more about its benefits and possible side effects.

What Is Chanca Piedra?

Chanca piedra is part of a big plant genus known as Phyllanthus. These plants grow in tropical regions all over the world – from China to India to the vast and largely unexplored rainforests of the Amazon. “Phyllanthus” simply means “leaf and flower,” because the flowers (and fruits) of these plants are joined together with the leaves [1].

The myriad of chanca piedra’s folk uses reflect this plant’s incredible geographical and herbal diversity.

In India, Phyllanthus plants were traditionally used for liver and kidney diseases. In the rest of Asia, they are considered a remedy for digestive disorders, while in South America folks use them for urinary tract infections. In Africa, on the other hand, they’re deemed useful for malaria and wound healing [2, 3].

And if you think these uses sound too wide-ranging for just one plant species, you’re right. In reality, two different species – Phyllanthus niruri and Phyllanthus amarus – are both referred to as chanca piedra or “stone breaker” [2, 3].

The first thrives in humid, warm places and likes a bit of shade. Its exact origin is a mystery, but it flourishes in the Amazonian rainforest, India, China, the Philippines, and even the Bahamas. The second also grows in the Amazon, but it originates from Asia and South Africa [1, 4, 5].

The “Stone Breaker”

Chanca piedra is well-known for its use to dissolve kidney stones. Research suggests it may also protect the liver, fight infections, and lower oxidative stress and inflammation. Plus, it contains some potential cancer-fighting compounds that have yet to be further explored [6, 1, 2, 7].

Recently, Brazilian teams set out to conduct medically-oriented research about chanca piedra for the first time. They wanted to understand the traditional use of this plant by indigenous people. But despite their efforts, few records of its folk use in the Amazonian region exist [8].

In Brazil, people call it “Quebra Pedra,” which means “stone breaker” in Portuguese. Some consider it an excellent remedy for a range of kidney disorders [8].

Its use in Ayurvedic traditional medicine is well-documented. In Ayurveda, chanca piedra has been used for [1, 5, 9, 10]:

• Jaundice and fever
• Malaria
• Diabetes
• Skin diseases
• Digestive complaints (such as constipation, pain, IBD, and indigestion)
• Sexually transmitted diseases (syphilis, gonorrhea)
• Urinary tract infections
• Menstrual problems

Chanca piedra is also used in cosmetic, dental, and skincare products, including hair dye, face creams, and toothpaste [11].

Bioactive Components

All chanca piedra species are abundant in bioactive components, which carry their purported health benefits. The most important ones are [1, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18]:

• Tannins (geraniin, corilagin), which can fight viruses, bacteria, and free radicals; they also help prevent cancer
• Lignans (phyllanthin, hypophyllanthin), which have anticancer properties.
• Flavonoids (gallocatechin, rutin, quercetin, kaempferol) which have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

Snapshot

Here’s an overview of the health benefits and risks of chanca piedra [1, 6, 19, 5, 20, 9, 10]:

Proponents

• May dissolve kidney stones
• May protect the liver, digestive system, and heart
• May help with diabetes
• May lower inflammation, pain, and oxidative stress

Skeptics

• Insufficient research for most benefits
• Lack of research for many traditional uses
• May cause infertility
• Possible drug interactions
• Likely unsafe for pregnant women

Chanca Piedra Health Benefits

Possibly Effective for:

1) Dissolving Kidney Stones

Kidney stones are deposits of minerals and salts that build up in the kidneys or urinary tract. In clinical studies with over 200 people with kidney stones, chanca piedra (Phyllanthus niruri) reduced their kidney stones, helping to clear the minerals and salt deposits [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26].

Chanca piedra may truly act as a “stone crusher.” According to rat and cell-based studies, it might dissolve kidney stones by [27, 28, 23, 25, 29, 26]:

• Blocking the growth and the clustering of salts that form kidney stones
• Dissolving already-formed kidney stones
• Clearing this dissolved mixture of salts and minerals from kidney stones (uric acid, oxalate, potassium, calcium, and magnesium) and helping eliminate them by promoting urination

Overall, the available evidence is limited but suggests it works. More clinical studies are desperately needed, but chanca piedra appears to be a promising herbal remedy for clearing kidney stones naturally.

2) Protecting the Liver

In clinical studies with over 3.5k people, chanca piedra blocked the growth and division of the hepatitis B virus, reduced virus levels in the blood (HBsAg), and recovered liver function [30, 31, 32, 33, 34].

However, in several studies with over 1K people with hepatitis B, antiviral drugs worked better than chanca piedra [35, 36, 37].

In a clinical study on 100 people with hepatitis C, chanca piedra increased multiple important antioxidant compounds (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione, vitamin C, vitamin E). It also decreased oxidative stress and prevented liver damage [38].

In animal and cellular studies, chanca piedra prevented liver injury caused by toxins, drugs, or alcohol and protected liver function by lowering oxidative stress and blocking harmful compounds [39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49].

Traditionally, chanca piedra has been used for reducing jaundice, a yellowing of the skin related to liver problems [5, 50, 51].

What does chanca piedra do to enhance liver function and reduce damage?

Overall, it may protect the liver by [30, 31, 52, 39, 40, 53, 54, 55, 56]:

• Decreasing enzymes linked to liver damage (ALT, AST)
• Reducing bilirubin levels, high levels of which indicate liver disease
• “De-blocking” liver detox pathways; it blocks an enzyme that reverses the detoxifying process of glucuronidation (beta-glucuronidase)
• Increasing antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione)
• Lowering oxidative stress and inflammation

To sum it up, chanca piedra may help combat viral hepatitis, but it’s probably not superior to conventional antivirals. It may also help clear toxins and support healthy liver function.

You may try chanca piedra as a supportive measure if your doctor thinks it may help in your case, but never use it in place of what your doctor recommends or prescribes.

3) Protecting the Heart

Chanca piedra lowered high blood pressure in clinical studies with over 1K people [57, 58, 59].

This benefit was explored in detail in animal studies. In rats and mice, chanca piedra had powerful lipid-balancing effects; it reduced total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, VLDL cholesterol and increased HDL cholesterol. Balanced blood lipid levels are key to preventing heart disease [39, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66].

In other studies on rabbits, rats, and cells, chanca piedra reduced blood pressure, prevented excessive platelet clumping, relaxed blood vessels, and improved heart function [67, 68, 69, 70, 71].

It might also keep the heart healthy by decreasing enzymes that signal oxidative stress, heart or tissue damage (such as dehydrogenase, creatine phosphokinase, and alkaline phosphatase) [57, 39, 60, 72, 68].

All in all, chanca piedra seems to be good for the heart. It may lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and heart damage while relaxing and protecting your blood vessels. Clinical studies are still limited, though.

Insufficient Evidence for:

1) Diabetes

In small clinical studies with 30 people,chanca piedra (the Phyllanthus amarus species) lowered their blood sugar levels. The same was confirmed in numerous studies with diabetic rats [57, 73, 74, 75, 76, 48, 77, 62, 78, 63, 79, 66, 71].

For one, it may act by blocking enzymes that digest complex carbs, such as alpha-amylase. Subsequently, it delays sugar absorption and may prevent spikes in sugar levels after a meal. Secondly, it may increase sugar storage in the liver, which reduces blood sugar levels [4, 80, 74, 81].

Note that a small clinical trial and a few animal studies cannot be considered sufficient evidence that chanca piedra helps with diabetes. Larger, more robust clinical trials are needed.

2) Protecting the Gut and Stomach

In a clinical study of 30 children with viral diarrhea, chanca piedra (Phyllanthus niruri) improved symptoms such as stool consistency, fever, vomiting, stomach pain, loss of appetite, and dehydration. Overall, it worked better than the placebo [82].

Plus, the other chanca piedra species (Phyllanthus amarus) delayed diarrhea onset in mice; in mice with diarrhea, it normalized bowel movements [83].

In rats and mice, chanca piedra prevented stomach damage and ulcers caused by various harmful substances; it also decreased stomach inflammation [84, 52, 85, 86, 87, 88].

Chanca piedra contains powerful antioxidants: rutin and quercitrin (a cousin of the better-known quercetin). These active compounds helped with inflammatory bowel disease and diarrhea in rats [89, 90, 91].

To sum up, the existing studies suggest that chanca piedra may help with several digestive issues, but the evidence is insufficient. More clinical trials on larger populations are needed to confirm these preliminary findings.

3) Reducing Pain and Swelling

In a clinical study of 33 people with nerve damage caused by diabetes (also known as diabetic neuropathy), chanca piedra decreased pain and the sensation of numbness, tingling, and in the legs [92].

According to studies in mice and rats, it blocks pain signals and swelling indirectly: by lowering inflammatory compounds that build up around nerves [93, 94, 95, 96, 85, 84, 97, 98, 99].

Again, only one clinical trial and a few animal studies have investigated the potential benefits of chanca piedra in pain and swelling. Further clinical research is required.

Animal and Cell Research (Lack of Evidence)

No evidence supports the use of chanca piedra for any of the conditions listed in this section. Below is a summary of the existing animal and cell-based research, which should guide further investigational efforts. However, the studies listed below should not be interpreted as supportive of any health benefit.

Infections

In mice and cells, chanca piedra inhibited the growth of various bacteria, fungi, and parasites, including those that cause malaria, snail fever, and infections of the urinary tract, bowel, stomach, blood and skin (Plasmodium species, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus, Enterobacter, Bacillus, Salmonella, Streptococcus, Helicobacter pylori , Candida) [100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111].

Furthermore, in cells, it blocked the replication of hepatitis C and hepatitis B, HIV-1, herpes virus (HSV-1) and dengue virus [55, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 56, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123].

To sum it up, chanca piedra may fight incredibly diverse types of infections. However, its efficacy in humans is unknown as the available data are limited to animal and cell-based studies.

Cancer

Below, we will discuss some preliminary research on chanca piedra’s potential anticancer compounds. It’s still in the animal and cell stage and further clinical studies have yet to determine if these compounds are useful in cancer therapies.

Do not under any circumstances attempt to replace conventional cancer therapies with chanca piedra or any other supplements. If you want to use it as a supportive measure, talk to your doctor to avoid any unexpected interactions.

In mice and rats, chanca piedra blocked cancer growth, reduced tumors and increased survival rates [124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132].

In test tubes, it prevented the growth and spread of different cancer cells (lung, breast, colorectal, liver, ovarian, skin, pancreas, brain), triggering their death [16, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 128, 138, 139, 140, 141].

Inflammation and Oxidative Stress

Chanca piedra reduced oxidative stress and lowered inflammation in rats, mice, and cell-based studies [142, 124, 143, 144, 140, 105, 84, 145, 146, 147].

This herb may act by [142, 148, 124, 143, 85, 84, 145, 146, 147]:

• Increasing important antioxidant, detoxifying compounds (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione)
• Lowering key inflammatory cytokines, enzymes, and messengers (TNF-a, IL-1 beta, bradykinin, prostaglandin, Cox-2, NF-κB)
• Increasing IL-4, which can act as an anti-inflammatory cytokine
• Activating immune cells (lymphocytes and other white blood cells)

Brain Protection

In mice, chanca piedra improved memory and reversed amnesia [149].

To understand how it might act, we’re going to dive into neuroscience a bit, so bear with us.

Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter mainly used by the rest-and-digest nervous system. It supports cholinergic activity in the body that counters your fight-or-flight response. Acetylcholine is extremely important for memory, focus, and good cognitive function [150].

Chanca piedra may work by blocking the enzymes that break down acetylcholine (acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase). In turn, it might boost acetylcholine levels in the brain, which would be useful to people with Alzheimer’s disease [151, 152].

And while this is promising, remember that the research is still preliminary. We have yet to see clinical studies of chanca piedra in people with cognitive dysfunction.

Protection from Radiation

In mice and cells, chanca piedra (Phyllanthus amarus) prevented radiation damage by lowering oxidative stress and increasing antioxidants compounds in blood and liver [153, 154, 155].

With more clinical research, it might be used to reduce the side effects of radiation therapy in cancer patients.

Hair Growth Promotion

In one study, researchers gave testosterone to mice to induce baldness. Chanca piedra (Phyllanthus niruri) blocked an enzyme (5α-reductase) involved in baldness and increased the animals’ hair growth. Since overactivity of this enzyme is thought to underlie baldness in men, chanca piedra might turn out to be a targeted remedy for hair re-growth [156].

This may sound like great news to many, but we still don’t know if it can enhance hair growth in humans.

Other Traditional Uses

The uses below have been brought up in literature and are common in folk medicine, but there are no scientific studies about them [1, 5, 9, 10, 19, 157, 50]:

• Jaundice
• Fever
• Skin diseases (scabies, rash)
• Cough
• Asthma and lung inflammation (bronchitis)
• Ringworm
• Eye and mouth inflammation
• Constipation and low stomach acid
• Sexually transmitted diseases (syphilis, gonorrhea)
• Urinary tract infections
• Menstrual problems
• Anemia
• Leprosy
• Anorexia

Limitations and Caveats

Studies about the benefits of chanca piedra are limited; many are reviews and historical documents rather than clinical trials.

Furthermore, the few clinical trials that were carried out had a small number of participants and some of their findings are debatable.

Additional research on the benefits and side effects of chanca piedra should be encouraged.

Chanca Piedra Dosage & Supplementation

Chanca piedra is available in various forms, including liquid drops, capsules, tablets, tea, and powder [1, 6, 23, 24].

However, the preparation of these products varies from brand to brand. Some products may not be standardized. Regulations set manufacturing standards for them but don’t guarantee that they’re safe or effective. Consult your doctor before supplementing with chanca piedra.

Dosage

Because chanca piedra is not approved by the FDA for any conditions, there is no official dose. Users and supplement manufacturers have established unofficial doses and guidelines based on trial and error.

For Kidney Stones and Liver Support

The dosage varied in studies and depends on the form of supplementation and the product.

For kidney stones and supporting liver function, the recommended dosage is [23, 24, 19]:

• 1 – 2 capsules (400 – 500 mg chanca piedra extract per capsule) daily between meals or
• 30 – 60 drops (chanca piedra extract), 3 times a day, 30 minutes before meals or 2 hours after meals

For Other Health Benefits

For lowering blood pressure, 100 g of chanca piedra powder should be diluted in 2 L of water. It’s recommended to drink 500 mL of the mixture daily, for one to 10 weeks [59].

For lowering blood sugar, you can dilute 12.5 g of chanca piedra powder in 100 ml of water; according to the clinical studies, you should drink this mix two times a day, for one to 10 weeks [73].

Chanca Piedra Side Effects & Precautions

One species of chanca piedra – Phyllanthus niruri – is safe and non-toxic. Common side effects are mild and include [32, 25, 23, 158]:

• Stomach pain
• Diarrhea
• Headache or dizziness

However, the other species – Phyllanthus amarus – could be toxic in high doses. It enlarged blood vessels and caused kidney damage in rats and mice [159, 160, 161].

Pregnant women and women taking fertility-enhancing drugs should avoid taking chanca piedra. Traditionally, this plant was used for abortions and may cause abnormalities with the fetus. It should also not be taken while breastfeeding or by children due to the lack of safety data in these two populations. Although there is no clinical evidence, chanca piedra lowered both male and female fertility in mice [1, 162, 163, 164].

Drug Interactions

Consult your doctor before supplementing with chanca piedra if you are on medication. Chanca piedra (Phyllanthus amarus) inhibits the activity of the CYP540 family of liver enzymes that break down (or activate) drugs (CYP1A1, CYP1A2, CYP2D6, CYP2E1, CYP2B1/2, and CYP3A4). Inhibition of these enzymes may cause unpredictable drug interactions (e.g. with midazolam, some antidepressants, beta-blockers, statins, warfarin, and anti-seizure drugs) [165, 137, 166].

Additionally, chanca piedra may reduce blood sugar levels. Its combination with anti-diabetes therapies (e.g. glimepiride, insulin, rosiglitazone, tolbutamide) might cause excessive drops in blood sugar levels [57, 73, 74].

Since chanca piedra may reduce blood pressure, it may also increase the effects of blood pressure-lowering drugs [57, 58, 59].

Chanca piedra (Phyllanthus amarus) can increase urination and interfere with the effects of water pills (diuretics); this can result in additional fluid loss [57, 29].

This herb may also counter the effects of norepinephrine. Norepinephrine constricts blood vessels, while chanca piedra (Phyllanthus niruri) contains a compound that can relax them [69].

User Experiences

The opinions expressed in this section are solely those of chanca piedra users, who may or may not have medical or scientific training. Their reviews do not represent the opinions of SelfHacked. SelfHacked does not endorse any specific product, service, or treatment.

Do not consider user experiences as medical advice. Never delay or disregard seeking professional medical advice from your doctor or other qualified healthcare providers because of something you have read on SelfHacked. We understand that reading individual, real-life experiences can be a helpful resource, but it is never a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment from a qualified healthcare provider.

Most users were impressed with chanca piedra, as they reported it dissolved their kidney stones or gallstones and relieved them from pain and discomfort. A few users reported slight diarrhea or dizziness after taking the supplement.