What is Cat's Claw?

Cat’s Claw is the common name for Uncaria tomentosa, a woody vine native to the Amazon rainforest and found across other parts of Central and South America. It is not a shrub or a tree. It is a liana — the thick, rope-like kind of vine that starts on the forest floor and works its way up through whatever it can hold onto until it reaches light near the canopy. Mature vines can run for tens of meters through the upper forest.

The parts people have historically been interested in are the inner bark and the root, not the leaves or the fruit. The inner bark is stripped from the woody stem, then dried and ground — and that ground bark is the starting point for everything downstream, including what ends up in the products on the shelf.

Like most rainforest botanicals, the plant contains a mix of naturally occurring compounds, among them oxindole alkaloids and polyphenols. Those are constituents that occur in the plant. We think it is worth naming what is in it, and worth being careful not to promise you what it will do.

Look closely at the stems and you will find pairs of curved, hooked thorns growing near the leaf nodes. They are short, sharp, and bent backward — close enough to a cat’s claw that the resemblance named the plant in more than one language. In Spanish it is uña de gato; in Portuguese, unha de gato. Both translate directly.

Those hooks are not decorative. They are how the vine climbs, hitching onto the bark of host trees and hauling itself upward without a trunk of its own.

One thing worth knowing before you shop: “cat’s claw” gets applied to several unrelated climbing plants around the world, including a yellow-flowered ornamental vine common in warmer parts of the United States. The one we use is Uncaria tomentosa, and that is the name to look for on any label — ours or anyone else’s.

Indigenous peoples of the Amazon have a long history of traditional use with Uncaria tomentosa. That knowledge is older than any written record of it, carried within communities across Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and neighboring regions. The inner bark was typically prepared as a simmered decoction: bark and water held at a low boil for a long stretch, then strained and drunk.

That tradition is the only reason the plant is known outside the rainforest at all. It drew wider attention in the twentieth century as researchers and travelers began documenting what Amazonian communities already knew, and by the 1990s dried bark was turning up in shops far from where it grows.

We tell this part because it is genuinely the plant’s story — not as a claim about what the plant does for you. Traditional use is history and context. It is not medical evidence, and it is not a substitute for a conversation with your own healthcare provider.

Traditional preparation is a project: find the bark, simmer it for the better part of an hour, strain it, and drink something woody and bitter. Modern products start from the same plant material and handle it differently.

Today the category spans several formats. Shots are ready-to-drink liquid servings. Sachets hold a pre-measured serving in a single pouch. Tablets and chewables are portioned and portable. Bottles hold multiple servings for people who have settled on a routine. Different brands specialise in different formats, and most flavor their products because unflavored bark extract is genuinely unpleasant.

We do not manufacture any of this. We stock across brands and formats and publish a certificate of analysis for every SKU, so you can check the product rather than take a description on trust. Everything we carry is kratom-free — no kratom, no mitragynine, and no 7-OH.

There is no single right way to use it. Most people attach it to a moment that already exists in their day — something at the desk in the afternoon, something in the evening as things wind down, or a pass-around at a gathering where not everyone is drinking.

A few practical notes. These products are for adults 21 and over. Follow the serving directions printed on the label of the specific product you bought — they differ by brand and format, and the label is the authority, not a website. Start with a single serving and see how it sits with you before making it a habit. Store it somewhere cool and dry.

Botanical extracts can interact with prescription medications, including blood thinners, blood pressure medications, and immunosuppressants. If you take medication, are pregnant or nursing, or manage a medical condition, talk to a qualified healthcare professional before using any botanical supplement.