Pygeum Africanum (Prunus africana): A Botanical Guide

Pygeum bark has been regulated under CITES since 1995, because the trade very nearly stripped the trees that produce it. The tree is a plum relative, 40 m tall, growing on African mountainsides. This page covers the tree, the bark, what is in our capsules and what the safety file does and does not say. No claims are made here about what this botanical does.

Latin name: Prunus africana (Hook f.) Kalkman
Part used: Bark
Origin: Montane forests of central, eastern and southern Africa
Per serving: 1,800 mg of 100:1 extract; 396 mg phytosterols
Format: 60 vegan capsules — one month
Allergens: None. Two ingredients only

01 What Pygeum Africanum is

Pygeum Africanum is the bark of a tree. Botanists know that tree as Prunus africana (Hook f.) Kalkman, in the family Rosaceae — the rose family, which also holds plums, cherries, apricots, almonds, apples and pears. It is a genuine Prunus, a close relative of the plum in your fruit bowl.

The name "Pygeum" is a leftover. The tree was once classified as Pygeum africanum; that name is now a synonym, Prunus africana is the accepted binomial, and the trade kept the old word anyway. You will see both on labels, including ours. Same tree.

The tree itself

A large evergreen canopy tree, 30 to 40 m in mature forest. The bark is black to dark brown and deeply fissured. Leaves are alternate and simple, roughly 8 to 20 cm long; the flowers are small, greenish-white, carried in racemes from the leaf axils. The fruit is a red-brown drupe — a small stone fruit, as you would expect from a Prunus — ripening between September and November. Common names include African cherry, African plum and red stinkwood.

It grows in the montane forests of central, eastern and southern Africa, and on the islands of Bioko, São Tomé, Grande Comore and Madagascar. A highland species, found roughly between 900 and 3,400 m in moist climates. It is also light-demanding, so it belongs to secondary forest, clearings and forest edges rather than deep shade.

The part used, and where it comes from

The bark is stripped from the trunk of mature trees and dried before extraction. This is where Pygeum parts company with most botanicals we sell: taking the bark can kill the tree, and a tree needs roughly 15 years of growth before its bark is worth harvesting at all.

Almost all bark entering international trade comes from wild trees. Cultivation exists — small-scale, in Cameroon, Kenya and Madagascar — but it supplies a fraction of demand. Thousands of tonnes of wild-harvested bark have been exported annually to Europe over recent decades, which puts Prunus africana among the most heavily wild-harvested plant species in the world by volume.

CITES Appendix II — why this matters

Prunus africana has been listed on Appendix II of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, since February 1995. Appendix II covers species not necessarily threatened with extinction now, but that may become so unless trade is controlled.

In practice: international shipments of the bark and its derivatives, wild-collected and cultivated alike, require CITES export permits, and the exporting country must first make a "non-detriment finding" — a documented judgement that the export will not harm the survival of the species in the wild.

Enforcement has been an ongoing story rather than a solved problem. A Center for International Forestry Research review of three decades of trade data concluded that harvesting had been unsustainable over the long run.

Bark stripping frequently removes up to 100 per cent of the trunk bark, and tree mortality has exceeded 40 per cent in heavily worked areas of Cameroon and Kenya.

The European Commission suspended imports of Cameroonian Prunus africana in October 2007 over exactly these concerns, and lifted the suspension in 2011 after Cameroon produced a national management plan and field-based non-detriment findings. Cameroon's share of the global bark trade rose sharply afterwards.

None of that is a selling point, and we are not presenting it as one. It is the honest background to a botanical whose supply chain sits under international regulation. If you buy Pygeum from anyone, the reasonable question to ask is where the bark came from and under what permit.

Accepted binomial: Prunus africana (Hook f.) Kalkman
Former name still used in trade: Pygeum africanum
Family: Rosaceae (the rose family — plums, cherries, almonds, apples)
Other common names: African cherry, African plum, red stinkwood
Part used: Bark
Form: Evergreen canopy tree, 30–40 m
Where it grows: Montane Africa, roughly 900–3,400 m, plus Bioko, São Tomé, Grande Comore and Madagascar
Wild or cultivated: Overwhelmingly wild-harvested; small-scale cultivation in Cameroon, Kenya and Madagascar
Years to harvestable maturity: Around 15
Trade status: CITES Appendix II since February 1995 — export permits and non-detriment findings required

02 What's in our product

Two figures do the work on our label: a 100:1 extract ratio, and 22 per cent phytosterols. Both are arithmetic, and both are frequently misread.

What "100:1" actually means

An extract ratio describes how much dried raw plant material went into a given weight of finished extract. A 100:1 ratio means one hundred parts of dried bark were processed down to one part of extract powder. So 100 kg of dried bark yields 1 kg of 100:1 extract.

Applied to our label: each capsule holds 900 mg of 100:1 Pygeum africanum extract. Multiply by a hundred and you get 90,000 mg — 90 g of dried bark stated as the starting material behind a single capsule. At the labelled two-capsule serving, 1,800 mg of extract, equivalent to 180 g of dried bark.

180 g of dried bark stated behind one day's two capsules.

Two things about ratios. An extract ratio is a manufacturing description of concentration — not a measure of strength in any medicinal sense, and not a claim. And ratios are not directly comparable between different botanicals, different extraction solvents or different suppliers, so a bigger number on one label does not automatically mean more of anything than a smaller number on another.

What "22% phytosterols" means

Phytosterols are naturally occurring plant sterols, and they are the marker constituent quoted on our label. Quoting a marker percentage is how botanical extracts get described and tested against a stated composition, so that one batch is comparable with the next rather than variable. A specification figure. Not a statement about what the constituent does.

The arithmetic: 22 per cent of 900 mg is 198 mg of phytosterols per capsule, and 396 mg at the two-capsule daily serving.

Botanical: Pygeum Africanum (Prunus africana), bark
Extract ratio: 100:1 concentrated extract
Per capsule: 900 mg Pygeum africanum 100:1 extract, equivalent to 90 g of dried bark
Per serving (two capsules): 1,800 mg of 100:1 extract, equivalent to 180 g of dried bark
Phytosterol content: 22% phytosterols — 198 mg per capsule, 396 mg per two-capsule serving
Ingredients: Two only: Pygeum africanum extract, and hypromellose (the capsule shell)
Capsule shell: Hypromellose, a plant-derived cellulose material. No gelatin, no animal-derived ingredients
Suitable for vegans: Yes
Allergens: Free from gluten, soy and dairy, and from common allergens
Additives: No artificial additives and no fillers. Non-GMO
Bottle count: 60 capsules
How long a bottle lasts: 30 days at two capsules daily — a one-month supply
Manufacture and dispatch: Made in a GMP-certified facility with batch testing; every order dispatched from the UK
Format: Capsules. This product is not available as drops or a tincture

Two ingredients means no bulking agents, no flow agents, no silica, no magnesium stearate, no rice flour. The shell is hypromellose. Inside it is Pygeum africanum extract. That is the whole list.

03 How to take it

The label directions run: Take two capsules daily, preferably with a meal and water. Do not exceed the recommended amount.

Timing. The label does not specify a time of day. Fixing it to the same meal each day is the simplest way to keep a daily habit going and to avoid double-dosing by accident.
With or without food. The directions say preferably with a meal. Concentrated bark extracts are generally more comfortable taken with food than on an empty stomach.
Together or split. Two capsules is the daily serving. Whether you take both at one meal or one at each of two meals, the daily total stays at two.
Swallow whole. Take with a full glass of water. Do not chew.
Missed a day. Carry on as normal the next day. Do not take extra to make up for it.
Do not exceed. More is not a better plan. Stay at the labelled serving.
Food supplement. This is not a substitute for a varied and balanced diet or a healthy lifestyle.

Storage. Keep the bottle tightly closed in a cool, dry place, out of direct sunlight. Not above a hob, not on a windowsill, not in a steamy bathroom cabinet — heat and humidity are what degrade dried plant extracts. Keep out of the sight and reach of children. Check the best-before date on the bottle.

04 Taste and format

Capsules only, so for most people taste is a non-issue. The hypromellose shell is tasteless and odourless, and it does not begin to dissolve until it is well past the palate. No flavouring, no sweetener, because there is nothing to flavour around.

Open the bottle and you may notice a smell. Concentrated bark extract is a dark brown powder with a dry, woody, faintly bitter aroma — closer to sawdust or strong tea leaves than to anything fruity, despite the tree being a plum relative. Normal for a bark extract, and not a sign that anything is wrong with the product.

We would not suggest opening the capsules. The powder is markedly bitter and clings to everything, and there is little point emptying it into food or a drink when the capsule does the job. Shade and aroma vary a little between batches; that reflects harvest conditions and the specific bark lot, not quality.

The capsules are a standard size and described on the label as easy to swallow, and the bottle holds 60. Pygeum is sold elsewhere as a tincture, as drops and as loose powder. We do not currently offer those formats, so the guidance on this page applies to capsules.

05 Safety, cautions and interactions

Read this section before you buy. Cautions matter more than anything else on this page.

The state of the evidence

Pygeum is better documented than many botanicals, because the European Medicines Agency's Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products has published a European Union herbal monograph on Prunus africana (Hook f.) Kalkm., cortex (reference EMA/HMPC/680626/2013). That monograph is our main source for this section, and we have limited ourselves to what it and other regulatory or reference sources actually say.

Two important qualifications. First, the EMA monograph covers one specific preparation — a soft extract with a drug-to-extract ratio of 114–222:1 made with a chloroform solvent — at a single dose of 25–50 mg and a daily dose of up to 100 mg. Our product is a different preparation at a different strength, so the monograph's dosing figures do not transfer across. Follow the label on the bottle you have, not a figure from a monograph about something else.

Second, the safety file is not complete. The EMA monograph records that tests on genotoxicity, reproductive toxicity and carcinogenicity have not been performed. Where data is absent, we say so rather than pad this section out.

Who should not take it

Anyone with a known allergy or hypersensitivity to Prunus africana or to any ingredient listed on the label. Hypersensitivity to the active substance is the contraindication named in the EMA monograph. If you react to other plants in the rose family — plums, cherries, almonds, apples — mention that to a pharmacist before starting.
Children and adolescents under 18. The EMA monograph does not recommend use in this age group. This product is for adults.
Anyone who is pregnant, may be pregnant or is trying to conceive. See below.
Anyone breastfeeding. See below.

The EMA monograph limits its scope to adults and the elderly, and states that there is no relevant use in women, adolescents or children.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding

Do not take this product if you are pregnant, may be pregnant, trying to conceive, or breastfeeding. The EMA monograph records that no fertility data is available, and it provides no basis for use during pregnancy or lactation. It is not known whether constituents pass into breast milk. In the absence of safety data, avoidance is the appropriate course.

Side effects and tolerability

The EMA monograph lists digestive disorders — nausea, constipation or diarrhoea — as rare undesirable effects. Digestive upset is the tolerability issue most commonly reported with Pygeum in general, and it is worth knowing about before you start.

Stop taking it and speak to your doctor or pharmacist if you develop persistent stomach upset, or any other reaction that concerns you. The monograph itself says that if adverse reactions other than the listed digestive ones occur, a doctor or qualified healthcare practitioner should be consulted.

Stop immediately and seek urgent medical help if you develop signs of a severe allergic reaction: a rash or hives, swelling of the face, lips, tongue or throat, wheezing, or difficulty breathing.

Suspected adverse reactions to herbal products can be reported in the UK through the MHRA's Yellow Card scheme.

Medicine interactions

The EMA monograph reports no known interactions with other medicinal products. That is a genuine finding, but it is a statement about the absence of reported cases rather than proof that none exist, and it applies to the specific preparation the monograph covers.

Outside the regulatory monographs, some pharmacology reference databases and consumer medicines resources flag a theoretical caution about combining Pygeum with anticoagulant and antiplatelet medicines, and a general note that constituents may be handled by CYP450 enzymes. The evidence behind these cautions is thin and we are not going to overstate it. What follows from it is practical, not alarming:

Anticoagulants and antiplatelets. If you take warfarin, apixaban, rivaroxaban, edoxaban, dabigatran, clopidogrel, or aspirin for cardiovascular protection, speak to your prescriber or pharmacist before starting.
Any prescription medicine at all. Interactions between Pygeum and medicines are not fully characterised. That uncertainty is a reason to check, not a reason to assume it is fine.
Other supplements. Tell your pharmacist what else you take. Stacking several concentrated botanical extracts is where problems tend to appear.

Existing health conditions and ongoing care

Tell your doctor or pharmacist before taking Pygeum if you are under any ongoing medical care, are being investigated for anything, have a bleeding disorder or bruise easily, or have liver or kidney problems — there is no established data on use in liver or kidney impairment. If you have symptoms you have not had looked at, get them assessed by a clinician first. A supplement is not a way to avoid a diagnosis, and delaying an assessment is the real risk here.

Before surgery

Stop taking Pygeum well before any planned operation, dental extraction or other procedure, and tell your surgeon and anaesthetist that you have been taking it. UK pre-operative guidance from hospital trusts commonly asks patients to stop all supplements — vitamin, herbal and homoeopathic — for 10 to 14 days beforehand, and the American Society of Anesthesiologists recommends stopping herbal medicines two to three weeks before elective surgery. Follow the specific instructions your surgical team gives you, and take the bottle to your pre-op assessment so they can see the label.

How long to take it for

The EMA monograph states that long-term use is possible for the preparation it covers, subject to its warnings. It does not follow that any Pygeum product can be taken open-endedly without review, and our product is a different preparation. Sensible practice is to keep any period of use defined rather than indefinite, and to review it with a healthcare professional if you find yourself taking it for months on end.

Overdose

The EMA monograph records that no case of overdose has been reported. That is not a reason to take more than the label says. Stay at two capsules daily. If a large quantity is swallowed accidentally — by a child, for instance — contact NHS 111 or your doctor.

When to speak to a pharmacist

Community pharmacists are free to talk to, do not need an appointment, and can check your full medicines list against a supplement in a couple of minutes. Take the bottle with you, or a photograph of the label — the extract ratio, the milligram figure and the phytosterol percentage are the details they will want. It is worth doing before you start if you take any prescription medicine at all, if you are managing a long-term condition, if you are over 65, if you are on several medicines at once, or if you have a procedure coming up.

Sources consulted for this section: the European Union herbal monograph on Prunus africana (Hook f.) Kalkm., cortex, EMA/HMPC/680626/2013, from the EMA's Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products; MHRA guidance on reporting suspected reactions through the Yellow Card scheme; published UK hospital pre-operative supplement guidance and anaesthesia literature; and pharmacology reference databases for the theoretical interaction notes. Where sources disagree or data is absent, we have said so rather than filled the gap.

06 Where to find it

Our Pygeum Africanum is a 100:1 extract containing 22% phytosterols, 900 mg per capsule, 60 vegan capsules to a bottle — a one-month supply at the labelled serving, with two ingredients and nothing else.

Pygeum Africanum Capsules

UK Standard delivery: Free on orders of £28 or more; otherwise £2.99
UK Express delivery: £5.99; free on orders of £48 or more
Dispatch: Within 1–2 business days
Typical delivery time: 1–4 business days, by Royal Mail or Amazon Logistics
Returns: 30 days from receipt to request a return. Item must be unopened, untampered, in its original packaging, with proof of purchase. Email hello@probotanics.co.uk to start — an accepted return receives a return shipping label and instructions. Items sent back without requesting a return first are not accepted. For damaged, defective or incorrect items, contact us immediately on receipt.
Questions: hello@probotanics.co.uk

ProBotanics Ltd is a UK company, number 13685177, with its registered office at 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE. The company was incorporated on 18 October 2021 as Peak Supplements Ltd and renamed ProBotanics Ltd on 28 November 2023, when the brand moved away from its original sports and bodybuilding range to single-botanical food supplements.

This is a food supplement, not a medicine. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical condition, and it is not a substitute for a varied and balanced diet or a healthy lifestyle. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking any medication or under medical care, speak to your doctor or pharmacist before use. Keep out of the sight and reach of children.