Suma (Pfaffia paniculata): The Adaptogenic Root the Amazon Calls 'For Everything'

Some words carry an entire practice within them. Suma is one. Para toda, the peoples of the Amazon basin have said for generations: for everything, for all things. A root that has never been reduced to a single use, because it has always served to support the body as a whole, without separating the care of the skin from the rest.

What Is Suma (Pfaffia paniculata)?

Suma is a shrubby vine with a deep, sprawling root, native to the Amazon basin and the tropical regions of Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. First described in 1826, the plant has changed botanical names more than once (Pfaffia paniculata, then Hebanthe paniculata) without its traditional use ever being affected. In South America it is also called "Brazilian ginseng," echoing its reputation as a tonic, adaptogenic plant.

Its root concentrates nineteen amino acids, trace elements (iron, magnesium, zinc, germanium), vitamins A, B1, B2, E, and K, and particular saponins called pfaffosides. It is this richness that earns it its reputation as a plant "for everything."

Suma in the Amazon: A Use Passed Down Through Generations

In traditional Amazonian pharmacopoeia, Suma has long been used as a general tonic, to support energy, aid recovery, and restore a measure of inner calm. This is what's known as an adaptogen: a plant that acts neither as a stimulant nor a sedative, but that helps the body adjust more effectively to stress factors, whatever they may be.

But for healers of the upper Amazon, a tonic root is never addressed to the body alone. Suma belongs to those plants prepared and taken within a precise framework, to strengthen what the curanderos call the breath, a person's inner force. It is decocted, sometimes macerated in cane alcohol, and accompanied by chants and a period of retreat where one eats sparingly and stays away from noise, giving the plant time to do its work. This dieta period is nothing like deprivation. It is the traditional way of entering into relationship with a plant, making room for it, and learning from it.

In this approach, Suma plays the role of a plant that fortifies and protects, rather than one that disrupts. It is given to rebuild someone who is weakened or to strengthen fragile ground, and often to prepare the body before more demanding work with other plants. The vegetalistas class it among the para toda roots, the ones always kept within reach because they support the whole person, their vitality as much as their presence to themselves. This knowledge passes slowly, from master to apprentice, and it is this knowledge we try to honor every time Suma enters our formulas.

This work unfolds over time and through listening. Suma isn't taken to produce an effect, but to enter into relationship: the period of retreat opens a space where what weighs a person down, old fatigue, discouragement, fear, can settle and loosen. The root is received there as an ally that cleanses deeply and restores order within, without forcing, returning to the person a measure of their own clarity and presence. What it has to offer reveals itself slowly, over the days, in the silence kept around it.

This idea of normalizing rather than stimulating runs through the whole of traditional Amazonian medicine, and it is exactly what captivated us on our first trips to Pucallpa: a way of caring for the skin that never separates it from the rest of the living body. In the 1970s, the root even gained an unexpected notoriety outside the continent, adopted by Eastern European athletes under the name "Russian secret."

Found in Two Ritual Objects

Amazonian Alchemist

Regenerating Balm

Suma joins sangre de drago and murumuru butter here in a balm that envelops tired skin and supports its regeneration.

Luminous Rose

Bakuchiol and Sangre de Drago Radiance Serum

Here, the Amazonian Elixir joins bakuchiol, our plant-based alternative to retinol, and sangre de drago oil, in a serum of light.

A root that gives itself "for everything," never confined to one purpose: that is the spirit we try never to betray at Jaina. Suma goes into our Amazonian Elixir, the botanical complex born from our collaboration with Shipibo healers, and it is through that elixir that it reaches the skin.

What Research Is Studying in Pfaffia paniculata

A review published in 2024 in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology surveys the plant's botany, phytochemistry, and biological activities, placing it among the plants of interest in South American pharmacology.¹

A root fraction enriched in 20-hydroxyecdysone, one of its main steroidal compounds, showed anti-stress effects and maintained antioxidant defenses in the cerebral cortex of mice.²

In the lab, a Suma extract showed activity against several microbes implicated in skin and oral imbalances, including Candida, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Streptococcus mutans.³

The root's richness in saponins and phytosterols (beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol) is associated in the literature with antioxidant properties, often cited to explain its reputation as a protective plant.⁴

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Ritual Objects

This page presents the cultural, botanical, and scientific history of Suma for informational purposes; it does not constitute a claim about the effects of our Ritual Objects. Want to explore the other plants in our rituals? Discover our ingredient glossary.