Stir 1/2 - 2 tsp. into your smoothie or hot water or milk. Stir and Enjoy.

Botanical Name: Lepidium meyenii

Common Names: Winter cherry, Indian ginseng

Country of Origin: Peru

Used in our #1 Best Seller Nourishing Chai!

Source: Peru
Part Used: Roots
Herbs America performs Third Party Testing on all of their herbs to ensure that they provide you with the highest quality available.

Grown high in the Andes Mountains of Peru, Maca (Lepidium meyenii) has been used by the Inca and earlier Peruvian cultures for more than 1,500 years. For maximum health benefits, our Maca powder is a blend of a multitude of Maca root colors found naturally in each harvest. It is grown without chemicals or herbicides, and the roots are sun-dried upon harvest.

This Maca is rich in enzymes, vitamins and nutrients as it is processed in to powder using low temperatures. The temperature reached is close to 40 degrees Celsius. At that temperature, many consider it to be raw while others believe it to be cooked.

DIRECTIONS

Mix 1/4 teaspoon of Maca Magic ›
with 8-16 ounces of water
or your choice of milk
or preferred juice.
Perfect for making smoothies or adding to foods.

History

Maca Root was domesticated during the pre-Inca, Arcaicia Period sometime around 3800 B.C., with primitive cultivars of Maca being found in archaeological sites dating back to 1600 B.C. It continued to be cultivated by the Incas centuries ago as a valuable nutritious dietary staple and medicinal commodity. The indigenous people used it for centuries to enhance fertility in humans and animals.

Soon after the Spanish conquest in South America, the Spaniards found that their livestock was reproducing poorly in the highlands, and the local tribes recommended Maca. So remarkable were the results that the Spanish chroniclers wrote in-depth reports, saying that Maca improved the reproductive health of their horses, and in another report from 1549, the Spanish encomendero, de Soto Mayor, was given Maca Root as a tribute, which he used to improve the fertility of livestock in Castille. It was considered so valuable that in 1572, the Chinchaycochas Indians used Maca for bartering, and colonial records indicate that tribute was demanded in the form of nine tons of Maca.

For the Andean Indians today, Maca Root is still a valuable commodity that is frequently traded with communities at lower elevations for rice, corn, green vegetables and beans. It is also an important staple in the diets of the indigenous peoples, because it has the highest nutritional value of any food crop grown in the region.

MACA MAGIC IS organically grown pure Lepidium Meyenii, a rare, bio-active food crop developed and used by the Incas of Peru for over 3,000 years!

A single maca magic root contains almost 60 phyto-nutrients.

Botanical Aspects

Maca is a biennial or perennial plant that is native to the very high parts of the Andes Mountains, at altitudes from eight thousand to almost fifteen thousand feet, in an inhospitable region of intense sunlight, violent winds and below-freezing temperatures.

Maca Root is a low-growing, mat-like stem system that produces inconspicuous, scalloped leaves and off-white flowers. Despite the poor, rocky soil and extreme temperatures, the large, radish-like root vegetable has managed to flourish over the centuries. The root is usually off-white to yellow in color (although purple and black exist), and the smaller, less fibrous type is preferred and common in Peruvian markets as a highly nutritious vegetable. It is also highly valued in herbal medicine.

The species, L. meyenii, was first described by Gerhard Walpers in 1843, and it has been suggested by botanists that the cultivated species of today may be a newer species found in Peru, L. peruvianum, (both are used interchangeably).

Some of the constituents in Maca Root include alkaloids, whole fiber, lipids, twenty amino acids (including arginine, serine, clycine, valine, histidine, aspartic acid and glutamic acid, etc.), proteins, beta-ecdysone, beta-sitosterol, hydrolyzable carbohydrates, fatty acids (including linolenic, palmitic and oleic acids), glucosinolates, isothiocyanates, iodine, phosphorus, potassium, iron, magnesium, zinc, calcium, protein, steroid glycosides, saponins, sitosterols, stigmasterol, tannins, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B12 and vitamins C and E.

*Cal Prop 65 is California'ss Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. Companies are required to place a warning label on any product they sell within California if it exceeds the level that the State has established as risk free for a list of over eight hundred chemicals. These standards are specific to the state of California. The lead standard in California is more stringent than what is required at the U.S. federal level, and by other governments including Canada and the European Union. Under Cal Prop 65, the State of California has determined that the safe harbor level for lead to avoid the risk of reproductive toxicity is no more than 0.5 mcg/day. This was calculated by identifying the level of exposure that has been shown to have no observable effect and then dividing that level by 1,000, to provide a very large margin of safety. California's 0.5 mcg/day threshold for lead is 150 times less than the 75 mcg/day limit that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has indicated as safe for consumption by pregnant or lactating women. California is the only state that requires warning labels at this low of a level. CA law states this warning must be included on the label of any product that may have the possibility of containing lead.

Lead is a naturally occurring element that can be frequently found in soil and water and then transferred into plants, even when the herbs are grown organically.

As a comparison, a cup of organic carrots may contain up to 12 mcg of naturally occurring lead. All of our products are independently tested by 3rd party facilities to ensure we maintain the highest quality products. The lead testing on our Maca is well under California'ss 0.5 mcg/day.

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