Diuretic / Gastritis / Liver & Kidney Tonic
Bone Regeneration Thru Silica-Calcium Transmutation

Cola de Caballo

Cola de Caballo
(Equisetum bogotense Kunth.)
Ground Leaves & Stems
of Bogota Horsetail

Code 318 -- Price: $4.95
Ground tea leaves: 85 gr. (net wt)
Makes Nearly 2 Gallons of Tea
(Using 11 g. or 2 T. to make a quart)

Code 318C -- Price: $11.95
120 Capsules x 500 mg.

Order Now Email

Summarized Description: Cola de Caballo is one of our native traditionals, and although originating from the Andes of South America, it has, over the past century, been naturalized to many places around the world. (If you research this plant on the internet, please don't confuse it with the famous tourist spot of the same name in Nuevo Leon, Mexico!)
In addition to its traditional medicinal uses (see below), we use this herb in our work to improve bone repair -- a process we describe in a now-defunct product we use to carry called Bone Builder.
As while we're talking about potential confusion, note that this variety of horsetail that we sell should not be confused with E. giganteum -- a horsetail of the same genus possessing similar medicinal properties . . . This product can be used as tea using the instructions below, and it also lends itself to encapsulation by experienced end users.




Uses & Protocols

I. Preparation --- if you can boil water, you can make this product: Professional herbalists will recognize this as a standard decoction.
  1. Add 2 Tablespoons of Cola de Caballo to a large sauce pan, along with one quart of purified water (0.95 liters). You have enough product in the product bag to do this seven to eight times.
  2. Heat until a very low-level boil or "barely boiling" level has been reached and continue boiling for 5 minutes.
  3. Stir occasionally.
  4. Remove heat source and let cool.
  5. Pour the contents of your pan through a strainer and into a large glass vase or container so as to remove most of the tea fragments.
  6. Dispose of tea fragments.
  7. Drink your tea hot . . . refrigerate glass vase and enjoy later as a refreshing cold tea . . . or refrigerate and reheat later if you want to enjoy the product as a hot tea. You may add cinnamon, lemon, and/or honey to taste. More specific protocols for the use of the product are provided below.
II. Protocols.
Take under the advisement of your naturopath or other health care practitioner.

Contraindications
As a precaution, should be taken under the advisement of a practitioner if user suffers from hypertension.

James Duke's Handbook of Medical Plants of Latin America
Medicinal Activities
Further information for practitioners: World-famous botanist Dr. James Duke attributes the following activities to this plant (p. 295; see hardcopy cover at right), drawn from the extant literature. (See his graduation for "level of efficacy" on our traditionals page; followed by Duke's bibliographic abbreviations (in capital letters), which we identify on a separate page.)

  • Analgesic (f; MD2);
  • Antiinflammatory (f; ROE);
  • Antiseptic (f; MPG);
  • Astringent (f; ROE);
  • Cicatrizant (f; ROE);
  • Depurative (f; MPG; ROE);
  • Diuretic (f; EGG, JFM, MPG; X8941879);
  • Emmenoagogue (f; EGG);
  • Expectorant (f; DLZ);
  • Hemostat (f; MPG);
  • Hypertensive (f; MPG);
  • Stimulant (f; EGG);
  • Vasoconstrictor (f; EGG);
  • Vulnerary (f; MPG).


Indications
Further information for practitioners: Duke provides the following indications for this plant:
  • Acne (f; EGG; MD2);
  • Alopecia (f; MPG);
  • Bleeding (f; JFM; MPG);
  • Blennorrhea (f; ROE);
  • Calculus (f; DLZ; EGG);
  • Cancer (f; EGG);
  • Cholera (F; ROE);
  • Circulosis (f; ROE);
  • Colds (f; EGG);
  • Colic (f; MPG);
  • Cystosis (f; MPG);
  • Dermatosis (f; DLZ; MD2; MPG; ROE);
  • Diabetes (f; JFM);
  • Dysentery (f; JFM, ROE);
  • Epistaxis (f; MPG);
  • Gonorrhea (f; JFM);
  • Halitosis (f; DLZ);
  • Hepatosis (f; DLZ; MD2);
  • Infection (f; MPG);
  • Inflammation (f; ROE);
  • Low Blood Pressure (f; MPG);
  • Lupus (f; EGG);
  • Metrorrhagia (f; MPG);
  • Nephrosis (f; EGG; MD2);
  • Oliguria (f; JFM, MPG; X8941879);
  • Ophthalmia (f; MPG);
  • Pain (f; MD2);
  • Pulmonosis (f; MPG);
  • Pyorrhea (f; MPG);
  • Sores (f; EGG; MPG);
  • Splenosis (f; DLZ);
  • Stomatosis (f; EGG, MPG);
  • Uterosis (f; MPG);
  • VD (f; JFM);
  • Wounds (f; MPG; ROE).



To U.S. Users: This product have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Bienvenidos a Pastaza
Sourcing From
Amazonian Wilderness
All the materials used to make our Amazonian & Andean Medicinal Teas are wild-crafted and harvested from the Central Andes and Amazonian regions of Ecuador and Peru. There are no cultivated varieties used. Click photo to enlarge.


Ethnobotanical
Dosage / Usage
Duke provides a "food farmacy potential" score for this plant of, "FNFF=X" ("I found nothing credible suggesting the plant as food.")
Indications for its ethnobotanical use worldwide are broad and fall into the following categories (p. 295):
  1. Cholera, cancer, renal calculi, bleeding, and as a diuretic, emmenagogue, stimulant, and for treatment of colds, cystosis, and lupus. (Peru)
  2. Diuretic, emmenagogue, hemostat, litholytic, stimulant, and vascoconstrictor -- (Bolivia).
  3. Colds, halitosis, phlegm, spleen function improvement -- (Bolivia).
  4. Sanitize sores and wounds (external); cystosis, hemorrhage (internal) -- (Costa Rica)
  5. Alopecia, capillary hemmorrhage, oliguria, oral ulcers, pulmonary ailments -- (Colombia)
  6. Kidney pains, liver ailments, correction to facial blemishes -- (Peruvians of the Madre de Dios region)
  7. Collyrium, depurative, diuretic, hemostat, alopecia, metrorrhagia, ophthalmia -- (Panama)


Additional Online
Resources on
This Herb

  1. Bone Builder -- The combination of Calcium Sulfate Hydronium Solution (see H3O) with "horsetail silica" (an extract of this herb) was found by our lab to have profound effects in speeding up the healing process of mending bones.
  2. Herbal Remedies as Diuretics -- Included in this review are the revelant species of Equisetum.
  3. An FDA "pre-market" notification for a variety of herbs, including "cola de caballo" -- dated July, 2000.
  4. Michael Matus has an informative site just devoted to Equisetum -- see separate page for Equisetum bogotense. He can be reached in person at equisetum@matus.at.
  5. EOL (Encyclopedia of Life) has a very respectable entry for Equisetum bogotense, which includes taxonomy, plant distribution, pictorial, scientific literature, and other useful information for this species.
  6. Phytotherapy Research -- Volume 8, Issue 3, p. 157-160 (May 1994). "Hypotensive and diuretic effect of Equisetum bogotense and Fuchsia magellanica and micropropagation of E. bogotense." Typical of Wiley Online Library, you have free access to the abstract, but it costs to obtain the article in full.
  7. Diuretic activity of an Equisetum bogotense tea (Platero herb): evaluation in healthy volunteers -- source: PubMed.gov (a consortium of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the NIH [National Institutes of Health]).
  8. Yerba de la plata -- a complete discussion of the plant in Spanish. Additional indications in Spanish provided at InfoJardin.
Horsetail: A
Telling Morphology
Functional foods and medicinal plants often have a morphology -- that is, a physical form and structure that intimates what its use is. In this case, Cola de Caballo actually LOOKS like bones connected with joints or the phalanx bones of the hand.
Click image above for a closer look.