Brazilian Guarana seed extract, wild Amazonian
High-caffeine guarana seed extract from Maués, the Amazon's guarana-growing heartland.
| Origin | Note for accuracy: the great majority of Brazil's commercial guarana supply is cultivated (not wild-harvested), concentrated in the Maués region of Amazonas state, which pioneered guarana domestication and remains the crop's cultural and commercial heartland ('the guarana capital of Brazil'). Genuinely wild-harvested guarana from native forest populations is a real but much smaller and less commercially standard category than cultivated Maués-area guarana; the 'wild Amazonian' claim should be verified per lot rather than assumed, and cultivated Maués-origin guarana is itself a strong, legitimate provenance story on its own. |
| Indian subcontinent | No |
| Category | Global Wellness & Functional Ingredients |
| Retail price band | $$ (indicative $15–$35/kg for standardized seed-powder extract) |
| Bulk / trade price band | $8–$18/kg on bulk export orders; potency (caffeine/guaranine content) affects pricing tier |
| Sourcing status | Dossier researched from public sources — producer contact not yet established |
| Compliance status | Preliminary review complete (see below) — not yet legally verified |
Detailed study
Guarana (Paullinia cupana) is an Amazonian climbing shrub whose seeds contain one of the highest natural caffeine concentrations of any plant (guaranine is chemically identical to caffeine), alongside theobromine and tannins; seeds are traditionally roasted, ground and formed into hard sticks or powder used as a stimulant in traditional Indigenous Amazonian use and, at industrial scale, as an energy-drink and supplement ingredient.
Provenance & producer
Maués, in Amazonas state, is recognized as the historic centre of guarana domestication by the Sateré-Mawé Indigenous people and remains Brazil's principal commercial guarana-growing region; cultivation follows agroforestry-style smallholder farming rather than large-scale monoculture, with the Sateré-Mawé maintaining a strong cultural and economic connection to the crop.
Market & pricing
Guarana extract is a major global natural-caffeine ingredient used extensively in energy drinks, sports-nutrition products and herbal supplements across the Americas, Europe and Asia; Brazil is by far the world's dominant guarana producer and exporter, and Sateré-Mawé-linked or Maués-origin guarana carries genuine premium provenance value in the specialty/ethical-sourcing segment of the market.
Compliance & export
No CITES restriction applies. Brazilian guarana export is subject to MAPA (Brazilian agriculture ministry) phytosanitary certification; because caffeine content is the key functional/marketing attribute, buyers typically require a certificate of analysis specifying guaranine/caffeine percentage, and destination-market caffeine-labelling and maximum-dose supplement regulations (particularly in the EU) apply to finished products containing the extract.
Sources
Image status
A working reference photograph is in place, captured from a freely-licensed Wikimedia Commons source. Guarana (Paullinia cupana) fruit cluster, Petyson Antonio, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Treat this as a placeholder for marketing purposes: exact licence terms should be re-verified on the Commons file page, and original producer photography is recommended before final trade use.