By Leslie Taylor 12-31-2012

First let me say that the FDA did not shut down Raintree Nutrition. It was my personal decision to close it down. From 1996 to 2012, Raintree Nutrition, Inc. sold the rainforest herbal supplements that are being discussed herein and shown at http://www.rain-tree.com/rtmprod.htm. These products and proprietary formulas were developed by me over the 17 years I have been studying rainforest medicinal plants. I have been a leader in the industry in educating people about these powerful medicinal plants of the Amazon and in those endeavors I've written two books and authored the extensive Tropical Plant Database.

In the last 5 years the FDA has gotten progressively worse in prohibiting free speech and suppressing factual and non-misleading information about natural products and herbal supplements. Basically now, if you sell a supplement, you can't say anything about it, can't say what to take it for, how to use it, or refer to (or link to) any third party document or published research.

In 2012 the FDA demanded that the Tropical Plant Database be removed from the Raintree website. Despite the fact that it the Tropical Plant Database had been online on the Raintree website for over 15 years and met all "written regulations" as a third party document, and it was completely factual and well researched and referenced, and was not false or misleading, they said it (suddenly) made medical claims for the products my company sold. I complied, and moved it to another website in May of this year and based upon their demands, didn't link to the database website in any form and fashion from the Raintree site. That still didn't please them. I was then told to remove all of the information on the product pages concerning contraindications, drug interactions, and other important information people using the products must have. That was THE turning point for me.

For example, on the graviola product page, it said that there were animal studies which indicated that it might lower blood pressure and you should be aware of that possible side effect... that people with low blood pressure should monitor that closely. I knew in the 12 years my company has sold this product, that this was a possiblity in some people. But the FDA said I couldn't say that and that I was making an inferred claim that people could use graviola for hypertension. Well, everyone knows we were NOT selling graviola to treat hypertension (we had a different formula for that!), but that didn't seem to matter. These days, graviola is sold by lots of other companies (and NOT for hypertension!)... I've done a great job creating a market for it! And now, those companies aren't supposed to say that either and they certainly can't say that graviola is one of the leading natural products for cancer either. That's when I decided that the wealth of information, research, and years of practical use I have compiled (and that the FDA was trying to make go away) was much more important to stay out there in the universe than it was for me personally to make a profit selling herbal supplements. So I decided to let all those other companies sell the graviola supplements (and other rainforest herbal supplements) and I'll continue to be the source of all the important information you need to know about how it use it, what to use it for, and what possible side effects, contraindications and drug interactions you need to be aware of.

Many of the plants and products Raintree previously sold are now available from other companies. As I've said, I've done a great job encouraging competition over the years (so that more rainforest plants can be harvested and help with rainforest conservation efforts) You'll just need to do some hunting and research to find them. A good place to start is in the Sustainable Rainforest Product Page located at http://www.rain-tree.com/product.htm where you'll see the companies I've found that are already selling rainforest herbal formulas or bulk plants.

I have also uploaded all the information you need to make my own proprietary formulas like N-Tense, Myco, SPIRO and all the others. Rather than to sell these formulas to another company to manfacture them, I decided to give them to the Universe so anyone and everyone could make them. I am hoping that it is not too long before several companies decide to launch these highly effective formulations under their own labels. And as always... competition will keep the prices fair. All of the instructions on how to make the formulas are now on the old product pages (WITH all the contraindications, side effects, etc again!) and can be accessed at http://www.rain-tree.com/rtmprod.htm.

So Raintree Nutrition, Inc. officially closed it's doors on December 21, 2012. The phones are gone and the lights are off and it is no longer in business in any form or fashion. If you need assistance or want any further information about these plants or formulas, please use these discussion forums. There is no longer any customer service personnel or customer support since the company has closed. I'll be monitoring these forums as time permits. I'm still working hard on the plant database and other pages of the website to finally be able to say all the things I never could say for all these years. Visit the site often... I'm uploading new stuff every day! The Tropical Plant Database is back where it used to be at http://www.rain-tree.com/plants.htm.

Happy New Year,

Leslie Taylor