ROOIBOS PROPRIETIES AND HISTORY
Rooibos leaves are grown high in the mountains of South Africa, one of the few places left in the world boasting unpolluted air and unpolluted soil. Like other plants growing this way, it is extravagantly rich in naturally occurring nutrients. At a particular point in the plant’s ripening process, the needle like leaves develop a reddish brown color, explaining why this increasingly popular beverage is also referred to as Redbush tea.
How to use Rooibos tea
Rooibos is excellent hot or cold, in water or juice – with or without honey or lemon, and can be consumed in unlimited quantities throughout the day. Rooibos can be used as a base for punch, cocktails, soups, stews, marinades, or sources -–adding color, flavor, and aroma (plus antioxidants and other nutrients!). It can replace liquids called for in recipes. Rooibos tea bags can be applied more than once without loss of zest – it doesn’t deteriorate in taste or appearance when refrigerated or reheated.
What’s in Rooibos tea that makes it so special?
No caffeine Rooibos tea, unlike other uplifting or "entertainment" beverages, has no caffeine. According to new studies done at Duke University, the caffeine in your morning coffee is confirmed to put you in a state of sustained stress, affecting both blood pressure and heart rate all through the day. Cutting back on caffeine may be a way to reduce hypertension and heart disease.
Low tannin Storage of iron is reduced by about one-third in tea drinkers. The culprit? Tannin. Tannins (commonly referred to as tannic acid) can also decrease food intake, growth rate, food efficiency, and protein digestibility. Foods rich in tannins are considered to be of low nutritional value. A study was carried out to determine if Rooibos tea has a deleterious effect on iron absorption similar to that of ordinary tea. Result: Rooibos tea had no significant effect of iron absorption. The limited tannin in this tea also translates to a sweet taste, unlike conventional teas which are bitter mainly because of tannin content.
Antioxidants Despite the fact that oxidation is one of the most fundamental and necessary biochemical reactions, not all oxidation is desirable. In fact, oxidation of the wrong substances at the wrong time can have a devastating effect on you health. There are many real-life examples of oxidation you can hold in your hand. Think of plastic that has become brittle and powdery with age of perhaps has been exposed to sunlight—the long chains of molecules having been broken up by the oxidation process. Or an old rubber band that has lost all its elasticity and strength, the rubber molecules now stuck together. It's a good thing we get some help from nature when it comes to protecting the insides of our bodies from oxidation. We have a complex set of interactive antioxidant systems that intercept toxins and other cancer-causing substances. They work by neutralizing the enemy before it can do its damage to cell membranes and other tissues. A molecule of one particular antioxidant, beta-carotene for example, can de-activate a single oxygen radical. A molecule of another antioxidant, vitamin C, can fight off two free radicals. Some enzyme systems can deal with thousands of free radicals.
At the same time that our environment has grown more toxic, we have a greatly reduced access to a natural antioxidants (vitamin E, vitamin C, bioflavonoids, carotene, and a host of other less well-known range of human diseases – from cancer to viral infections to circulatory disease. Both are primary reasons why our bodies eventually run out of new cells to replace the older ones that eventually fail, in spite of out built-in safeguards.
Several studies show that Rooibos tea contains innumerable highly defensive natural antioxidants and perhaps the highest testimony of the benefits of this Pure and Natural beverage comes from Japan, a society, famous for its old-age devotion to the art of tea making. Japanese scientists, such as Matatoshi Nakano, have discover that the effect of free radicals ( a by product of normal cells function ) in the process of ageing and the decline of the immune system is limited by the anti-oxidants in Rooibos. If the product is brewed/boiled for longer than 10 minutes, the anti-oxidant activity becomes much higher.
Equally exciting, Rooibos tea has been validated to be anti-aging. When the protective effects of Rooibos tea against damage to the central nervous system accompanying aging were examined, results suggested that ongoing intake of this elixir prevents age-related accumulation of lipid peroxides in several regions of the brain. This helps to clarify why the antioxidants in Rooibos tea confer anti-aging benefits.
The tea was also able to inhibit the cancer-causing effect of X-rays in test animals. Carcinogenic transformation of cells was reduced with increased concentration of Rooibos extract. (Green tea, by the way, does not have this toxic transformation-suppressing capacity.)
Flavonoids Rooibos tea is rich in flavonoids, very powerful antioxidants. Its major flavonoid is aspalathin – found only in Rooibos tea. Flavonoid-containing herbs have traditionally been used to treat capillary and venous disorders. It is well known that they decrease the permeability and fragility of veins and lymph vessels. As a result, they are used to treat leg cramps and various skin and circulatory disorders. Flavonoids may also have anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic properties, explaining the benefit claimed for Rooibos skin lotions and cosmetic products.
Superoxide dismutase (SOD) SOD refers to an enzyme that protects against oxidant-induced damage, functioning as a prime scavenger of free radicals. It has the capability of preventing fats from changing into harmful lipid peroxide. Plus it has anti-inflammatory actions and it is easily digested. Taken in isolated form, however, benefits of SOD have been questioned, so it’s noteworthy to find a food in which it is significantly "part and parcel" of the natural plant context.
Oligosaccharides An article in Carbohydrate Research demonstrates that Rooibos tea secretes a family of unusual oligosaccharides. These are compounds made up of small numbers of simple sugars. The most dramatic news about Rooibos tea is that studies from Japan demonstrate safe, anti-human immunodeficiency virus activity from the oligosaccharides contained in it. Oligasaccharides are involved in the mechanism for viral binding of T-cells, immune soldiers that know how to keep dangerous attackers at bay. This is an amazing finding: imagine an enjoyable tea suppressing HIV pathology! Studies showing these results in test animals were published in Leukemia three years ago. Despite our media explosion, it still takes a very long time for information to migrate from published studies to consumer awareness.
Minerals in Rooibos tea include iron, potassium, calcium, copper, zinc, magnesium, fluoride, manganese, and sodium.
More Proprieties: The anti-spasmodic properties of Rooibos relieve digestive distress in adults, and colic in infants. The adaptogenic proprieties of the tea will refresh you during the day and relax you at bedtime. Rooibos contains alpha-hydroxy acid, well known to promote healthy skin. Potent antimutagenic components in Rooibos have been conjectured to be responsible for inhibiting chromosomal breakdown.
The history of Rooibos tea
The story of Rooibos is a unique and extremely interesting one - a story that started at the turn of the century in the Cedarberg area of the Cape. It was the locals of the area who first discovered that the fine, needle-like leaves of the "Aspalathus Linearis" plant made a tasty, aromatic tea. It was they who first harvested the wild-growing plants, chopped them with axes and then bruised them with hammers, leaving them to ferment in heaps, before drying them in the sun. Today, Rooibos is still processed in much the same way, but of course the methods are more mechanized and refined. Throughout the process, bacteriological control is rigorously monitored by laboratory testing to insure the final products can be certified as an hygienic, superior quality ROOIBOS product.
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Edited By Comboweb all Rights Reserved Sept 2000
