Hibiscus Flower Tea and Chia Seed Infusion

Hibiscus sabdariffa, commonly known as roselle, has a long history as both a food plant and a traditional botanical preparation in many parts of the world. The tart red calyces are used to prepare beverages such as karkade in North Africa and the Middle East, bissap in West Africa and agua de Jamaica in Mexico.

Julia F. Morton’s Fruits of Warm Climates records that in India, Africa and Mexico, infusions made from roselle leaves or calyces have traditionally been used in connection with urination, bile flow, fever, blood pressure and digestion. Morton also documents traditional use in Senegal in connection with blood pressure, and describes roselle as a traditional Guatemalan remedy for the after-effects of alcohol consumption.

Morton also records several uses of other parts of the plant. In India, a decoction of the seeds has traditionally been used for urinary discomfort, indigestion and weakness, while in Brazil the roots have historically been regarded as stomachic and emollient. In East Africa, an infusion of the calyces known as “Sudan tea” has traditionally been taken for coughs, and preparations of the leaves have been applied externally to sores and wounds. https://www.growables.org/informationVeg/HibiscusJuliaMorton.htm

Additional ethnobotanical accounts appear in Albert Y. Leung and Steven Foster’s Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients Used in Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics. This reference documents the longstanding use of natural ingredients in foods, herbal teas and traditional preparations and is one of the sources cited for historical hibiscus use in Egypt, Sudan and Chinese traditional practice. https://books.google.com/books/about/Encyclopedia_of_Common_Natural_Ingredien.html?id=B0lqAAAAMAAJ

Hans Dieter Neuwinger’s African Traditional Medicine: A Dictionary of Plant Use and Applications is another major ethnobotanical reference documenting traditional African plant preparations. It has been cited in reviews of Hibiscus sabdariffa for North African uses of calyx preparations in connection with coughs, sore throats and other complaints, as well as the external use of plant material on wounds and abscesses. These descriptions are records of traditional practice and should not be interpreted as evidence that hibiscus has been clinically established to treat these conditions. https://books.google.com/books?id=LopFAQAAIAAJ

In Iran, sour hibiscus tea also has a history of traditional use in connection with elevated blood pressure. This traditional practice was subsequently investigated in a small human clinical study by Haji Faraji and Haji Tarkhani, published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology in 1999. The researchers compared sour hibiscus tea with a control in adults with moderate hypertension and reported reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure during the intervention. The study was relatively small and investigated a specific preparation and population, so its findings should not be interpreted as demonstrating that this YumNaturals product will produce the same effect. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10404421/

Hibiscus seeds also have documented traditional uses. A paper by Gaya and colleagues reports that in Nigeria, preparations of Hibiscus sabdariffa seeds have traditionally been used in connection with lactation. The researchers went on to investigate an ethanolic seed extract in rats and measured changes in serum prolactin. Because this was an animal study using a concentrated seed extract, its findings should not be extrapolated to hibiscus tea or to this product. https://ispub.com/IJEN/5/2/12935

These examples illustrate the broad ethnobotanical history of Hibiscus sabdariffa. Traditional use describes how a plant has been used within particular cultures and systems of medicine; it does not by itself establish that the plant—or this particular hibiscus product—diagnoses, treats, prevents or cures any medical condition.