Hibiscus

Sorry Out of Stock for now. 

Hibiscus has a high amount of plant acids, which are difficult to absorb and act as a mild laxative and diuretic. Reduces blood pressure. Reduces cholesterol. AVOID in Stomach hyperacidity; AVOID in pregnancy. Use small amounts (see below) to start, gradually building up to taste.

Makes a delicious wine - especially when combined with Chinese tealeaves?in the ratio of 1:4 by weight (1/4 Chinese tea) Tart Cranberry-like taste.

Use: 3 grams (1 teaspoon) per 6 oz cup. Heat water just to the boil. Steep for 5-10 minutes or to taste.To make one quart (1000 ml)Usually flowers are used and the amount varies per taste. If fresh a handful, if dried 2-3 tablespoons. Heat 500 ml of water in a pot. When it starts boiling add Hibiscus. And boil for four minutes. Strain to remove pieces and set aside.  Add 500 ml of cool water and let it stand for 10 minutes. The tea should be neither too red nor too clear, but rather the color of cranberry juice. Add sugar to taste, serve chilled.

For brewing  Kombucha Mushroom Tea, Water-Kefir or Japanese Water Crystals  use fresh flower or dried Hibiscus at a reduced rate. Typical use is 5 fresh flowers or 2-3 teaspoons dried Hibiscus per gallon (4000 ml). You may add Hibiscus directly to the fermenting liquid, or after the active ferment.

The flowers are a colorful addition to salads, used in jams jellies sauces and wines, ice-cream sherbets butter pies sauces tarts and other desserts. Tender leaves and stalks are eaten as salad and to season curries. Seeds have been used as an aphrodisiac coffee substitute. Fruits are edible, makes a fruity, fragrant smoke, both for meats and fish, and smoked in a pipe. I have never tried smoking it but I have tried placing some water-soaked dried Hibiscus thrown on hot coals in a  fish Bar-B-Q. 

Used in Traditional Chinese Medicine

CHINESE NAMESs Meiguiqie; Luoshenhua; Luoshenkui; Shanqie; Luojikui; Hongjinmei; Hongmeiguo; These are mainly differentiated by the part of the plant used.Flower: Furonghua; Mufuronghua; Jushuanghua; Mulianhua; Difuronghua; Qixinghua; Shuifurong, Shuangjianghua; Huamu; Huapishu; Zuijiufurong; Dayefurong;

LATIN NAME: Hibisci Sabdariffae Calyx. Hibisci Mutabilis / Indici Flower

ENGLISH NAME: Roselle Calyx.  Flower. Cottonrose Hibiscus Fl; Parts used: Fl, Fm,

DOSE: As Decoction / Tea: 2-3 grams /time as refreshing drink but 9-15 grams as medicine

ACTIONS: Clear Heat and Toxin; Antioxidant~ free radical scavenger; Reduce  Blood Consistency; Restrain Lung & Ease Cough.; Hypotensor ; Rectify Lipid metabolism; Hypocholesterolaemic; Slimming (Reduce Fat); Calm Liver & Descend Fire; Ease Hangover; Drain Damp & Diuretic; Anti- inflammation; Digestive; stimulate intestinal peristalsis; Aids Calcium absorption; Engender Fluids; Promote Secretion; Ease Thirst; Awaken Brain; Calms the Mind; Aid Intestine; Calms Uterus Muscle; Dispel Parasites; stimulate growth in children;

INDICATIONS: Lung  cough from deficiency; hypertension; drunkenness; obesity; hypercholesterolaemia; Heart disease; hypertension; arteriosclerosis;

Indication flower: used in Heat / Toxin causing sepsis, skin sores & ulcers w swelling, abscesses, cellulitis, carbuncle, sc gangrene with swelling & pain; acne, gangrenous wounds, furunculosis, malignant boils, ulcers; ulcerated furuncle / carbuncle / abscess; ulcerated swellings; Toxic sores / swellings; breast abscess; Lung Heat / Lung abscess Lung  Deficiency Consumptive (TB) with cough & sepsis; Large Intestine Heat with diarrhea; snakebite with "Snakehead boils"; infected swelling. After intramuscular  injection; inflammation  acute Heat / Fire / Toxin (ophthalmitis acute (Fire Eyes); leucorrhoea; burns fire / scalding water (scalds, steam burns fire burns; moxibustion sores~ non-healing); external trauma & fractures w pain & swelling; Heat / Toxin / Blood Heat causing Reckless Blood / bleeding, especially Menses heavy / prolonged / excessive; haematemesis / haemoptysis / metrorrhagia; Channels Block with Blood Flow poor; pediatric Wind Convulsions & colic (abdomen pain); Qi and Blood  Disharmony

CAUTIONS: high in organic acids; AVOID in Stomach hyperacidity; AVOID in pregnancy

Other Folk Medicine. Largely acts as a  spasmolytic, antibacterial, cholagogic, diuretic and anthelmintic properties. Studies have shown aqueous extracts of hibiscus flowers relaxes the muscles of the uterus and to lower the blood pressure.

Medicinally, leaves are emollient, and are much used in Guinea as a diuretic, refrigerant, and sedative; fruits are antiscorbutic; leaves, seeds, and ripe calyxes are diuretic and antiscorbutic; and the succulent calyx, boiled in water, is used as a drink in bilious attacks; flowers contain gossypetin, anthocyanin, and glucoside hibiscin, which may have diuretic and choleretic effects, decreasing the viscosity of the blood, reducing blood pressure and stimulating intestinal peristalsis. In Burma, the seed are used for debility, the leaves as emollient. in traditional Hawaiian medicine. The flower buds are chewed as a laxative. Taiwanese regard the seed as diuretic, laxative, and tonic. Philippines use the bitter root as an aperitive and tonic (Perry, 1980). Angolans use the mucilaginous leaves as an emollient and as a soothing cough remedy. Central Africans poultice the leaves on abscesses.

Clinical Trials 11.2% decrease in systolic blood pressure and 10.7% decrease of diastolic pressure after 12 days in 31 patients with moderate essential hypertension taking Hibiscus vs. control group Haji Faraji 1999 Urine excretion of creatinine uric acid citrate tartrate calcium sodium potassium and phosphate decreased in 36 men consuming roselle juice (Hibiscus sabdariffa) @ 16-24 g/d Kirdpon 1994

Alcoholics might hibiscus: simulated ingestion of the plant extract decreased the rate of absorption of alcohol lessening the intensity of alcohol effects in chickens (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk).

Cholesterol / Heart Disease - a study at the Chung Shan University in Taiwan involving rats on high cholesterol diets demonstrated that an extract of the hibiscus flower significantly lowered cholesterol content in blood serum and prevented oxidation of LDL, "bad", cholesterol. "Experiments have shown that compounds extracted from red wine and tea reduce cholesterol and lipid build-up in the arteries of rats." This is the first study to show that Hibiscus extract has the same effect."

- Dr. Chau-Jong Wang, lead researcher

Hypertension - in one study individuals with hypertension were given hibiscus tea once daily for 12 days. Members of the control group lowered their blood pressure by 11% versus 4% for the control group.

Liver Disorder - hibiscus is thought to help with liver disorders, though no studies to this effect have been done.

Chang-Che Chen, Fen-Pi Chou, Yung-Chyan Ho, Wea-Lung Lin, Chin-Pin Wang, Erl-Shyh Kao, An-Chung Huang and Chau-Jong Wang "Inhibitory effects of Hibiscus sabdariffa L extract on low-density lipoprotein oxidation and anti-heperlipidemia in fructose-fed and cholesterol-fed rats" Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture Volume 84

Haji Faraji M, Haji Tarkhani A. "The effect of sour tea (Hibiscus sabdariffa) on essential hypertension." Journal Ethnopharmacol 1999;65:231-6.Hibiscus popular world-wide.

also known as; Jamaica (Mexico);  Karkade (Switzerland) Karkade (Arabic) "Flor de Jamaica." (Jamaica) Central America (agua de jamaica), which is made from calyces of the roselle plant (Hibiscus sabdariffa). Karkade is the Arabic word for the roselle plant (Hibiscus sabdariffa) meaning sweet tea. Trinidad and Tobago  create Shandy Sorrel (hibiscus tea with beer).jus de bissap "national drink of Senegal". wanjo in Gambia, zobo or tsobo in Nigeria, and Red Zinger in the U.S. 

The following  list of chemicals represents the calyx and flower material only, where possible, and is not comprehensive. Duke, James A. Handbook of phytochemical constituents of GRAS herbs and other economic plants. 2000 Boca Raton, FL. CRC Press. [does not appear to contain NITROGEN therefore it can not be used alone (without tea) to brew Kombucha Mushroom tea.

 ·  Acetic-acid·  Aluminum·  Anisaldehyde·  Anthocyanins·  Ascorbic-acid·  Benzaldehyde·  Benzyl-alcohol·  Beta-Carotene·  Butyric-acid·  Calcium·  Calcium-oxalate·  Caprylic-acid·  Carbohydrates·  Chromium·  Citric-acid·  Cobalt·  Cyanidin-3-sambubioside·  Delphinin·  Delphinidin·  Delphinidin-3-glucoside·  Delphinidin-3-sambubioside·  Ethanol·  Formic-acid·  Glycolic-acid·  Gossipetin·  Gossypetin-3-glucoside·  Hibiscetin·  Hibiscic-acid·  Hibiscin·  Hibiscretin·  Iron·  Isoamyl-alcohol·  Isopropyl-alcohol·  Magnesium·  Malic-acid·  Manganese·  Methanol·  3-Methyl-1-butanol·  Mucilage·  Niacin·  Oxalic-acid·  Pectin·  Pelargonic-acid·  Potassium·  Propionic-acid·  Protocatechuic-acid·  Resin·  Riboflavin·  Sabdaretin·  Sabdaritrin·  Selenium·  Sucrose·  Alpha-terpinyl-acetate·  Thiamin·  Utalonic-acid·  Zinc 

Recommended Reading Combining herbs with Kombucha Kombucha Teaology by Harald Tietze. By the way these herbs and spices may be added to other probiotic ferments, like Ginger Beer or Japanese Water Crystals.   

Hibiscus makes fine wine, jellies and great kombucha tea and a healthy beverage