Organic Gertie’s Garden

Description

A cornucopia of wonderful flavors. Gertie’s garden is a blend of Organic Black Currant Tea, Organic Raspberry White Tea, Organic Peach Rooibos, Organic Raspberry Rooibos, Organic Hibiscus, Organic Red Raspberry Leaf, Organic Chamomile, Organic Lavender, Organic Rose Petals, Organic Calendula Flowers, and Organic Black Currant Leaf. A summer harvest in every cup.

Health Benefits of Chamomile

Chamomile is an herb that comes from a flowering plant from the daisy family. The active ingredient in chamomile essential oil is known as bisabolol, which has a number of anti-irritant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-microbial properties.

One of the compounds present in the chamomile is called apigenin which is thought to promote mild sedation. Chamomile helps in reducing nervous activity in the evenings, allowing you to fall asleep with more ease.

Chamomile has been found to contain fairly strong antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory constituents. It has been found to be effective in treating stomach and intestinal cramps.

Health Benefits of Lavender

Lavender is used extensively with herbs and aromatherapy. Infusions are believed to soothe insect bites, burns, and headaches. An infusion of flowerheads added to a cup of boiling water is used to sooth and relax at bedtime.

Lavender flowers have an antiseptic, calming and carminative activity, and nerve stimulating effects. They are used in cases of digestive disorder, in cephalalgia as a flavouring and corrective agent, in hypertension, cardiac affections, headaches, insomnia, melancholia, dizziness or bronchial asthma.

White Tea: Prevent Cancer, Arthritis, and Fight Aging

(From sciencedaily.com)Researchers from Kingston University teamed up with Neal’s Yard Remedies to test the health properties of 21 plant and herb extracts. They discovered all of the plants tested had some potential benefits, but were intrigued to find white tea considerably outperformed all of them.

Professor Declan Naughton, from the School of Life Sciences at Kingston University in South West London, said the research showed white tea had anti-ageing potential and high levels of anti-oxidants which could prevent cancer and heart disease. “We’ve carried out tests to identify plant extracts that protected the structural proteins of the skin, specifically elastin and collagen,” he explained. “Elastin supports the body’s natural elasticity which helps lungs, arteries, ligaments and skin to function. It also helps body tissue to repair when you suffer wounds and stops skin from sagging.” Collagen is a protein found in connective tissues in the body and is important for skin, strength and elasticity, he added.

Results showed white tea prevented the activities of the enzymes which breakdown elastin and collagen which can lead to wrinkles that accompany ageing. These enzymes, along with oxidants, are associated with inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis

Professor Naughton said: “These enzymes and oxidants are key components of normal body processes. However, in inflammatory conditions, suppressing the activities of these excess components has been the subject of decades of research. We were surprised to find such high activity for the white tea extracts in all five tests that were conducted.”

The researchers were blown away by exactly how well the white tea had performed. “We were testing very small amounts far less than you would find in a drink,” Professor Naughton, one of the country’s leading specialists on inflammation, said. “The early indicators are that white tea reduces the risk of inflammation which is characteristic of rheumatoid arthritis and some cancers as well as wrinkles.”

Eight of the other plants and herbs analysed also helped protect against the breakdown of both elastin and collagen. After white tea, bladderwrack performed well followed by extracts of cleavers, rose, green tea, angelica, anise and pomegranate.

Hibiscus and Your Health

Hibiscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is quite large, containing several hundred species that are native to warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. Member species are often noted for their showy flowers and are commonly known simply as hibiscus, or less widely known as rosemallow. The genus includes both annual and perennial herbaceous plants, as well as woody shrubs and small trees. The generic name is derived from the Greek word ἱβίσκος (hibískos), which was the name Pedanius Dioscorides (ca. 40–90) gave to Althaea officinalis.

Hibiscus tea is a natural source of vitamin C. It delivers a variety of beneficial organic acids, which include tartaric, citric and maleic acids. It also has the active flavonoids cyanidin and delphinidin, which gives the tea its red color. Every 100 g of hibiscus contains approximately 49 calories — 0.1 g of fat, 12.3 g of carbohydrates, 14 mg of vitamin C, 57 mg of iron and 1.7 mg of calcium. It is also rich in beta-carotene, about 300 mg per cup and 57 mg of iron.

Rooibos and Your Health

Rooibos (Anglicized pronunciation: pron.: /ˈrɔɪbɒs/ ROY-bos; Afrikaans pronunciation: [rɔːibɔs], “red bush”; scientific name Aspalathus linearis) is a broom-like member of the legume family of plants growing in South Africa’s fynbos.

The generic name comes from the plant Calicotome villosa, aspalathos in Greek. This plant has very similar growth and flowers to the redbush. The specific name linearis comes from the plant’s linear growing structure and needle-like leaves.

Rooibos is becoming more popular in Western countries, particularly among health-conscious consumers, due to its high level of antioxidants such as aspalathin and nothofagin, its lack of caffeine, and its low tannin levels compared to fully oxidized black tea or unoxidized green tea leaves. Rooibos also contains a number of phenolic compounds, including flavanols, flavones, flavanones, and dihydrochalcones.

Rooibos is purported to assist with nervous tension, allergies and digestive problems. Rooibos tea has been shown to inhibit in vitro activity of xanthine oxidase, yet an in vivo study has not been conducted. Xanthine oxidase (XO) plays a role in conversion of purine to uric acid in humans and reducing the activity of XO could limit uric acid production, which would aid in treatment of gout. In in vitro tests only, for the specific concentration tested, the infusion was shown to be less than half as effective as allopurinol, which is the drug typically prescribed to inhibit XO activity in treating gout.

Health benefits of black tea

Find out how black tea can improve your health here.