CITATION — REFERENCE ENTRY
South African herbal teas: Aspalathus linearis, Cyclopia spp. and Athrixia phylicoides—A review — Journal of Ethnopharmacology
- Key
- joubert-2008-south-african-herbal-teas
- Authors
- Joubert, E.; Gelderblom, W.C.A.; Louw, A.; de Beer, D.
- Issued
- 2008
- Type
- article-journal
- Container
- Journal of Ethnopharmacology
- Volume
- 119
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 376-412
Raw CSL JSON
{
"DOI": "10.1016/j.jep.2008.06.014",
"page": "376-412",
"type": "article-journal",
"issue": "3",
"title": "South African herbal teas: Aspalathus linearis, Cyclopia spp. and Athrixia phylicoides—A review",
"author": [
{
"given": "E.",
"family": "Joubert"
},
{
"given": "W.C.A.",
"family": "Gelderblom"
},
{
"given": "A.",
"family": "Louw"
},
{
"given": "D.",
"family": "de Beer"
}
],
"issued": {
"date-parts": [
[
2008
]
]
},
"volume": "119",
"container-title": "Journal of Ethnopharmacology"
}
Claims
-
Rooibos is harvested in the hot summer and early autumn (January to April) by topping the bush to about 45 cm; the shredded plant material is wetted, bruised and "fermented" (enzymatically oxidized) in heaps for usually 12 to 14 hours at 38 to 42 degrees Celsius until the leaves turn red-brown, then sun-dried, sieved and steam-pasteurized.
"Leaves become red-brown when the shredded plant material is "fermented" in heaps at ambient temperature, usually for 12–14 h, before being sun-dried."
-
The first commercial unfermented (green) rooibos was produced in 2001 to meet international demand for a higher-antioxidant product, and made up about 1% of global rooibos sales when the review was written. Rooibos contains no caffeine and is low in tannin (leaf tannin content of fermented rooibos about 3.2% to 4.4%), especially compared with Camellia sinensis teas.
"Although rooibos does not contain caffeiene, traces of the alkaloid sparteine were found by Van Wyk and Verdoorn (1989). It is considered a low tannin beverage"
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