Rooibos is a member of the Fabaceae family and comes from South Africa. The leaves of this plant are used to prepare an herbal tea, called rooibos or redbush tea, with important healthy properties for the body. Rooibos doesn’t contain caffeine, for this reason you can drink it also in the evening, it is rich in mineral salts, such as magnesium, phosphorus, iron, zinc and calcium, vitamin C and polyphenol. Rooibos is also able to lower cholesterol, promotes calm and sleep and can be drunk by children or during pregnancy. The antioxidants of rooibos have been studied by a group of Italian researchers and the results have been published on the scientific Journal Food Chemistry in 2010: according to this study, if you drink rooibos tea the levels, in blood, of antioxidants with an anti-aging action increase after one hour, for this reason rooibos has similar properties to black and green tea. Rooibos helps to improve also the immune system, teeth, bones and, thanks to the presence of zinc, it is able to protect the skin.
Herbal tea, internal use
Prepare a rooibos herbal tea: bring to boil a cup of water, remove it from heat and add a teaspoon of dry leaves of rooibos, leave to brew for 5 minutes, then strain. You can drink it in the evening before the bed.
Herbal tea, external use
The rooibos herbal tea can be applied on the skin with a gauze in case of irritations of the skin, acne, psoriasis but also nappy rash. In addition to this rooibos herbal tea can be used as a hair mask: after the shampoo pour the herbal tea on the hair, leave for 10 minutes then wash your hair in order to have glossy and stronger hair against the effects of cold and smog.
