Tea is not just for drinking! It can also be used as a natural and powerful anti-aging ingredient in beauty products. Read on to learn about this unique South African tea plant that we use in our skincare line.
The Rooibos tea plant (Aspalathus linearis) grows only in the Cederberg Mountains orth of Cape Town,South Africa. In recent times, the plant has been recognized for its exceptional antioxidant properties. Rooibos (pronounced “roy-boss”) contains 37 antioxidant substances and is also rich in minerals such as calcium and potassium.
Due to its potential health benefits, Rooibos (or “red bush”) tea has become popular throughout the world. Not so well-known is this plant’s promising effects when applied topically to the skin.
About the rooibos plantMain growing area of Rooibos: South Africa
Botanical Family: Leguminosae
Common names: Latin: Aspalathus linearis
English: Rooibos
French: Rooibos
German: Rotbusch
Rooibos tea, also known as bush tea, or Masai tea, is a totally unique South African product of the red bush plant, a hardy shrub indigenous to the North Western Cape of South Africa in the Cederberg Mountains around Clanwilliam.
The area has an average annual rainfall of around 30cms; the soil is a pale golden sand, almost devoid of nutrients with virtually no potassium or nitrogen. The soil is also very acidic with a pH of about 3.8 – 4.2; a typical English loam for example is about pH 6 – 7, almost neutral. So how has the red bush survived for so many centuries?
The secret may lie in its extraordinarily long taproot, which ensures that the plant is extremely drought resistant. Even as a tiny seedling the roots can reach 30cms into the ground and up to 2m as a fully-grown bush.
Rooibos is also a legume and as such it binds its own nitrogen from the sandy soil, although it still has a very low yield and slow growth. No fertilisation is given to the plants, they grow in the soil as it naturally exists, and periodically the plantations are left fallow, allowing the soil to rest before replanting in later years.
HISTORY OF ROOIBOS
Little is known about the early history of Rooibos only that it has been used for many centuries by the indigenous Khoisan tribes, primarily, it is believed as an herbal medicine and as a part of their rituals.
They used a process thought to have been copied from Malay peoples, but they were the first to harvest the wild plants, chopping them with axes, bruising them with hammers and leaving them to ferment in heaps before drying them in the sun.
BENEFITS OF ROOIBOS
Rooibos or red bush tea is rapidly growing in popularity because of the growing evidence that it has no known side effects.
- Naturally Caffeine-Free Tea
We now know that this remarkable plant produces a unique beverage that is completely and naturally caffeine free, and therefore undergoes no chemical process to extract caffeine It also contains on average less than half the tannin of regular tea (Camellia sinensis).
- Anti-inflammatory Action for Skin
Scientific research has also proven that Rooibos is rich in antioxidants, including the flavonoids quercetin and luteolin, which have been shown to be both anti-spasmodic and anti-inflammatory. This makes it a great ingredient for treating skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema.
- Packed With Antioxidants
Nobel Prize winning laureate Albert Szent Gyorgy discovered bioflavonoids in the 1930’s; quercetin is one of the most pharmacologically active flavonoids. It also has a synergistic relationship with Vitamin C, basically when combined the two together they can enhance the efficacy of each other. Antioxidants help your skin repair itself and correct damage done by environmental exposure to sun and pollutants.
- Contains Alpha Hydroxy Acids and Zinc
Rooibos is naturally abundant in alpha hydroxy acids (AHA) and zinc. These ingredients slow down the aging process by helping the process of old dead skin cells being removed and being replaced by new ones. This helps replace dull skin and clogged pores, improving overall skin health.
- Rooibos Prevents Loss of Fat Tissue
As you age, fat cells in your skin tend to migrate to other places in your body. This leads to wrinkles, bags under the eyes, and sunken facial features. Promising studies show that Rooibos may play a role in keeping fat cells where you want them in your face, to keep you looking younger for longer!
Our Rooibos tea plants remain as they have always been, never modified or subjected to hybridization, indeed many of the farms continue to allow indigenous wild plants and flowers to grow amongst the rows of Rooibos, so maintaining a more natural and ecologically sound environment.
To learn more about how we discovered Rooibos to be a natural anti-aging remedy, click here
