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Review Article | DOI: https://doi.org/10.31579/2637-8914/045
*Researcher I at Ethiopia Institute of Agriculture Research, Wondo Genet Agriculture Research Center, P.O.Box: 198, Shashamene, Ethiopia.
*Corresponding Author: Abdela Befa Kinki, Researcher I at Ethiopia Institute of Agriculture Research, Wondo Genet Agriculture Research Center, P.O.Box: 198, Shashamene, Ethiopia.
Citation: Abdela Befa Kinki, (2021) A Review on the Production and Uses of Herbal Teas. J. Nutrition and Food Processing, 4(2); DOI:10.31579/2637-8914/045
Copyright: © 2021 Abdela Befa Kinki, This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Received: 11 March 2021 | Accepted: 18 March 2021 | Published: 30 March 2021
Keywords: herbal tea; infusions; medicine, phytochemicals; production
Herbs are the fresh or mixtures of dried leaves, seeds, grasses, nuts, barks, fruits, flowers, or other botanical elements. The production and uses of herbs are not new to the Worlds and Ethiopia. However, there is no such compiled information about herbal tea and its uses in Ethiopia. Herbs have a long history of both culinary use and health benefits, as well as acting as preservatives. Many herb plants are widely used as cooking to enhancing the flavor of foods including meats, sauces, vegetables, and health benefits by ensuring protection against harmful free radicals which consequently damaging of cellular structures, which contributes to the development of many diseases, have analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-viral and antiallergic. Drinking herbal teas has the advantage of boosting energy levels and invigorating the body, quenching the body by preventing hydration of the body, it promotes night sleep due to caffeine-free and it also has distinctive sensory qualities due to it contain the volatile fractions of various aroma active compounds. Herbal tea can be prepared by infusion or decoction using water on the whole or reduced to a suitable size and allowing too steep for a defined period. This review gives information on the production and the uses of herbal in the form of teas.
Herbs are the fresh or mixtures of dried leaves, seeds, grasses, nuts, barks, fruits, flowers, or other botanical elements [1-3]. Based on different theoretical, cultural, and religious principles peoples are using herbs for the preparation of refreshing drinks and medicinal purposes [4-7]. Herbal tea can be prepared by infusions or decoction [3, 8, 9] . Herbal teas have been extensively consumed because of their health-promoting and sensory characteristics [3, 10]. However, there is no sufficiently detailed information on herbal tea production and herbal tea use in Ethiopia.
History and Production of Herbal Tea
The people have been collecting herbs for their personal use or to provide income for their families or members during the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, as well as today, B&H is a supplier of mainly unprocessed medicinal and aromatic plants [10-12]. The main herbal tea producing countries are Asia:- Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, Africa:- Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and South America:- Argentina, Brazil, and others [5].
Herbal tea production in Ethiopia
The cultivation and use of herbs are not new to Ethiopia and as old as the other crop [13, 14]. Ethiopia has a long history of herb production for the domestic market and has unique, indigenous herbs that have been exported for centuries to countries in the Middle East, and exports to Europe have developed over the past twenty years [15, 16]. Most of the herbs have been used as a source of traditional medicine to treat different diseases [17, 18]. In Ethiopia, several culinary herbs are produced: chervil, chives, coriander, dill, green basil, lovage, mint, oregano, rocolla, thyme, Vernonia [16].
The Chemical Composition and the use of Herbal Tea
Herbal tea has different chemical compositions; -phytochemical and antioxidant screening results showed the presence of tannins, steroids, terpenoids, saponins, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, alkaloids, and phlobatannins [19-21]. The chemical composition includes; moistures, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, and ash content, minerals such as chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), Lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) [19, 20].
Herbs have a long history of both culinary use and of providing health benefits, as well as acting as preservatives mainly with Ethiopia [10, 22]. Many herb plants are widely used as cooking to enhancing the flavor of foods including meats, sauces, vegetables, and desserts [10, 23, 24]. Beyond acting as a replacement for salt, the nutritional contribution of these dietary plants has in the past been deemed negligible probably because of the relatively small, although increasing amounts consumed [16, 22-24]. Herbal teas have health benefits due to specific active substances phytochemicals [24-27]. Among the phytochemical substances, phenolic acids and flavonoids, are the major groups of natural components in plants that have received increasing interest over the last decades due to free radical scavenging properties. These phytochemicals are excellent to ensuring protection against harmful free radicals, which, through reactions with proteins, lipids, and saccharides, lead to their oxidation and consequently to the damaging of cellular structures, which contributes to the development of many diseases, have analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-viral and antiallergic. Drinking herbal teas have also the advantage of boosting energy levels and invigorating the body, quenching the body by preventing hydration of the body, it promotes night sleep due to caffeine-free and antimicrobials activity [8, 24, 28]. No adverse statements have been reported for the drinking of herbal tea and herbal tea combinations can be used in minor complaints affecting [29, 30].
Preparation of herbal tea
Extraction is liquid preparations extemporaneously prepared by boiling herbal substance(s) with water on the whole or reduced to a suitable size and allowing too steep for a defined period, usually 5 to 15 minutes as they have a beautiful fragrance and are very appealing when not otherwise specified [28, 31] . The extraction of tea is determined by various factors, such as the tea-to-water ratio, length of infusion, temperature of infusion, type of infused water, and type of tea [32-36].
Sensory attributes of herbal tea
A wide variety of plant materials with distinctive sensory qualities exist as potential ingredients of herb tea and its volatile fractions of various teas contain more than 50 aroma active compounds which give sweet, fragrant, malty, strong, full-bodied, spicy, fragrantly fruity, fresh, herbaceous, smoothly fragrant, deep, astringent, grassy tasting, smoky, savory strength, bitter and refreshing( [14, 37, 38].
The information presented in this review shows that herbal tea is the oldest and cheapest healthy beverage in the world. They are prepared by infusion of tea or herbal alone or by combining with different ingredients. Due to it is an affordable source of phytochemicals, antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, aroma, and other compounds it is useful as a nutriceutical function. Further reviewing, especially well-conducted documents and needs to be performed to provide compelling evidence for the nutritional profile of herbal tea and creating awareness.
The author like to thanks Mr.Roba Tussa and other Wondo Genet Agricultural Research Center researcher those given to me advice and constant support when I was reviewing this paper.
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