Herbal Teas for Healthy Living 2nd Edition

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Published in 2008 by Struik Nature
(an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd)
80 McKenzie Street, Cape Town, 8001 South Africa
PO Box 1144, Cape Town, 8000 South Africa

www.randomstruik.co.za

First published by Spearhead (an imprint of New Africa Books (Pty) Ltd) in 2005
First published by Struik Nature in 2008

Copyright © in published edition, 2011: Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd)

Copyright © in text, 2005, 2008: Margaret Roberts

Editor: Kathleen Sutton

Project manager: Margaret Matthews
Proofreader: Brenda Barrow
Cover photographs: Phyllis Green
Cover design: Peter Stuckey
Illustrations: Margaret Roberts
Layout and design: Peter Stuckey
Origination: Graphco Processing

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners.

ISBN 978 1 77007 529 0 (Print)

ISBN 978 1 43170 070 7 (ePub)
ISBN 978 1 43170 071 4 (PDF)

Warning
Never use any plant as a tea unless you are one hundred per cent sure of its identification. Many
plants are poisonous; in some cases certain parts of a plant may be edible, while other parts may
be poisonous. When in doubt, leave out. The author and publishers take no responsibility for any
poisoning, illness or discomfort that may result from information contained in this book or due to
the incorrect identification of a plant. You are strongly advised to consult a medical practitioner
before treating yourself or your family with home remedies.
 Contents

Introducton
To make a herbal tea
Important notes
Anise
Basil
Bergamot
Borage
Buchu
Calendula
Caraway
Cardamom
Catmint
Celery
Chamomile
Cinnamon
Clover
Cloves
Comfrey
Echinacea
Elder flower
Fennel
Ginger
Goldenrod
Green tea
Jasmine
Lavender
Lemon
Lemon grass
Lemon thyme
Lemon verbena
Linseed
Lucerne
Maidenhair fern
Marjoram
Mealie silk
Melissa
Mint
Mullein
Nutmeg
Oat straw
Olive leaf
Parsley
Pennywort
Pineapple sage
Raspberry
Rooibos
Rose and rosehip
Rosella
Rosemary
Rose-scented geranium
Sage
St John’s wort
Stevia
Stinging nettle
Strawberry
Tea tree
Turmeric
Violet
Yarrow
Chocolate mint special tea
Ailment chart
 Introduction

I wrote the first Herbal Tea book at the end of 1999 at the request of the
publishers for a quick-reference little book. This proved to be so popular
with so many requests from not only the students who attend my classes at
the Herbal Centre, but also from the ever-increasing number of herb lovers.
So here it is again with added extras and new herbs included. I have also
included a special recipe for each herb that you can try for a different and
exciting taste experience.
There isn’t space to go into the growing of these precious plants, but my
big and comprehensive book, The Essential Margaret Roberts – My 100
Favourite Herbs, also published by Spearhead, covers any other queries
you may have.
Through the years I have found certain herbs to be absolutely remarkable
in their effective, quick, and often astonishing relief of many a common
ailment. Making an infusion of the fresh, organically grown plant, and
sipping it quietly and slowly, often does more to ease the condition than a
lot of serious medication, and I have proved this over and over again – but
you still need to consult your doctor before starting a home treatment.
Children respond particularly well to herbal teas, as do animals. Often
one can include the teas in a favourite fruit juice, or, in the case of animals,
add it to their drinking water or mix it into their food. Generally people
wrinkle their noses at the thought of a herbal tea, but if it is well made and
sweetened, if liked, with a little honey, it is not only delicious but so quick
to bring relief that one can become quite fanatical about the wonders of
herbal teas! I certainly am, and very rarely drink any other form of tea.
Through my many years of experimenting, I have come to a number of
comforting conclusions about herbal teas, which I share with you in this
little book.
Margaret Roberts
The Herbal Centre
De Wildt
North West Province
South Africa
To make a herbal tea – the best is always
fresh

Standard brew when using leaves and flowers: ¼ cup fresh leaves and/or
flowers. Pour over this 1 cup of boiling water, allow to draw for three to
five minutes, then strain. Sip slowly.
Standard brew when using bark and seeds: 1–2 teaspoons seed
approximately, e.g. aniseed. 1 tablespoon bark, e.g. cinnamon. Pour over
this 1 cup of boiling water, allow to draw for five minutes, then strain.
Doses for children: ½ cup or even ¼ cup, and for a baby 2 teaspoons at a
time. Melissa, chamomile and fennel are invaluable children’s herbs.
Doses for animals: Add 1 cup of strained herbal tea to 2 cups of water in
their water bowls or mix ½–1 cup of herb tea into their food.
 Important notes

NOTE: Always be sure before starting a home treatment that you consult
your doctor – these herbal teas are in no way meant to replace the doctor, or
any medication you are on.

It is always safest to use one individual herb at a time, as mixing the herbs
often dissipates their efficacy. However, although it is advisable to drink
only one cup of a specific herbal tea a day, you can drink several cups of
different herbal teas throughout the day.
During an acute illness, for example flu or a cold, you can take a specific
herb three to four times during the day to ease the condition, but a general
rule is to take only one of a kind daily, then after ten days give it a break of
three or four days, then continue, stopping every ten days for three to four
days, before continuing.
Herbs are far more powerful than we realise and can accumulate within
the body. So it is best to take a variety and also to take them in moderation.
Very importantly, all herbs must be organically grown with no chemical
fertilisers or sprays whatsoever, as the herb is immediately absorbed by the
body and it needs to be 100 per cent pure. Also, be sure that no irradiated
spices or seeds are used, and never dry the herbs in a microwave. It is best
to use herbs fresh, but in case you have to dry them do so by hanging them
up, or spread them on newspaper in the shade and turn daily. Store dried
herbs in a screw-top glass bottle and don’t keep them for longer than three
months. After that they’re not even palatable.
Above all, enjoy this remarkable way of absorbing the health-giving
properties of nature’s little miracles. Herbs make all the difference to our
health and state of mind; they lift our spirits and give us never-ending
interest. Relish every sip!
The benefits of honey
Both lemon and honey can be added to most of the herbal teas in this little
book. Both are hugely important in the building of health, and honey is the
best natural sweetener ever known to humankind. Honey contains a mass of
mineral salts, amino acids, vitamins and natural, easily digested sugars.
Honey is a sleep inducer and a natural disinfectant and painkiller. It is
surprisingly often used as a country remedy spread onto open sores,
scratches and grazes – many a horse has had a honey wound dressing that
the vet has recommended. It has antibacterial and antiviral properties, and it
helps to ease diarrhoea, asthma and sore throats. (The old-fashioned sage
tea with honey and lemon is still one of the most popular sore-throat
treatments today.) Honey is a wonderful unwinding, calming, soothing and
relaxing addition to the herbal teas!
 Anise
Pimpinella anisum

Anise is a pretty, quick-growing little annual and the whole plant – flowers
included – makes a deliciously comforting tea, and the seeds (aniseed) have
been treasured through the centuries as a medicine.
One of the best digestive herbs, aniseed has been used to treat heartburn,
sour belching, wind, colic and nausea. It will quickly ease hiccoughs,
dissipate bloating and is a superbly effective antispasmodic, countering and
soothing menstrual cramps, spasmodic tight coughing, whooping cough,
bronchitis, pneumonia and heat prostration.
Many a nursing mother has sipped cups of aniseed tea to increase her
breast milk production (which benefits the baby’s colic too).

CAUTION: Do not take anise in any form during pregnancy.

New research is finding that anise tea is beneficial in treating frigidity and
impotence and for the easing of the menstrual cycle. The ancient Greeks
used aniseeds and fresh flowers for pain relief and recorded that aniseed
warms, dries, dissolves, facilitates breathing, provokes urine, eases thirst
and relieves pain – and modern research verifies this.
 Make a tea of 2 teaspoons of aniseeds, pour over this 1 cup of boiling
water, leave it to stand for four to five minutes, give it a good stir, then
either strain and sip slowly, or chew the seeds well with the tea – they are
delicious.
Alternatively, make a tea of fresh leaves and flowers by steeping ¼ cup
of the leaves and flowers in 1 cup of boiling water for three to four minutes.
Strain, sweeten with a touch of honey, if liked, and sip slowly.
The cooled tea made of either the fresh flowers and leaves, or the seeds,
can also be strained and used as a lotion or wash for oily skin, enlarged
pores and acne, and in a spray bottle misted over the face will help to
freshen, brighten and remove oiliness and redness, and to give an instant
moisturising effect to a hot flushed face.

Aniseed and orange winter warmer

Serves 2

Pour 1 cup of boiling water over 2 teaspoons of aniseed and a twist of

orange zest. Stand for 5 minutes. Simmer 1 cup of orange juice
freshly squeezed with 2 teaspoons of honey for 1 minute. Stir to
dissolve the honey. Add the aniseed tea to the pot of orange juice and
stir for 1 minute. Strain. Sip slowly to take the chill away and to
soothe a tired throat.
 Basil
Ocimum basilicum species

There is an incredible variety of tastes in this popular group of herbs and

although most are quick annuals like the delicious lemon basil, cinnamon
basil, Thai basil, ginger basil and Genoese basil, it is to the perennial sacred
basil, Ocimum basilicum sanctum (now called Ocimum basilicum
tenuifolium) that I most often turn, not only for its rich clove-like scent and
taste, but for its instant antispasmodic effect.
I try to have a cup of sacred basil tea almost every day and grow a bush
or two at the kitchen door for quick pickings, as it is thought to be
beneficial for the heart in particular. Research in India, its native land, has
found it to be helpful in lowering high blood pressure, cleansing the blood,
and lowering blood sugar and cholesterol levels. It is regarded as an
‘adaptogenic’, which helps the body to cope with, and adapt to, new
bombardments of stress and tension-filled demands, and it acts as a tonic,
energising and restoring the balance.
I also grow the huge sprawling ‘High Hopes Basil’ – the biggest of all the
basils, with its mass of flowers which can be included in the tea, and add a
jug full of tea to my bath water to experience that lovely, so-needed
relaxation while I sip slowly …
All the basils have excellent detoxifying and anti-inflammatory effects,
and even chewing a leaf will ease indigestion and tension, and sipping a cup
of basil tea is a most soothingly pleasant experience.
Take ¼ cup of fresh leaves (never even think of using dried basil – it
loses virtually all its taste in the drying), pour over this 1 cup of boiling
water, leave it to stand for three to five minutes, strain and sip slowly.
Basil tea is also an excellent slimmer’s tea, and is more and more popular
today for ‘the detox process’, particularly after a calorie-rich meal. Sacred
basil tea is effective for bladder ailments, acne, over-oily skin and
blemishes and to stimulate circulation, to name but a few uses, and it is a
much loved ‘cure-all’ in its diversity. Try it!

Basil reviving cooler

At the end of a hot afternoon this is a superb refresher.

Pour 1 cup of boiling water over ¼ cup of fresh basil leaves. Stand for
3 minutes, strain and pour into a glass. Stand this in a bowl and tuck
ice around it. While it cools whirl 6 thin slices of unpeeled cucumber
and 2 thick slices of peeled pineapple in a liquidiser. Add 2
tablespoons of crushed ice. Mix in the basil tea and serve in a tall
glass with more crushed ice.
 Bergamot
Bee balm Monarda didyma

Known as Oswego tea by the American Indians, this gloriously rich-

flavoured tea has been around for centuries. It eases nausea, vomiting and
digestive upsets, and soothes coughs and colds and nasal congestion, and
helps to dry up mucous and clear sinuses.
It has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties and is a quickly-
soothing digestive and decongestant that is a pleasure to drink.
Take ¼ cup of fresh leaves and flowers, pour over this 1 cup of boiling
water and stand it for five minutes. Then strain, sweeten with a touch of
honey and add a squeeze of lemon juice, specially for a cough and cold, and
sip slowly.
The arresting flavour and fragrance of bergamot tea is similar to that of
the Italian bergamot orange, Citrus bergamia, which gives Earl Grey tea its
distinctive taste and, by adding two fresh bergamot leaves to a pot of
ordinary tea, you can immediately get that Earl Grey flavour and achieve
the wonderful easing of tension and release of anxiety by the third sip.
 Cooled tea can be used as a soothing face wash for oily problem skin and
is remarkably effective in a spritz bottle sprayed frequently onto the skin to
cool and clear away pollution build-up and to refresh in midsummer heat.
A cup of bergamot tea has been taken through centuries to treat kidney
ailments, to help flush out toxins, to ease bronchitis and insomnia and even
backache, and new medical research in America is proving it’s not just a
pretty garden perennial. It really is an extraordinary plant and tough and
easy to grow so far from its native habitat.
Try the cooled tea with fruit juice as a summer refresher. It’s addictive!

Earl Grey spicy tea

Pour 1 cup of boiling water over 1 Ceylon tea bag and 2 bergamot
leaves, 1 cinnamon stick and 1 lemon slice. Remove the tea bag after
10–15 seconds. Stand for 5 minutes and stir frequently with the
cinnamon stick. Strain, pour into a pretty mug, and add a sprinkling of
cinnamon powder, a fresh lemon slice and a touch of honey.

The best experience is to sip it very slowly on an autumn afternoon as

the first chill sets in and you can pick the last of the season’s bergamot
leaves before it dies down for winter.