HIBISCUS FLOWER!
Makes red zinger tea, mixed with any number of other herbs. The flower is a good adddition to spicy salads, and it makes a fruity, fragrant smoke, both for meats and fish, and in a pipe.
Hibiscus tea does have a laxative effect due to its high content of poorly absorbable fruit acids.
Researchers have also found that extracts of Hibiscus leaf tend to slightly relax the uterus and reduce blood pressure, thus making it a rather relaxing smoking and sipping herb, especially for those with high blood pressure.
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Hibiscus_sabdariffa.html:
Source of a red beverage known as jamaica in Mexico (said to contain citric acid and salts, serving as a diuretic). Calyx, called karkade in Switzerland, a name not too different from the Arabic. Karkade is used in jams, jellies, sauces, and wines.
In the West indies and elsewhere in the Tropics the fleshy calyxes are used fresh for making roselle wine, jelly, syrup, gelatin, refreshing beverages, pudding, and cakes, and dried roselle is used for tea, jelly, marmalade, ices, ice-cream, sherbets, butter, pies, sauces, tarts, and other desserts. Calyxes are used in the West Indies to color and flavor rum. Tender leaves and stalks are eaten as salad and as a pot-herb and are used for seasoning curries.
Seeds have been used as an aphrodisiac coffee substitute. Fruits are edible (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962). Perry cites one study showing roselle's usefulness in arteriosclerosis and as an intestinal antiseptic (Perry, 1980).
Roselle is cultivated primarily for the bast fiber obtained from the stems. The fiber strands, up to 1.5 m long, are used for cordage and as a substitute for jute in the manufacture of burlap.
Folk Medicine
Medicinally, leaves are emollient, and are much used in Guinea as a diuretic, refrigerant, and sedative; fruits are antiscorbutic; leaves, seeds, and ripe calyxes are diuretic and antiscorbutic; and the succulent calyx, boiled in water, is used as a drink in bilious attacks; flowers contain gossypetin, anthocyanin, and glucoside hibiscin, which may have diuretic and choleretic effects, decreasing the viscosity of the blood, reducing blood pressure and stimulating intestinal peristalsis. In Burma, the seed are used for debility, the leaves as emollient.
Taiwanese regard the seed as diuretic, laxative, and tonic. Philippines use the bitter root as an aperitive and tonic (Perry, 1980). Angolans use the mucilaginous leaves as an emollient and as a soothing cough remedy. Central Africans poultice the leaves on abscesses. Alcoholics might consider one item: simulated ingestion of the plant extract decreased the rate of absorption of alcohol, lessening the intensity of alcohol effects in chickens (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk).
http://www.herbmed.org/Herbs/Herb43.htm:
Clinical Trials
11.2% decrease in systolic blood pressure and 10.7% decrease of diastolic pressure after 12 days in 31 patients with moderate essential hypertension taking Hibiscus vs. control group Haji Faraji 1999
Urine excretion of creatinine, uric acid, citrate, tartrate, calcium, sodium, potassium and phosphate decreased in 36 men consuming roselle juice (Hibiscus sabdariffa) @ 16-24 g/d Kirdpon 1994
Hibiscus tea does have a laxative effect due to its high content of poorly absorbable fruit acids.
Researchers have also found that extracts of Hibiscus leaf tend to slightly relax the uterus and reduce blood pressure, thus making it a rather relaxing smoking and sipping herb, especially for those with high blood pressure.
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Hibiscus_sabdariffa.html:
Source of a red beverage known as jamaica in Mexico (said to contain citric acid and salts, serving as a diuretic). Calyx, called karkade in Switzerland, a name not too different from the Arabic. Karkade is used in jams, jellies, sauces, and wines.
In the West indies and elsewhere in the Tropics the fleshy calyxes are used fresh for making roselle wine, jelly, syrup, gelatin, refreshing beverages, pudding, and cakes, and dried roselle is used for tea, jelly, marmalade, ices, ice-cream, sherbets, butter, pies, sauces, tarts, and other desserts. Calyxes are used in the West Indies to color and flavor rum. Tender leaves and stalks are eaten as salad and as a pot-herb and are used for seasoning curries.
Seeds have been used as an aphrodisiac coffee substitute. Fruits are edible (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962). Perry cites one study showing roselle's usefulness in arteriosclerosis and as an intestinal antiseptic (Perry, 1980).
Roselle is cultivated primarily for the bast fiber obtained from the stems. The fiber strands, up to 1.5 m long, are used for cordage and as a substitute for jute in the manufacture of burlap.
Folk Medicine
Medicinally, leaves are emollient, and are much used in Guinea as a diuretic, refrigerant, and sedative; fruits are antiscorbutic; leaves, seeds, and ripe calyxes are diuretic and antiscorbutic; and the succulent calyx, boiled in water, is used as a drink in bilious attacks; flowers contain gossypetin, anthocyanin, and glucoside hibiscin, which may have diuretic and choleretic effects, decreasing the viscosity of the blood, reducing blood pressure and stimulating intestinal peristalsis. In Burma, the seed are used for debility, the leaves as emollient.
Taiwanese regard the seed as diuretic, laxative, and tonic. Philippines use the bitter root as an aperitive and tonic (Perry, 1980). Angolans use the mucilaginous leaves as an emollient and as a soothing cough remedy. Central Africans poultice the leaves on abscesses. Alcoholics might consider one item: simulated ingestion of the plant extract decreased the rate of absorption of alcohol, lessening the intensity of alcohol effects in chickens (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk).
http://www.herbmed.org/Herbs/Herb43.htm:
Clinical Trials
11.2% decrease in systolic blood pressure and 10.7% decrease of diastolic pressure after 12 days in 31 patients with moderate essential hypertension taking Hibiscus vs. control group Haji Faraji 1999
Urine excretion of creatinine, uric acid, citrate, tartrate, calcium, sodium, potassium and phosphate decreased in 36 men consuming roselle juice (Hibiscus sabdariffa) @ 16-24 g/d Kirdpon 1994