Recently, young people are very interested in enjoying strange drinks with many colors: blue, purple, pink, etc. at milk tea shops.
It is a tea made from butterfly pea flower, it is not only beautiful but also has many good uses for health.
Butterfly Pea Flower Tea originated from Thailand, then followed tourists to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam and some Southeast Asian countries.
Butterfly pea, also known as Purple Flower Bean, Butterfly Flower, is a climbing plant, herbaceous, living many years, often grown as a fence or a flower trellis. Flowers are purple-blue, dark blue or white, but most commonly purple-blue.
In scientific researches, people have analyzed from butterfly pea flower many organic chemical compounds, notably two active ingredients: anthocyanin (a type of flavonoid) that creates the brilliant blue color of flowers and cliotide.
Beautiful food and drink
Butterfly Pea Flower (used fresh, dried or powdered) when soaked in water for about 5 minutes will be a blue color, tasteless.
Filter the flower carcass to get the water. Then pour into the mixture of sugar (honey), ice or smoothies, cocktails (with other fruits such as strawberries, apples ...), add a little vanilla flavor to create a drink with beautiful colors. This color varies from blue, pink to purple depending on the amount of flowers and ingredients.
Butterfly Pea Flower has many health benefits
Food made from butterfly pea flower not only looks beautiful but also has many good effects for health. The blue color of the butterfly pea flower easily dissolves in water with a very short time, only a few minutes.
Butterfly pea flower tea will help improve health by blocking the harmful effects of free radicals.
The benefits of butterfly pea flower:
1. Beauty: beautiful skin, beautiful hair, anti-aging, anti-obesity
Active ingredients in butterfly pea flower improve cell health. They also improve blood circulation to every corner of the body, helping to nourish the skin and hair, slow down aging, prevent hair loss and make black hair shiny. Moreover, anthocyanin can inhibit lipid peroxidation reaction, prevent the accumulation of fat in the visceral, so keep the body slim, avoid obesity. So it is not surprising that young women in Thailand propagate beauty by drinking butterfly pea flower tea regularly.
2. Preventing and supporting cancer treatment
High antioxidant capacity should minimize the formation of free radicals, preventing the harmful effects of free radicals. In addition, the active ingredient in butterfly pea flower has the function of stabilizing the mitochondria in the cell nucleus, protecting the cell membrane, enhancing the ability of leukocytes and phagocytes to recognize cancer. Thus, limiting the growth of cancer cell and protecting patients during radiation therapy. On the other hand, in the laboratory, butterfly pea flower cliotide has shown impressive ability to inhibit cancer cells.
3. Immune booster
The blue color of the flower has anthocyanins that help protect DNA and lipid peroxidation from damage and increase the production of cytokines to increase the body's immunity
4. Antibacterial properties
Preliminary studies show that cliotide in butterfly pea flower has antibacterial activity in vitro against E. coli , K. pneumoniae , and P. aeruginosa.
5. Good for the heart
Many studies show that butterfly pea flower significantly improves the risk of death from coronary arteries because it helps to protect the vessel wall, prevent hardening of the blood vessels, reduce blood embolism, prevent cerebral thrombosis, and lower blood pressure.
6. Helpful for diabetes
Butterfly pea flower can also increase insulin secretion to help control blood sugar, partially reducing the risk of diabetes.
7. Improve eyesight
The increased blood flow to the organs also helps to improve the flow of blood through the capillaries of the eyes, making the eyes well protected, and improving eyesight. Eyes are protected from damage caused by free radicals, so they slow down the progression of cataracts, helping to treat damage to the retina.
8. Sedative, reduce anxiety, prevent depression
According to ancient documents, butterfly pea flower has a sedative effect, reduces anxiety, and prevents depression due to the blue color of the flower. This is the reasoning of Indian Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine.
9. Enhance health, reduce fatigue, reduce stress
In dishes and drinks made from butterfly pea flower, there are beneficial active ingredients, so it is obvious that the body is enhanced health, less fatigue. When drinking butterfly pea flower tea, guests feel refreshed and relaxed when looking at the blue, purple, or pink color of tea after stressful working hours.
Harm of butterfly pea flower (Notes when using butterfly pea flower):
When determining the toxicity of anthocyanins in butterfly pea flowers, no adverse effects were reported when given to adults up to 640 milligrams per day.
Therefore, with the level of drinking 1-2 cups of butterfly pea flower tea a day (about 5-10 flowers, equivalent to 1-2 grams of dried flowers) it is not thought to be harmful.
However, because butterfly pea flower contains anthocyanin, which inhibits platelet aggregation, increases blood circulation, and promotes uterine contractions, it should be carefully limited to use in the following cases:
- Pregnant.
- Menstruation.
- Preparing for surgery.
- Be taking anticoagulants.
(Collected and synthesized, for reference only)
