Until many century, human beings know the incredible plants properties, as a source of nutrition and health care. All of us have tried at least a few of natural remedy, maybe an ordinary chamomile infusion or a tea to manage digestion problems.
Now there are very helpful natural compound that have a very unpleasant taste, sometimes we can’t feel it because natural supplements are in capsules or mixed with sugar or other substances to hide the taste.
Here I list 5 of them.
1 Aloe Vera
Is an evergreen perennial plant, mostly distributed in North Africa. Aloe Vera leaves generate two exudates: a latex and a gel. Both mixtures have medical but different properties and are used until ancient centuries. The Aloe Vera latex has laxative effect, treats peptic ulcers and showed to improve the vitamin adsorption . The gel is helpful to treat skin disorder such as burns and wounds, but also cystic acne, amputation stump ulcers, lacerations, insect repellent.
When the gel is odorless, transparent and tasteless, the latex has a very bitter taste. Aloin causes this particular effect on human bitter receptor , but is also responsible for purgative effect, demonstrated to inhibit tumor angiogenesis in vitro .
2 Cacao
Quite everybody loves some kinds of cacao-based foods. Surely the first to come to your mind is chocolate: some people love dark chocolate, others prefer milk chocolate, other still can’t resist to white chocolate. Most of these have a low concentration of cacao, save high percentage dark chocolate.
Raw cacao has a lot of healthy nutrients, but it undergo a lot of processes to improve the flavor and to be used in foods: fermentation, roasting, puffing, alkalization and more. This processes reduces part of the phytochemical compounds, but this ingredient still preserve benefits for heart, insulin sensitivity, blood vessels, aging, inflammation, mood and more.
Before fermentation and roasting cacao taste very bitter and astringent, but also sour, musty and unclean.
3 Devil’s Claw
The weird name of this small plant depend on the strange shape of claw-like protrusions on the fruit. It naturally grows in African deserts. There are a lot of scientific studies that show the anti-inflamatory and analgesic effect of the plant extract, and the mayor responsible of these benefits is a chemical compound called harpagoside, that is most available in the roots.
Devil’s Claw is mostly used for chronical diseases, such as reumathism, arthritis and osteoarthritis.
The drug has a very penetrating bitter taste , that cause gastric acid secretion and make this plant contraindicated for those with duodenal and gastric ulcers.
4 Valerian
Valerian’s root extracts are well known to treat mild sleep disorder and anxiety . Valerian grows expecially in Europe and part of Asia. It’s often sold mistured with other compounds with similar effect like Melissa or Melatonin in capsules or in pieces to make infusions.
The root of this plants has a very particular and unpleasable smell, like foot, someone can describe it similar to a sewer. This detail can be a challenge to you. Do you brave the valerian infusion or sleep disorder? You can take a compromise combining it with other more pleasant plants or choosing capsules, where the smell and the taste are hidden better.
5 Cinchona
Cinchona is native is native to South America specifically from the Andes mountain range. It can also be found in India, Java, Cameroon, and Vietnam and in some other Asian and African countries. Took popularity from centuries expecially thanks antimalarial activity of its extracts, and it’s still used for this purpose. It’s also used in Indian ayurvedic and popular medicine to treat fever. But this Recently this special plant shown other important potential activity such as anti-obesity, anti-cancer, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial activity.
There are a lot of molecoules responsible for the health benefits: the main families are Quinine, Chichonine, Quinidine and Cinchonidine that cane change in percentage depending on the species.
The extract of Cinchona have a peculiar bitter taste, but in this case this properties has also a positive effect: stimulate appetite and help digestion processes.
Which of those plants would you want to know more about??