This week's herbal highlight is Butterfly Pea, clitoria ternatea, a beautiful climbing vine with many benefits for the body and mind. Native to Indonesia, this perennial plant is cultivated around the world and throughout most of the United States.
In India, butterfly pea is considered a holy flower and has been used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine as a nerve tonic to enhance memory, reduce stress and combat depression. Traditional Chinese medicine considers this plant an ally to increase female libido, in part due its similar appearance to female reproductive organs (hence the genus name, deriving from the word clitoris.) The flowers have also been used as a natural food coloring for rice and desserts, bringing a bluish color to foods or even as a fabric dye. The deep blue tea turns a bright pinkish-purple when lemon juice is added, so it is often used as a delicious, calming lemonade-style beverage for young and old alike.
Butterfly pea tea has calming, sedative properties therefore it often used to calm an anxious mind and bring a general sense of peace. To harvest and use the flowers for tea, simply snip the flowers
as they bloom, dry on a screen for 1 week and use a tablespoon per cup. The plant grows easily by seed and will often come back year after year, unless a very harsh winter is present. Therefore it is recommended to save some seed pods to ensure continuous production of this delicious medicine!
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