Honeybush Tea: Chemical and Pharmacological Analyses

摘要

The honeybush plant, Cyclopia spp. is used to brew a traditional South African tea and is derived from several of the over 20 species of woody legumes of this genus. Honeybush tea has been a popular regional herbal tea and is now becoming available in wider markets in Africa, Europe and the US. Honeybush tea enjoys the reputation as a caffeine-free tea with a pleasant aroma and fruity honey-like flavor. This paper reviews the chemistry, health benefits and the processing of the honeybush tea, and describes analytical methods for the chemical characterization of the plants natural products including the volatile components and polyphenols which could be used for quality control and product profiling. Honeybush is a rich source of phenolic compounds such as mangiferin, isomangiferin, luteolin 7-rutinoside, diosmin, hesperidin, luteolin, and hesperitin. Honeybush contains over 15 aromatic volatiles with a-Terpineol as the major volatile constituent and the monoterpenes largely responsible for the sweet, floral and fruity notes of the tea, while phenylethyl alcohol and 5-methylfurfural imparting sweet and honey notes to the honeybush.