Talk:Rooibos

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"Tasty"

I took out the word tasty because I felt it was non-POV. (JFerreira 19:22, 9 March 2007 (UTC))[reply]

Nutrient Information

"Despite some promotional claims that rooibos is a source of vitamin C, Joubert says it is not." Who the hell is Joubert??? His estimation sounds absolutely new for me. Is that source reliable??? --84.179.134.16 12:32, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Elizabeth Joubert, Ph.D., specialist researcher at South Africa’s ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij and a rooibos expert" --Somnilocus 18:19, 29 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Request for sources

Which University? Which manufacturer? What are your sources? Paul Beardsell 14:42, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Indeed, I cannot find any sources on both the claims about the infants as well as the adults (over-consumption). Anyone with info? Sander Spek 08:21, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)

"nappy rash"? --ChadMiller 20:45, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

nappy rash = daiper rash ; Dr Elizabeth Joubert is one of the main researchers of rooibos tea in South Africa and she works at the Agricultural Research Councel in Stellenbosch. N.Coetzee

Anticarcinogenic?

I know of no actual science saying any component of Rooibos is anticarcinogenic. If that's to remain in the article, we need to come up with some kind of reference for it. As far as I can see, all of the common herb tea chemicals thought to be anticarcinogenic are absent in Rooibos. It does have some antioxidants, but if that's the only sign, it should be cited directly, without drawing the anticarcinogen conclusion. Kaz 18:45, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

A PubMed search for Aspalathus linearis finds about 20 articles, the first of which [1] seems (based on the abstract) to describe a study on tumorigenesis suppression effects of herbal extracts in mouse tissue, including rooibos. This might be a good starting point for a literature search, if someone is interested. Jks July 6, 2005 18:51 (UTC)

fluoride in tea, bad!?

I keep seeing websites that say rooibos has traces of fluoride. I would avoid giving this to infants if thats the case. From what i gather in my brief research on the web it sounds like some plants absorb more fluoride from pollutants than others. The plant green tea comes from absorbs more fluoride than rooibos from what i can tell. It's very important to watch fluoride levels for children.

What is the source for the above assertion?

history/research

to the fellow who was asking about the anticarcinogenic effects. The link included with the article to herbalgram.com, specifically http://www.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/articleview.asp?a=2550 , mentions this.

In fact there seem to be passages cut straight out of this document. Passages about how it's harvested, nutrient content, and so forth are all lifted off that page. Who is "Joubert", for instance?

Dthatcher 06:39, 11 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You made an interesting point there, D. If one comes across a surname that hasn't been previously "introduced", could one assume that that passage containing that surname has been lifted from elsewhere? Maybe its just me, but i think this site is no place for such slap-dash edits!--Shado.za 10:32, 21 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think that in this case it was exactly the correct assumption to make. Unintroduced, not included in references, and suddenly mentioned name (like in this case before the edit; it was just a last name - no title, credentials or first name). Checking the linked article indeed showed that it was just a rip. I suppose we may appreciate someone's veracity to post something about rooibos, and forgive them their obvious, glaring, legally punishable error? Looks like someone's jumped on it and straightened the whole mess out, anyways. Hurrah for collaborative effort. Dthatcher 09:47, 26 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

reference links

I replaced the commercial reference links at the bottom of the page with links to noncommercial sources. This seems to be the trend for several of the tea-related pages, many of which had links to greentealovers.com that have now been removed because the site is primarily a commercial sales vehicle.

Feb. 18 2007 - Two more links to africanredtea,com (commercial site) were added to "external links" - I think people from africanredtea,com and grentealovers,com are spammers. Should they be blacklisted ??

Pronunciation

I removed the non-IPA pronunciation as it was innacurate. The 's' in rooibos is not voiced as was suggested, 's' is never voiced in Afrikaans. Booshank 21:01, 31 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, "bawz" is just wrong, but "boss" is probably a closer approximation. dewet|✉ 22:39, 31 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Carl Peter Thunberg

According to the swedish wiki, this plant was "found" by the swedish Carl Peter Thunberg. He is supposed to be the one who gave it its scientific name, honoring Carl von Linné. Dan Koehl 22:27, 12 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ceylon Tea?

I'm wondering why ceylon tea is mentioned specifically in this article. Ceylon tea is no different than any other tea, it just happens to come from a certain area (Ceylon, aka Sri Lanka). Most tea from ceylon is black tea, which is not always prepared exactly the same way as rooibos. Often times it is recommended to prepare rooibos at a slightly lower temperature and steep slightly longer, similar to white tea. TAsunder 18:44, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Probably because many people use the term Ceylon tea when they actually mean black tea. I've changed the link. Greenman 15:04, 22 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Currency

Does someone know if the 80GBP price is adjusted for inflation or not? 68.148.20.111 21:47, 28 December 2006 (UTC)GoClick[reply]

I would assume not, as 80GBP per pound is not an excessive price for specialist seeds today. One could probably plant hundreds or thousands of square metres with one pound of small seeds, so if that was todays money it would not be an excessive investment.

Trade Disputes

How about more regarding Trade Disputes?

see: http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=qw111900726299B261

--nocturnal omnivorous canine 14:59, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Fermented vs. Unfermented color

The article says that unfermented is red and fermented is green. This web site states that unfermented is yellow and fermented is red. One of the sources for the artilce, this one, states that green is unfermented and fermented is red. This, too, doesn't jive with what the article is saying. Does anyone have a solution to this? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Rhetth (talk • contribs) 01:04, 7 April 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Khoisan name

What do the khoi and the san call the Rooibos?

Contradiction to resolve

The first paragraph of history contains a contradiction: first the Dutch settlers are said to adopt rooibos, by implication readily and almost upon their landing, since no time frame is stated, and then the copy says that their use of it was minimal until the 19th century, implying they resisted adopting it. Though the contradiction is not direct, anyone trying to imagine the attitude and ease of the adoption by the Afrikaans with any degree of precision is left at sea.

I hope someone with knowledge of the history can emend the statements.

167.115.255.20 15:21, 19 June 2007 (UTC)LINKBook[reply]

Imported tea from Europe?

The Dutch settlers to the Cape adopted rooibos as an alternative to black tea, an expensive commodity for the settlers who relied on supply ships from Europe.

But Cape was colonized as a stop for the ships carrying trade between Asia and Europe! Actually, Asian tea should be cheaper for South African colonizers than for European consumers, because of the lesser distance. --84.20.17.84 12:19, 20 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

But does it work.. and if it does, is SOD really the reason why? Someone ought to find out

It contains superoxide dismutase, a great antioxidant in a living cell, but with respect to drinking it in a tea, is there any evidence that this compound is absorbed into the body directly via oral consumption? Could the health benefits of this plant be due to the presence of other antioxidant chemicals that are perhaps more stable and more absorbable that also exist in higher levels for the same reason the plant has higher levels of SOD - a greater demand for antioxidant activity in the plant itself. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zaphraud (talk • contribs) 03:24, 13 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

At least to me it does not make any sense to talk about SOD in a tea. I mean, this is an enzyme and as such it should be denaturated when exposed to temperatures close to water's boiling point. It's true that some enzymes are extremely temperature resistant (those from extremophiles) but I don't believe this is one of those. And denaturated means inactive. Even if the extraction procedure from the leaves using hot water is not enough to destroy its function, our stomach pH would ruin this beautiful enzyme. But one thing is true: I've seen already SOD being advertised on some Rooibos packages as being a powerfull antioxidant so it might be that it is appreciated all over the globe for its SOD, even if this is biologically meaningless...--82.215.30.161 (talk) 13:05, 17 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]