Cyclopia (plant) explained

Cyclopia, the honeybush, or heuningbos in Afrikaans, is a genus of some 20 species of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. Species of the genus are native to the southern and southwestern Cape Provinces of South Africa.[1]

Its description was published by the French botanist Étienne Pierre Ventenat in 1808. The name Ibbetsonia, published two years later, is regarded as a synonym of this genus; John Sims had commemorated the physiologist Agnes Ibbetson with this name.[2]

Cultivation and use

The leaves of honeybush are commonly used to make herbal teas. It grows only in small areas in the southwest and southeast of South Africa and has many similarities with rooibos. Honeybush and rooibos are considered types of red tea.

Honeybush is so named because the flowers smell of honey. The taste of honeybush tea is similar to that of rooibos but a little sweeter. In some rural districts, it used to be common practice to keep a kettle of honeybush tea infusing on the stove ready for drinking while scenting the whole house - unlike tea prepared from Camellia sinensis, the product does not turn bitter with long-term simmering.

There are dozens of species of honeybush tea found in the wild, of which about four or five are in widespread home or commercial use. These are:[3] [4] [5]

Some species can be cultivated whereas others have resisted all attempts at cultivation and must be harvested in the wild. It is not always easy to discover what the seeds need to enable them to germinate; some kinds bear elaiosomes and might be dependent on the services of particular ants or birds. Cyclopia intermedia (mountain tea) is one of the teas that is harvested in the Kouga mountains where it grows naturally. Mountain tea regenerates within three years after harvesting or devastation by fire; consequently less than one third of the mountain yield is available for harvesting each year by rotation.[7]

Mountain tea and valley tea flower in September/October whereas coastal tea flowers in May/June.[8]

Tea preparation

There are two methods of processing honeybush for use in tea. In the traditional method, the leaves of the bush are harvested, cut and bruised (often with mechanical rollers), and then left in the sun to oxidise. The modern, industrialised process oxidises the leaves in rotating, heated tanks at temperatures of 70–90 °C for two to three days. The leaves are then air-dried.

Afterwards, the leaves are sifted and graded according to the application:

Chemistry

Honeybush is low in tannin (0.45%). Some of the bioactive compounds present in honeybush include:[9] [10]

Species

Cyclopia comprises the following species:[11] [12] [13]

Section Aequalis

Section Cyclopia

Section Marsupium

Section Praegnans

Section Truncatae

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:22168-1 Cyclopia Vent.
  2. Ibbetson, Agnes . Boulger . George Simonds . George Simonds Boulger . 28 . Ibbetsonia, Curtis's Botanical Magazine (t. 1259, 1810).
  3. Web site: Agricultural Research Council—Botanical information . arc.agric.za . 2012-09-16 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120222043406/http://www.arc.agric.za/home.asp?pid=4053 . 2012-02-22 .
  4. Kamara . B. Irene . Brand . D. Jacobus . Brandt . E. Vincent . Joubert . Elizabeth . Phenolic Metabolites from Honeybush Tea (Cyclopia subternata) . Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry . August 2004 . 52 . 17 . 5391–5395 . . 10.1021/jf040097z . 15315375 .
  5. Web site: Agri-Probe . www.elsenburg.com . 2012-09-16 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120222203529/http://www.elsenburg.com/agriprobe/2005/probe2005-3.pdf . 2012-02-22 .
  6. Web site: Cyclopia longifolia - Useful Temperate Plants. 2021-09-14. temperate.theferns.info.
  7. http://www.melmont.co.za/harvesting.htm
  8. Web site: Honeybush Tea—Organic Honeybush Tea is caffeine free . www.montegotea.com . 2012-09-16 .
  9. de Beer D, Jerz G, Joubert E, Wray V, Winterhalter P . 2009 . Isolation of isomangiferin from honeybush (Cyclopia subternata) using high-speed counter-current chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography . . 1216 . 19 . 4282–9 . 10.1016/j.chroma.2009.02.056 . 19272608 . 10033/71233 . free .
  10. Kokotkiewicz A, Luczkiewicz M . 2009 . Honeybush (Cyclopia sp.)—a rich source of compounds with high antimutagenic properties . . 80 . 1 . 3–11 . 10.1016/j.fitote.2008.11.001 . 19032980 .
  11. Schutte AL . 1997 . Systematics of the genus Cyclopia Vent. . . 54 . 2 . 125–170 . 10.1017/S0960428600004005 . free .
  12. Web site: ILDIS LegumeWeb entry for Cyclopia . . International Legume Database & Information Service . Cardiff School of Computer Science & Informatics . 25 February 2014 .
  13. Web site: GRIN species records of Cyclopia . USDA . USDA . ARS . Agricultural Research Service . National Genetic Resources Program . Germplasm Resources Information Network—(GRIN) [Online Database] . National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland . 25 February 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150924115030/http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/splist.pl?3244 . 24 September 2015 . dead .
  14. Web site: Cyclopia falcata (Harv.) Kies — the Plant List.

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