Colors shape our world.
In everyday life, we mainly associate colors with variegation and often have an emotional feeling towards them in the form of favorite colors, expressed in dress codes, or in the design of rooms.
But in the food world, colors are important indicators that report more. Green plants have a high chlorophile content, which enables photosynthesis, as the molecule converts sunlight into biochemical energy to nourish the plant.
Molecules are therefore also pigments and purple tea is, as the name suggests, a tea plant with a high proportion of purple pigments.
Malvin is the molecule in this tea variant, which makes the tea purple and healthy.
Malvin belongs to the group of flavonoids. The flavonoids are a group of water-soluble plant pigments and, as indicated above, have an important function in the metabolism of many plants.
They are contained in potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, grapes and other foods and plants.
What are the healthy effects of flavonoids on the body?
When eating and during the triggered metabolism, oxidants are produced, including reactive oxygen species called ROS.
An imbalance between ROS and their detoxification leads to oxidative stress (OS), which can cause serious diseases, including cancer and apoptosis, which is absolutely cell-damaging.
Antioxidants balance this stress and the flavonoid malvin, i.e. the purple colored dye, is one such but is defined as an anthocyanin.
Purple tea is only 15 years old, but there are now some studies on the subject that I link here.
So far, green tea has been considered "healthy tea", but the most important finding of the comparative studies must be noted that purple tea is basically healthier than green tea.
I think you can take it with you in general, but of course you should note that there are different types of green tea from different countries, with massively different cultivation conditions. Nevertheless, in making this statement, we consider the genus as a benchmark.
In total, purple tea has six antioxidants, according to a local study. I'll do it to the reader and list them here (as a challenge): cyanidin, delphinidin, perlagidinin, peonidin, petunidin and malvidin. phew!
Malvidin is not only the easiest to remember, but fortunately also the most important and, as mentioned, declared as an anthocyanin.
Purple tea also makes you so healthy because the plant is particularly protected from UV radiation by the purple pigmentation and can therefore be grown in particularly sun-intensive regions without the plant being damaged.
For example on the equator in high mountain regions, like here in Kenya.
As an extract, the purple tea plant also has a higher anthocyanin content compared to blueberries, which also have flavonoids. According to an American/Japanese study 1.5% to 0.1%.
source
Flavonoids are therefore an absolute indicator of healing effects.
Furthermore, it can be said that foods with anthocyanin pigments as medicinal ingredients is a well-known dogma in folk medicine all over the world!
We Gikuyus have the purple potato. There it is called Gwaci and is definitely part of a meal that is not infrequently eaten. In fact, gwaci is a sweet potato. ..
In Europe, dried blueberry leaves were used as a hot infusion to treat stomach, intestinal problems and bladder weakness.
In Russian medicine
The Indians were aware of the importance of purple spiced food and used it for anti-rheumatic drugs, heart medicine, ceremonial food, or as a cold remedy. So there is also the botanical name Peru Potatoes. Source. As a member of the flavonoid family, purple tea is therefore generally anti-inflammatory as well as preventing cancer and heart disease.
Does purple tea make me healthy? Well, especially in connection with spices, it has a revitalizing effect on me. This finding is immediately noticeable even without laboratory results, which is why I like to fall back on the ginger and chai masalla varieties as the outside temperature decreases.
One could jokingly say that the purple tea superfood makes a superman/woman.
Unfortunately, I cannot judge whether the medicinal effects increase or decrease in the context of the preparation, such as the brewing time.
However, it can be stated that the tannins dissolve faster in hot water than in cold water (even with a 24-hour brewing time).
This can be observed with the naked eye, because
when I carried out the experiment with the cold brew method, in which I squeezed a lemon slice, the color remained more neutral than in the hot brew comparison. The purple tea tea changes its color with acid (you can see how lemon creates the magic color effect in this link ).