I had a feeling that doing a PubMed search for Dr. Annique Theron would not yield much.聽聽In fact it yielded zero results.聽聽I can鈥檛 even find a biography of Dr. Theron, so I have no idea what sort of doctor she is.聽聽But she does exist.聽聽Pictures of the lady are not hard to find.聽聽After all, she founded a company, modestly named Annique, that sells a line of teas and cosmetics based on her 鈥渁mazing鈥� discovery.聽聽That discovery occurred back in 1968 when, according to the company鈥檚 promotional material, Theron stumbled on the natural healing powers of South African Rooibos tea.聽聽She was struggling to calm down her allergenic baby, and for some reason decided to dope her with a concoction made by steeping the leaves of the Asphalatus linearis plant in hot water.聽聽It worked!聽聽So she claims anyway.聽聽In fact it worked so well that Theron decided to investigate its potential in other conditions and found it to have anti-allergenic properties.
She began to spread the word in a book entitled 鈥淎llergies: An Amazing Discovery.鈥澛犅燭he book appears to be out of print and there is nothing published in the scientific literature by any Annique Theron, so it is hard to know what evidence she had for her amazing discovery.聽聽But it wasn鈥檛 long before people were attributing all sorts of miraculous effects to Rooibos tea.聽聽Not only was it anti-allergenic, it was was anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-aging.聽聽Dr. Theron sure saw its potential, and not being anti-profit she founded the 鈥淎nnique鈥� company that quickly developed an inventory of all sorts of products based on Rooibos tea.聽聽There were digestive aids, detox teas, happy teas along with a whole line of cosmetic products.
Truth be told, Rooibos tea was around long before Theron鈥檚 supposed discovery.聽聽Dutch settlers in South Africa brewed the needle-like leaves as an alternative to expensive tea which had to be imported.聽聽It was enjoyed mostly for its sweet taste until Theron put it on the world map with her undocumented discovery.聽聽Researchers, wondering if the plant contained any compounds that could substantiate the folkloric stories, began to study its chemistry.聽聽And they isolated a number of compounds with biological effects, including some antioxidants such as aspalathin and nothofagin.聽One substance they did not find was caffeine.聽聽Advertisers tout the antioxidant capacity of Rooibos, pointing out that it surpasses that of green tea.聽聽This is a laboratory finding that doesn鈥檛 have much meaning for consumers.聽聽What about all the other research that Rooibos tea boosters tout?聽聽Well, if you are interested in whether Rooibos tea prevents the breakdown of red blood cells in Japanese quail, the answer is yes, to a moderate extent.聽聽Or if you want to know if it can suppress the age-related accumulation of lipid peroxides in rat brain, you鈥檒l find a slight effect there too.聽聽Interested in whether the leaves of the plant contain estrogenic compounds? They do.
The fact is that while academically interesting, such research is marginal in terms of any meaning for humans.聽聽And there are no controlled trials showing any benefit for people.聽聽The taste, though, may be interesting.聽聽The newest incarnation of Rooibos is as so-called 鈥渞ed espresso.鈥澛犅營t鈥檚 made in an espresso machine using the powdered leaves instead of coffee.聽聽This is what the ad for the world鈥檚 first tea espresso sounds like: 鈥淲ith its unique combination of health properties, plus delicious taste and style, red espresso revolutionizes the caf茅 space by making it something never thought possible: healthy.聽聽Loaded with antioxidants and 100% natural.聽聽Of course you can say the same for coffee.
