Can Gardenia Flowers Be Brewed as Tea? Learn the Correct Brewing Method

Gardenia flowers and the fruit of the gardenia plant are both traditional Chinese medicinal materials. They can be used not only as medicine but also as a food ingredient, with effects of protecting the liver and promoting bile flow as well as lowering blood pressure and calming the nerves. They are also quite effective for some cases of irritability and excess internal heat, especially in treating sprains and contusions, high blood pressure, jaundice, diabetes and other conditions. Below, let us take a look at whether gardenia flowers can be brewed as tea.

Can Gardenia Flowers Be Brewed as Tea?

Gardenia flowers can be brewed as tea. Gardenia flowers contain flavonoids such as gardenin, pectin, tannins, crocin and others, and have the effects of purging fire and relieving restlessness, reducing inflammation and clearing heat, clearing heat and promoting diuresis, and cooling the blood and removing toxins. The flower buds or newly opened flowers of the gardenia can have their calyx and pedicel removed, with the corolla spread downward into a thin layer and dried over low heat or in an oven. After drying, place them in a sealed container and refrigerate in the refrigerator. When drinking, simply brew with hot water and add rock sugar, honey and so on to increase sweetness. However, gardenia flowers are bitter and cold, so those with spleen deficiency and diarrhea, or with insufficient kidney yang, should consume them with caution.

Benefits of Brewing Gardenia Flowers as Tea

1. Purging fire and relieving restlessness: The effect of gardenia flowers in purging fire and relieving restlessness makes them suitable for patients with conditions involving heat disturbing the mind, and they can also help treat exogenous febrile disease, pathogenic factors stagnating in the upper energizer, and chest tightness with restlessness and insomnia.

2. Clearing heat and cooling the blood: Gardenia flowers are bitter and cold, and can enter the blood aspect to dispel pathogenic heat, serving as a supplementary therapeutic food for conditions such as sores and swellings, intestinal wind and dysentery, and reckless movement of hot blood.

3. Resolving phlegm and stopping cough: Gardenia flowers can inhibit bacterial growth, thin phlegm and clear the airway, and have the effect of resolving phlegm and stopping cough, so they can be used as a dietary therapy for those with cough caused by hot phlegm congesting the lungs.

4. Promoting bowel movements and preventing cancer: Gardenia flowers contain cellulose, have the effect of relaxing the intestines and promoting bowel movements, can promote large intestinal peristalsis, help with the excretion of stool, and prevent the onset of hemorrhoids and the occurrence of rectal tumors.

Contraindications for Brewing Gardenia Flowers as Tea

1. Patients with spleen deficiency and loose stools should not take gardenia flowers, and patients with insufficient kidney yang should be especially cautious.

2. Patients with hematemesis caused by excessive yang fire should not take gardenia flowers, so as to avoid affecting their health.

3. Patients with qi leakage at the body surface and rising deficiency fire had also best not take gardenia flowers, otherwise the disease symptoms will worsen.

4. Gardenia flowers are not suitable for long-term or large-dose use, otherwise the body may experience diarrhea or even dysentery.