Best Mormon tea recipe, benefits and side effects

Mormon tea, also known as Brigham tea, is a herbal drink that’s made from the herbal tree, Ephedra nevadensis. Ephedra is one of the largest genera of the Ephedraceae family, which is distributed in arid and semiarid regions of the world. In traditional medicine, some species from the genus are commonly used to treat asthma, cold, flu, chills, fever, headache, nasal congestion, and cough. This makes mormon tea such a sort after herbal tea, due to its several health benefits.

How do you use Mormon tea?

Mormon tea are made from branches of Ephedra nevadensis. The branches are cut out, chopped into smaller pieces and sprayed to dry. When dried, you can either boil a handful of the pieces and drink or grind them into powdered form and infuse in hot water to make your Brigham tea. Beyond using ephedra nevadensis as for tea, people also use it as a beverage and herbal mixture. However, in some instances, mormon tea commercialized products are being adulterated by other Ephedra genus plants, which contain Ephedrine. This adulteration adds Ephedrine in your commercial mormon tea product. Be careful to read each label to see if the product is of other Ephedra genus plants or purely Ephedra nevadensis.

Does Mormon tea contain ephedrine?

Ephedrine is a stimulant that’s unsafe for human consumption. It is usually found in other species such as Ephedra sinica. So be careful not to confuse Mormon tea with ephedra drink. Whereas other species contain ephedrine, ephedra nevadensis does not contain ephedrine. Yoh should therefore be careful when othering for Mormon tea, lest you’d be served Ephedra tea, which are likely made from other Ephedra species, instead of Mormon tea.

What are the health benefits of Mormon tea?

The tea is widely used for several health conditions, and also for boosting immunity against invading microorganisms. Mormon tea can also be taking as a relaxation drink.

Mormon tea for diabetes

Mormon tea is beneficial, both as a preventive and curative remedy. It acts as an antidiabetic agent by inhibiting dipeptidyl peptidase IV. Mormon tea also reduces glucagon and blood glucose levels by increasing incretins that are responsible for inhibiting the release of glucagon and for promoting an increase in insulin secretion.
The tea also acts by inhibiting alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase enzymes. These enzymes are responsible for the break down of carbohydrates and release of, and availability of glucose, thereby increasing the serum and plasma glucose levels in diabetic patients.

Brigham tea fastens wound healing processes

Wound healing is the way our body regenerate dermal and epidermal tissues after we sustained injuries. After the incidence that leads to injuries, the body recruits inflammatory, and cells under the dermis would begin to increase the production of collagen. Like spermidine, Brigham tea may help increase the rate of wound healing. An ointment made from Ephedra plant may be applied topically as well, to hasten the time it would take to complete wound closure. The stem powder may be infused in a watermelon seed oil and applied topically on the wounded surface. If you don’t have watermelon seed oil, you may infuse your herbal powder in other herbal oil like perilla seed oil. You my as well chew bitter kola along mormon tea.

Brigham tea is beneficial for treating viral disease

Mormon tea is fortified with both quercetin and kaempferol among other strong cytotoxic compounds. These compounds protect us from infections caused by viruses. When you regularly drink a cup of Brigham tea, you would be boosting your immunity against infections due to viruses.
Another Brigham tea benefit is its antibacterial and antifungal activities. As we approach winter, mormon tea may be a good idea to prevent infections from Norovirus, and other flu viruses.

Mormon tea helps you loose weight

Too often, people keep asking for ways to keep their weights low. This is probably because obesity is one of the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases. Luckily, Brigham tea keeps your blood sugar levels at normal level through its inhibitory effects on both the alpha-amylase, and alpha-glucosidase. It also improves insulin secretion and glucose clearance.
Aside the inhibitory roles on the metabolic enzymes, mormon tea suppresses appetite for more food. By this way, Brigham tea can keep your cravings in check and therefore reduce excess intake of high caloric foods.

May reduce kidney infections

There are researches ongoing at the moment on the nephroprotective properties of Brigham tea. In traditional medicines also, Ephedra roots, stem bark, leaves, and even seeds are being used to make infusions for treating kidney diseases.
Brigham tea is rich in strong antioxidants, which offer protection from oxidative damages to your kidneys. You may need to join the dried powders of all the plant parts some times, to enjoy its rich antioxidant and nephroprotective effect. Also remember, this protective effect becomes visible when you drink a substantial amount of  tea.

Mormon tea for stomach pain and ulcer

Another important health benefit of mormon tea is its ability to alleviate stomach upset and cure gastric ulcers. The tea may also help stop running stomach and treat gastritis. It can also stop constipation.

Brigham tea improves respiratory health

Hot brigham tea can help clear your respiratory tract airways by suppressing the inflammation of the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract. This makes the herb effective in preventing asthmatic attack and wheezing. The tea is also effective for treating mild cough, as well as whooping cough, for suppressing catarrh and for treating bronchitis.

Mormon tea for sexually transmitted diseases

Brigham tea and other ephedra plant species possess strong antibacterial and antimicrobial compounds that may be utilized in the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. Being a rich source tannins, mormon tea could well be great for this purpose. But that is not just all, the alkaloids and flavonoids present in the plant extract may also be the reason why it may be helpful.

May boost your immunity

Mormon tea is also fortified with the essential vitamins that helps in boosting your immunity. The vitamin C, and other vitamins may help in building your immune system. Niacin and thiamin helps in metabolisms and as a result, ensure continued generation of energy for cellular functions.

May lower blood pressure

When your blood pressure is high, you may face the risk of heart attack and other cardiovascular diseases, including ischemia stroke. Luckily, herbal remedies have been proved to help in keeping our blood pressure at normal through the removal of bad cholesterol and increasing the concentration of good cholesterol. The antioxidants present in the tea also prevents the oxidation of LDL-cholesterol, deposited on the arterial walls of the blood vessels, thereby preventing atherosclerosis.

What are the possible side effects of mormon tea?

In most cases, Brigham tea is prepared with other Ephedra genus, which adds Ephedrine, the stimulating chemical in your tea. This is from where Ephedrine enters your tea. Whereas this may not be harmful at the short range, being exposed to it for a longer time period may be harmful. Some of the side effects of Brigham tea may include:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Kidney and liver damage
• Sweating
• Constipation and other stomach upset

Who should not take mormon tea?

Pregnant woman Although, at moderate quantity Brigham tea is relatively safe, a pregnant woman may do well to avoid the tea due to the possibility of ephedrine presence, which when taken in excess may cause harmful effect on the fetus.

How do you make Brigham tea ( Mormon tea recipe)?

Mormon tea recipe is a relatively easy-to-make one. However, for the purposes of preventing the likelihood of kidney or liver toxicity, other herbs with protective effects on both organs should be added.

Ingredients for making Mormon tea

• 2 spoonful of dried Ephedra nevadensis leaves or a pack of commercialized one.
• 1 spoonful of dried ginger powder
• 2 cups of clean water
• Honey or pine apple juice (optional)

Instructions

• Bring the water in a pot to a boil
• Add the tea and ginger powders
• Allow to steep for about 10 minutes
• Remove the pot from the heater and allow to cool for 3 minutes
• Strain into a cup and add you honey or pine apple juice to taste.
• Enjoy your tea.

References

González-Juárez, D. E., Escobedo-Moratilla, A., Flores, J., Hidalgo-Figueroa, S., Martínez-Tagüeña, N., Morales-Jiménez, J., Muñiz-Ramírez, A., Pastor-Palacios, G., Pérez-Miranda, S., Ramírez-Hernández, A., Trujillo, J., & Bautista, E. (2020). A Review of the Ephedra genus: Distribution, Ecology, Ethnobotany, Phytochemistry and Pharmacological Properties. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 25(14), 3283.

Jun-Woo Jang, Dong-Woo Lim, Ji-Ung Chang, Jai-Eun Kim, “The Combination of Ephedrae herba and Coicis semen in Gambihwan Attenuates Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome in High-Fat Diet–Induced Obese Mice”, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2018, Article ID 5614091, 10 pages, 2018.