NUTRITION FACTS

Vitamins and Minerals: 100 grams of Yerba Mate brewed with one liter of water have approximately the following:

Potassium: 681.85 mg
Magnesium: 167.60 mg
Iron: 0.33 mg
Sodium: 4.57 mg
Phosphorus: 93.00 mg
Vitamin C: 2.55 mg
Niacin: 12.98 mg

Two 50-gram portions of Yerba Mate cover a great part of the minimum daily requirements recommended:

55.9% of Magnesium
34.1% of Potassium
99.9% of Niacin
11.6% of Phosphorus

Description of Yerbamate and constituents

Yerba mate' (Ilex paraquariensis) is an evergreen member of the holly family. We call Yerba Mate by several common names, including Paraguay tea, Jesuit tea, missionary tea and South American holly, but the most common is Yerba or Yerba Mate. It grows wild in Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Brazil, but is most abundant in Paraguay where it is also cultivated. New methods have been implemented and we find it also as an Organic Certified Yerba Mate Green Herbal Tea. We use the leaves nutritionally and medicinally. It is usually ground and steeped in hot water for several minutes and served hot or cold. ( TERERE ) The plant is classified according to Western herbal medicine as aromatic, stimulant, bitter, astringent, diuretic, purgative, sudorific, febrifuge, alterative and stimulant, but these terms sometimes do not reflect the true richness of its properties.

Several attempts to characterize part or all of the constituents of Yerba mate' have been made during the last few decades. They agree on some points, and disagree on others. This is not unusual; different assay techniques will be sensitive to different nutrients. The one thing that unites the various researchs is the consistent detection of numerous vitamins and minerals. There is the us ual array of resins, fiber, volatile oil, and tannins that characterize many plant substances. But then there is the growing list of vitamins and minerals, including carotene, vitamins A, C, E, B1, B2, B complex, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, pantothenic ac id , biotin, vitamin C complex, magnesium, calcium, iron, sodium, potassium, manganese, silicon, phosphates, sulfur, hydrochloric acid, chlorophyll, choline, inositol. Different research find different nutrients; there no single research that has found all o f them, and perhaps there are still other nutrients that have not been identified and classified.

One group of investigators from the Pasteur Institute and the Paris Scientific Society concluded that Yerba mate' contains practically all of the vitamins necessary to sustain life. They focused especially on pantothenic acid, remarking that it is rare to find a plant with so much of this significant and vital nutrient. It is indeed difficult to find a plant in any area of the world equal to Yerba mate' in nutritional value.

In addition, Yerba mate' contains a substance belonging to a very specialized class of chemical compounds. Though only small amounts of this substance occur in Yerba mate', its presence has generated a huge amount of attention. The substance is a xanthine alkaloid called mateine. Because of all the attention heaped upon its presence in yerbamate', the following fairly extensive treatment is given, even though in reality the substance probably contributes little if anything to the activity of the plant.

Synthesis of the Yerbamate's properties and the Xanthine Alkaloids

Is it Caffeine free?

International scientist like Dr. Mowry Director of the Mountainwest Institute of Herbal Sciences, in Salt Lake City, Utah, has expressed ".. It turns out that yerba mate ne is not identical to caffeine; it differs from caffeine in some rather dramatic ways. Some members of the scientific community still resort to calling mateine a South American term for caffeine, or to maintaining, in perfect knowledge of the falseness o f the assertion, that two substances so similar chemically must have the same properties. Slowly, they are being forced to acknowledge the distinction between mateine and caffeine..."

"..modern studies seem to validate the difference between yerba mate' and other xanthines-containing plants, such as guarana. Stereo-chemical and clinical work on xanthines in the last couple of decades have shown that, though similar in structure, the members of this class have widely varying pharmacology. In fact, there is only o ne effect that seems to be shared by all trimethyl xanthines: smooth muscle relaxation. It is this action that makes them with the exception of caffeine, whose smooth muscle relaxant effects are diminished by other side effects, good clinical dilators of the bronchi and hence useful in the treatment of asthma.."

" ..Researchers at the Free Hygienic Institute of Hamburg, Germany, concluded that even if there were caffeine in yerba mate', the amount would be so tiny that it would take 100 tea bags of yerba mate' in a six ounce cup of water to equal the caffeine in a six ounce serv ing of regular coffee. Mateine appears to possess the best combination of xanthine properties possible. For example, like other xanthines, it stimulates the central nervous system, but unlike most, it is not habituating or addicting. Likewise, unlike caffeine, it induces better, not worse, attributes of sleep. It is a mild, not a strong, diuretic, as are many xanthines. It relaxes peripheral blood vessels, thereby reducing blood pressure, without th e strong pressor effect on the medulla and heart exhibited by some xanthines. We also know that it improves psychomotor performance without the typical xanthine-induced depressant after effects.."