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44 | Hibiscus and Peanut Allergy
TLDL (too long didn't listen): I didn't know until recently that hibiscus is often intercropped with peanuts, meaning that it likely is not appropriate for our clients who have severe peanut allergies.
I hope this episode is helpful!
If you haven't tried hibiscus tea yet - and if you aren't allergic to peanuts - give it a try this summer 🌺
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Transcript
Camille (00:00)
Well, hi there.
Camille (00:01)
Welcome to in the clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman. I am a licensed nutritionist and registered herbalist. And in this podcast, I share little tips and tidbits that might be interesting or helpful for other practitioners.
Camille (00:21)
I want to talk to you today about the herb, hibiscus. It's a really interesting herb. It's a very fun herb. And there's also some important allergy information that a lot of people are not familiar with. So I wanted to bring that to light. I'm not going to do a full materia medica, a full discussion of how we might use hibiscus and this, that, and the other. I just want to talk about a couple of key things. This herb is in the Mallow family. The scientific name is Hibiscus sabdaritha. I'm actually not sure if that's how you say it. I've never said it aloud before. I was right about it. But anyway, the part that we use is the calyx. And one of the reasons that you'll see this used widely in commercial tea blends and so forth, a lot of people drink this in Mexico. It's called hamica. Other parts of Central America is that it has a really fun red color when you brew it into a tea. And it also has a really pleasant, refreshing, sour taste to it. So a lot of times you'll find it in sort of like zinger teas or some of the summertime lighter citrusy lemony blends.
Camille (01:25)
And I think it's delicious. I love the sour flavor. There's a number of studies looking at its ability to support the cardiovascular system, including hypertension and so forth. We're not going to get into all of that today. The reason that I did want to bring it up, and the reason I wanted to share some information with you about this is because if you have clients who have peanut allergies, you really need to be aware that hibiscus is often grown in the same fields with peanuts. And this is a process called intercropping. And apparently peanuts are a legume, and hibiscus grows much better around legumes. And so peanuts and hibiscus are intercropped quite often. And so if you have clients who have very, very severe peanut allergies, hibiscus may not actually be safe for them. The first time I came across this, I was actually on the Mountain Rose website. I was looking to recommend hibiscus for a client. I was just making sure that it was in stock so they could order it. And I was kind of scrolling through the page, and I saw a little notification at the bottom about peanuts, and I was like, what?
Camille (02:28)
This particular client happened to have a peanut allergy. And hibiscus for me is a relatively newer plant that's part of my material medica. It was not one that most of my mentors and teachers used extensively. So it's really only come into my practice in the last few years, and I haven't used a ton of it. So for me, this was really new information. I hadn't seen that in any of the monographs I had read about that or the studies that I had looked at and so forth. So I was like, oh, my goodness, it's really important to know about. Now, I will say that since I found that, I have worked with several clients who do have pretty severe peanut allergies and have used hibiscus in the past without any obvious reaction to it. So I don't think this is universal that if your peanut client or peanut allergy clients have even the slightest bit of hibiscus, that they are guaranteed to have a reaction. However, I don't think that we can guarantee that the hibiscus will be free, entirely free of peanuts. And so for me, I would rather err on the side of caution and just avoid the hibiscus.
Camille (03:36)
To be clear, this is not something related to the processing of the hibiscus. So it's not like the company can guarantee that it's peanut free because they process it on a peanut free equipment or anything like that. It has to do with where it's grown and where large batches of it are grown. I did a little bit of poking around, and so far I have not found any commercial source that guarantees hibiscus that has grown completely separately from legumes and doesn't have any they can safely assert that there is no contamination. So my preference at this time, or my choice at this time, is to just avoid recommending hibiscus for clients who have severe or known peanut allergies. Anyway, I wanted to share that with you. Again, I don't think it's the end of the world. If your client has been drinking a fun beverage tea that has hibiscus in it and they're not having any problems with it, probably okay. But again, to be on the safe side, especially if there's a very, very severe anaphylactic history with that person, it might be better to just stay away from them. So anyway, I'm not trying to scaremonger here.
Camille (04:47)
I use hibiscus quite often with other clients, and I think it's a lovely herb. It's one of the herbs that tastes really good. It's a fun thing, especially this time of year. It's a great recommendation, and I think it's just important to be familiar with some of the pros and the cons of recommending our herbs. All right, so I hope that was helpful. If you have any questions, do let me know, and I'll be back soon with another episode.
Well, hi there.
Camille (00:01)
Welcome to in the clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman. I am a licensed nutritionist and registered herbalist. And in this podcast, I share little tips and tidbits that might be interesting or helpful for other practitioners.
Camille (00:21)
I want to talk to you today about the herb, hibiscus. It's a really interesting herb. It's a very fun herb. And there's also some important allergy information that a lot of people are not familiar with. So I wanted to bring that to light. I'm not going to do a full materia medica, a full discussion of how we might use hibiscus and this, that, and the other. I just want to talk about a couple of key things. This herb is in the Mallow family. The scientific name is Hibiscus sabdaritha. I'm actually not sure if that's how you say it. I've never said it aloud before. I was right about it. But anyway, the part that we use is the calyx. And one of the reasons that you'll see this used widely in commercial tea blends and so forth, a lot of people drink this in Mexico. It's called hamica. Other parts of Central America is that it has a really fun red color when you brew it into a tea. And it also has a really pleasant, refreshing, sour taste to it. So a lot of times you'll find it in sort of like zinger teas or some of the summertime lighter citrusy lemony blends.
Camille (01:25)
And I think it's delicious. I love the sour flavor. There's a number of studies looking at its ability to support the cardiovascular system, including hypertension and so forth. We're not going to get into all of that today. The reason that I did want to bring it up, and the reason I wanted to share some information with you about this is because if you have clients who have peanut allergies, you really need to be aware that hibiscus is often grown in the same fields with peanuts. And this is a process called intercropping. And apparently peanuts are a legume, and hibiscus grows much better around legumes. And so peanuts and hibiscus are intercropped quite often. And so if you have clients who have very, very severe peanut allergies, hibiscus may not actually be safe for them. The first time I came across this, I was actually on the Mountain Rose website. I was looking to recommend hibiscus for a client. I was just making sure that it was in stock so they could order it. And I was kind of scrolling through the page, and I saw a little notification at the bottom about peanuts, and I was like, what?
Camille (02:28)
This particular client happened to have a peanut allergy. And hibiscus for me is a relatively newer plant that's part of my material medica. It was not one that most of my mentors and teachers used extensively. So it's really only come into my practice in the last few years, and I haven't used a ton of it. So for me, this was really new information. I hadn't seen that in any of the monographs I had read about that or the studies that I had looked at and so forth. So I was like, oh, my goodness, it's really important to know about. Now, I will say that since I found that, I have worked with several clients who do have pretty severe peanut allergies and have used hibiscus in the past without any obvious reaction to it. So I don't think this is universal that if your peanut client or peanut allergy clients have even the slightest bit of hibiscus, that they are guaranteed to have a reaction. However, I don't think that we can guarantee that the hibiscus will be free, entirely free of peanuts. And so for me, I would rather err on the side of caution and just avoid the hibiscus.
Camille (03:36)
To be clear, this is not something related to the processing of the hibiscus. So it's not like the company can guarantee that it's peanut free because they process it on a peanut free equipment or anything like that. It has to do with where it's grown and where large batches of it are grown. I did a little bit of poking around, and so far I have not found any commercial source that guarantees hibiscus that has grown completely separately from legumes and doesn't have any they can safely assert that there is no contamination. So my preference at this time, or my choice at this time, is to just avoid recommending hibiscus for clients who have severe or known peanut allergies. Anyway, I wanted to share that with you. Again, I don't think it's the end of the world. If your client has been drinking a fun beverage tea that has hibiscus in it and they're not having any problems with it, probably okay. But again, to be on the safe side, especially if there's a very, very severe anaphylactic history with that person, it might be better to just stay away from them. So anyway, I'm not trying to scaremonger here.
Camille (04:47)
I use hibiscus quite often with other clients, and I think it's a lovely herb. It's one of the herbs that tastes really good. It's a fun thing, especially this time of year. It's a great recommendation, and I think it's just important to be familiar with some of the pros and the cons of recommending our herbs. All right, so I hope that was helpful. If you have any questions, do let me know, and I'll be back soon with another episode.
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