Friday, October 9, 2009

Homemade Roselle Drink

I bought around 300gms of roselle (scientific name, Hibiscus Sabdariffa) from the Kepong baru wet market. Roselle has properties to reduce blood pressure, high in Vitamin C, diuretic and mildly laxative. It has also been used to treat cancer but the effectiveness of it against cancer cells was not scientifically proven. Maybe the high content of anthocyanin (water soluble pigments that gave roselle its’ colour) in roselle is the active agents that can help to cure cancer. The vendor told me to remove the seeds and boil the calyces for 3 hours. Then I added a few blocks of rock sugars in to the bright red rosella juice. I let the roselle syrup cool down before I sieve it. The juice tastes a little sour and it has no distinct aroma. My family enjoyed a cool nice homemade roselle drink over the weekend! Related post : 1) http://peteformation.blogspot.com/2009/10/various-hybrids-of-hibiscus-bunga-raya.html 2) http://peteformation.blogspot.com/2010/07/harvesting-my-first-batch-of-homegrown.html

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ya...lots of health benefits! And making one's own is always better than buying manufactured ones!!! Should make regularly...

Pete said...

STP : Agree, no preservatives...

Ice said...

That's the natural red colour? It's good to eat some natural red colour. I've learnt that recently, not to just eat greens.

I have to say I have not tasted roselle before. But I've seen it before in Malaysia but not in Australia.

Pete said...

Ai Shiang : Agree, some red plants or vegetable produce is good especially in cancer prevention.
I think it is not a native plant of Australia....and not easy to bring in new plants to the country.

~Elaine Tam~ said...

Hmmmm..it can cure cancer? you mentioned it got no taste..then ma like drinking plain water? =_="

Pete said...

Elaine : Good to eat vegetable produce that are bright in colour...beta carotene.
Ha ha, not like plain water lah....a little sourish but no smell. LOL!

Anonymous said...

I have tasted this drink before. A friend made it for me. Tasted like ribena. I liked it.

Pete said...

Mei Teng : It looks like ribena, sounds like ribena, but not ribena...ha ha ha!

wenn said...

definitely refreshing..

mNhL said...

Din know this 'plant' contain so much of nutrients. A healthy drink indeed.

Pete said...

wenn : Nice to drink it iced!

MNhL : I guess it would be so much better than taking Vitamin pill which is full of chemicals....

mommyscchoo@gmail.com said...

oh... the ribena flowers yah... need to boil for 3 hrs so long, a bit ma fan ler..

Tching said...

My mum used to make this drink for us when we were young as we had this plants at our backyard.

Pete said...

Mommy : Actually I think boil for 45 minutes good enough...vendor asked me to boil 3hrs, I think too long also.

Tching: It was a quite popular garden plant when it was first introduced in Malaysia! I tried to plant it too but not very successful!

Shelyn said...

I like this... always love healthy drink. Thanks for sharing!

Pete said...

Shelyn : Better take more healthy food these days, dunno what they add into processed food!