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If you read monographs of hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa), you'll often see a note about how the plant is rich in vitamins and minerals, including iron. In this episode, I share some research I came across recently suggesting that a typical water infusion of the calyces (about 12 g) yields only ~1.25 mg iron and of that roughly 30% is extractable (0.375 mg), leading to the conclusion that hibiscus is not a substantial source of dietary iron.
It's still a lovely herb for so many other reasons, but it's probably for the best if we don't imply that it's a good source of iron!
Resources- Oyewole, A. O., & Diosady, L. L. (2023). Evaluating the potential of Hibiscus sabdariffa beverage to address the prevalence of iron deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa. Lebensmittel-Wissenschaft + [i.e. und] Technologie. Food science + technology. Science + technologie alimentaire, 188, 115433.
- It's not too late to join Herbs for Nutritionists: Immune and Cardiovascular Support to learn more about hibiscus and 15 other herbs that can easily be added to a nutrition practice. 16 NPCE available.
Thanks for listening.
I'd love to hear from you. Leave me a voicemail with feedback or submit a question (click the pink "Send Camille a Message" button on the side of the page) 💚
Camille's Helpful Links for Practitioners
WEBVTT
00:00:00.017 --> 00:00:03.617
Hi there. Welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman.
00:00:03.817 --> 00:00:07.337
I'm an herbalist and nutritionist. And in this podcast, I share little tips
00:00:07.337 --> 00:00:09.917
and tidbits that might be helpful for other practitioners.
00:00:10.617 --> 00:00:14.717
Today, I wanted to share something with you that I learned recently when I was
00:00:14.717 --> 00:00:16.437
putting together a lecture on hibiscus.
00:00:16.997 --> 00:00:21.037
I am, as some of you know, I'm teaching a class called Herbs for Nutritionists.
00:00:21.197 --> 00:00:24.497
And in this particular version of the class, we are focusing on cardiovascular
00:00:24.497 --> 00:00:26.337
and immune supportive herbs.
00:00:26.337 --> 00:00:29.517
The idea is if you're trained in nutrition, but you want to work with herbs,
00:00:29.657 --> 00:00:35.517
we're going over 16, very gentle, very easy to start with herbs that might be
00:00:35.517 --> 00:00:36.677
helpful for your client population.
00:00:37.017 --> 00:00:39.997
And as a side note, it's not too late to join. If you want to join this class,
00:00:40.157 --> 00:00:44.877
you can get up to 16 CEU credits and learn about a bunch of herbs that you're
00:00:44.877 --> 00:00:46.677
probably going to find really helpful in your practice.
00:00:47.017 --> 00:00:51.097
Anyway, hibiscus is one of the herbs that I think is really underappreciated,
00:00:51.217 --> 00:00:54.897
at least in many kind of Western American-based herbal circles.
00:00:54.897 --> 00:00:59.717
It actually has quite a lot of research in terms of supporting people who have blood pressure.
00:01:00.543 --> 00:01:04.703
High blood pressure, cardiometabolic disease, and so forth. It is not a cure-all
00:01:04.703 --> 00:01:08.443
and so forth, but it's a really, really lovely herb to know about.
00:01:08.583 --> 00:01:11.623
And one of the things that's nice about hibiscus is that it tastes good.
00:01:11.743 --> 00:01:16.103
It's a fun herb to have. It's something people actually like to do many times.
00:01:16.103 --> 00:01:18.663
So it's a lovely one to have in your toolkit.
00:01:19.043 --> 00:01:23.463
So anyway, I was preparing a lecture on this herb for the class.
00:01:23.703 --> 00:01:28.323
And as I was preparing for the lecture, as I always do, I try to refresh my knowledge.
00:01:28.543 --> 00:01:31.383
I try to see what other people are noting or talking about.
00:01:31.483 --> 00:01:35.283
I try to look at the research. And I saw that in many of the monographs that
00:01:35.283 --> 00:01:39.103
have come out, you know, for the last five or 10 years, they will mention that
00:01:39.103 --> 00:01:42.243
hibiscus is rich in vitamins and minerals, including iron.
00:01:42.723 --> 00:01:46.243
And I thought to myself, huh, interesting. I've never really thought of hibiscus
00:01:46.243 --> 00:01:50.623
as something that's rich in iron, but as somebody who focuses on fertility and
00:01:50.623 --> 00:01:53.903
reproductive, menstrual health, iron deficiency, and anemia,
00:01:54.023 --> 00:01:55.503
something that comes up a lot of my practice.
00:01:55.703 --> 00:01:59.763
So I'm always really interested about ways that we can possibly top off levels
00:01:59.763 --> 00:02:04.243
or add a little bit of extra iron into people's daily regimens.
00:02:04.423 --> 00:02:07.223
So I thought, let me look into this a little bit more. I want to know more about
00:02:07.223 --> 00:02:09.863
how much iron are we talking and so forth.
00:02:10.472 --> 00:02:15.192
So I did a little bit of digging, and I found that conveniently,
00:02:15.752 --> 00:02:20.972
excuse me, in 2023, two researchers from the University of Toronto.
00:02:21.632 --> 00:02:25.112
Let's see, I'm not going to do a good job with these names, but I'll do my best,
00:02:25.572 --> 00:02:31.872
Oya Wole and Dio Sade, published a paper, and they had thinking along similar lines.
00:02:32.452 --> 00:02:37.232
If you're not familiar with hibiscus, it is a very common beverage in many parts
00:02:37.232 --> 00:02:41.892
of the world, including Mexico, lots of Central America, many places in Africa,
00:02:42.192 --> 00:02:44.432
Southeast Asia, etc. Very common beverage.
00:02:45.112 --> 00:02:49.452
People love drinking this. It tastes good. So it's refreshing.
00:02:49.452 --> 00:02:52.452
It's relatively easy to grow in some of these areas and so forth.
00:02:52.732 --> 00:02:55.412
So these researchers from the University of Toronto were thinking,
00:02:55.932 --> 00:03:01.532
hmm, we hear that this plant is high in iron. Many people in some of these areas,
00:03:01.652 --> 00:03:02.832
especially sub-Saharan Africa,
00:03:03.132 --> 00:03:07.512
it's very common to have iron deficiency or iron deficiency anemia.
00:03:07.712 --> 00:03:13.112
So they were thinking, I wonder if it would be feasible to promote hibiscus
00:03:13.112 --> 00:03:17.532
tea, which is already commonly accepted in these communities and accessible and so forth.
00:03:17.692 --> 00:03:22.732
We're wondering if that might be a way to alleviate some of this burden of iron deficiency.
00:03:23.072 --> 00:03:27.772
So they thought first step is let's actually find out how much iron are we talking,
00:03:28.052 --> 00:03:31.812
which is great, right? That makes a lot of sense.
00:03:32.012 --> 00:03:35.772
So what they did is they said, let's figure out how much iron is coming out
00:03:35.772 --> 00:03:40.612
in the way that people generally consume this plant, which is traditionally
00:03:40.612 --> 00:03:42.232
we are going to prepare hibiscus.
00:03:42.512 --> 00:03:45.312
It's the calyx, not the flowers. The calyx is like the little,
00:03:45.452 --> 00:03:48.192
it's a little part that kind of wraps around the flower before it comes out.
00:03:48.472 --> 00:03:51.492
So the calyx is the part that is traditionally used. That's what you're going
00:03:51.492 --> 00:03:57.432
to see if you go to buy red zinger tea or hamica, it's commonly called roselle, etc..
00:03:57.959 --> 00:04:01.219
It looks kind of like a flower petal, but it's actually the calyx.
00:04:01.659 --> 00:04:05.019
And generally what's happening is we're going to do a hot infusion,
00:04:05.019 --> 00:04:10.279
and then it's going to be served either warm or more commonly chilled as like an iced tea.
00:04:10.419 --> 00:04:14.119
A beautiful, red, sour, lovely flavored iced tea.
00:04:14.399 --> 00:04:18.119
So let's see how much iron is actually coming out when prepared that way.
00:04:18.279 --> 00:04:21.839
Not just going to look at how much iron is in the calyx, but how much iron is
00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:26.179
extracted in a water-based infusion extraction process.
00:04:26.859 --> 00:04:33.579
So what they found is that if you take about 12 grams, which is on the higher
00:04:33.579 --> 00:04:38.419
end of a daily dose for many people, some of the studies looking at hibiscus
00:04:38.419 --> 00:04:40.559
are using much less than that.
00:04:41.039 --> 00:04:45.619
Although there are studies up to 10-ish grams a day, and if people are drinking
00:04:45.619 --> 00:04:48.379
a lot of tea daily, you might get up to 12 grams.
00:04:49.259 --> 00:04:53.639
So anyway, they found that in the 12 grams, if you extract 12 grams of calyces
00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:57.939
in water, you're going to get about 1.25 milligrams of iron.
00:04:58.739 --> 00:05:04.599
Now, this is not really going to get you super close to your recommended daily amount for most of us.
00:05:04.699 --> 00:05:07.999
It's a teeny bit. It is potentially like a little bit of a top off.
00:05:08.139 --> 00:05:11.839
But I would not say this is a life changing amount of iron. However,
00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:17.139
they went on to look at how much of the iron in that extract,
00:05:17.179 --> 00:05:21.339
in the water-based infusion, is actually available to be absorbed.
00:05:21.559 --> 00:05:28.159
And they said only about 30% of that amount, remember, and it's only 1.25 milligrams,
00:05:28.619 --> 00:05:32.019
only about 30% of that was what they considered extractable.
00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:33.579
Because what happens is, as
00:05:33.579 --> 00:05:38.219
you probably know, iron, it's very easy for it to bind with polyphenols.
00:05:38.739 --> 00:05:42.719
The herb, the hamica, the hibiscus, has a lot of polyphenols in it.
00:05:42.779 --> 00:05:45.999
That's what gives it that beautiful red color and some of the other properties it has.
00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:50.639
So the iron is actually binding to those polyphenols, meaning it's not really
00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:56.339
something that we can extract in the gut and use as a daily source of iron, generally speaking.
00:05:57.068 --> 00:06:01.048
So realistically, if you're taking 12 grams of the calyces.
00:06:01.428 --> 00:06:05.128
Infusing them in water, and drinking all of that, you're really only going to
00:06:05.128 --> 00:06:11.648
get about 0.375 milligrams of iron, which is not a substantial contribution
00:06:11.648 --> 00:06:13.868
to the daily requirements.
00:06:14.168 --> 00:06:17.168
So anyway, I just wanted to share that with you because I thought it was really
00:06:17.168 --> 00:06:21.008
interesting and feel very grateful to these researchers for actually taking
00:06:21.008 --> 00:06:25.748
the time to go through this step by step and look at what are we realistically talking about.
00:06:25.748 --> 00:06:30.188
So it is interesting to see, you know, it's very easy for things for you to
00:06:30.188 --> 00:06:32.668
just read, oh, it's high in iron. Like, great, it's high in iron.
00:06:32.888 --> 00:06:37.028
But when you sit down and look at it, you're like, well, maybe relatively high in iron,
00:06:37.248 --> 00:06:40.808
comparatively speaking, but the amount that's actually absorbable and available
00:06:40.808 --> 00:06:45.888
in a standard daily dose, I would say it's probably a little bit misleading
00:06:45.888 --> 00:06:49.908
to say that this plant, this is a good source of iron for most people.
00:06:49.908 --> 00:06:52.328
Lots of other reasons to work with hibiscus.
00:06:52.628 --> 00:06:58.348
And I think it's something that many of us should be exploring a little bit more and lots to love.
00:06:58.528 --> 00:07:04.248
However, I think probably it's for the best to avoid saying that hibiscus is
00:07:04.248 --> 00:07:08.428
going to be a great source of iron for these reasons. All right, I hope that was helpful.
00:07:08.668 --> 00:07:11.548
Check the show notes if you want to look at the article yourself.
00:07:11.728 --> 00:07:16.288
Like I said, it is open source, so you can read the methods and a little bit
00:07:16.288 --> 00:07:17.988
more about how they did this yourself.
00:07:18.328 --> 00:07:22.508
Also, if you're a nutritionist and you want to join us in Herbs 102 for nutritionists,
00:07:22.628 --> 00:07:24.188
you are absolutely welcome to do that.
00:07:24.268 --> 00:07:27.108
It's starting on March 8, 2026.
00:07:27.348 --> 00:07:30.548
However, it'll be available to register sort of indefinitely.
00:07:31.368 --> 00:07:34.088
Everything is recorded, so you're welcome to jump in at any time.
00:07:34.208 --> 00:07:38.728
We would love to have you. feel free to reach out with questions and have a lovely rest of your day.
00:00:00.017 --> 00:00:03.617
Hi there. Welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman.
00:00:03.817 --> 00:00:07.337
I'm an herbalist and nutritionist. And in this podcast, I share little tips
00:00:07.337 --> 00:00:09.917
and tidbits that might be helpful for other practitioners.
00:00:10.617 --> 00:00:14.717
Today, I wanted to share something with you that I learned recently when I was
00:00:14.717 --> 00:00:16.437
putting together a lecture on hibiscus.
00:00:16.997 --> 00:00:21.037
I am, as some of you know, I'm teaching a class called Herbs for Nutritionists.
00:00:21.197 --> 00:00:24.497
And in this particular version of the class, we are focusing on cardiovascular
00:00:24.497 --> 00:00:26.337
and immune supportive herbs.
00:00:26.337 --> 00:00:29.517
The idea is if you're trained in nutrition, but you want to work with herbs,
00:00:29.657 --> 00:00:35.517
we're going over 16, very gentle, very easy to start with herbs that might be
00:00:35.517 --> 00:00:36.677
helpful for your client population.
00:00:37.017 --> 00:00:39.997
And as a side note, it's not too late to join. If you want to join this class,
00:00:40.157 --> 00:00:44.877
you can get up to 16 CEU credits and learn about a bunch of herbs that you're
00:00:44.877 --> 00:00:46.677
probably going to find really helpful in your practice.
00:00:47.017 --> 00:00:51.097
Anyway, hibiscus is one of the herbs that I think is really underappreciated,
00:00:51.217 --> 00:00:54.897
at least in many kind of Western American-based herbal circles.
00:00:54.897 --> 00:00:59.717
It actually has quite a lot of research in terms of supporting people who have blood pressure.
00:01:00.543 --> 00:01:04.703
High blood pressure, cardiometabolic disease, and so forth. It is not a cure-all
00:01:04.703 --> 00:01:08.443
and so forth, but it's a really, really lovely herb to know about.
00:01:08.583 --> 00:01:11.623
And one of the things that's nice about hibiscus is that it tastes good.
00:01:11.743 --> 00:01:16.103
It's a fun herb to have. It's something people actually like to do many times.
00:01:16.103 --> 00:01:18.663
So it's a lovely one to have in your toolkit.
00:01:19.043 --> 00:01:23.463
So anyway, I was preparing a lecture on this herb for the class.
00:01:23.703 --> 00:01:28.323
And as I was preparing for the lecture, as I always do, I try to refresh my knowledge.
00:01:28.543 --> 00:01:31.383
I try to see what other people are noting or talking about.
00:01:31.483 --> 00:01:35.283
I try to look at the research. And I saw that in many of the monographs that
00:01:35.283 --> 00:01:39.103
have come out, you know, for the last five or 10 years, they will mention that
00:01:39.103 --> 00:01:42.243
hibiscus is rich in vitamins and minerals, including iron.
00:01:42.723 --> 00:01:46.243
And I thought to myself, huh, interesting. I've never really thought of hibiscus
00:01:46.243 --> 00:01:50.623
as something that's rich in iron, but as somebody who focuses on fertility and
00:01:50.623 --> 00:01:53.903
reproductive, menstrual health, iron deficiency, and anemia,
00:01:54.023 --> 00:01:55.503
something that comes up a lot of my practice.
00:01:55.703 --> 00:01:59.763
So I'm always really interested about ways that we can possibly top off levels
00:01:59.763 --> 00:02:04.243
or add a little bit of extra iron into people's daily regimens.
00:02:04.423 --> 00:02:07.223
So I thought, let me look into this a little bit more. I want to know more about
00:02:07.223 --> 00:02:09.863
how much iron are we talking and so forth.
00:02:10.472 --> 00:02:15.192
So I did a little bit of digging, and I found that conveniently,
00:02:15.752 --> 00:02:20.972
excuse me, in 2023, two researchers from the University of Toronto.
00:02:21.632 --> 00:02:25.112
Let's see, I'm not going to do a good job with these names, but I'll do my best,
00:02:25.572 --> 00:02:31.872
Oya Wole and Dio Sade, published a paper, and they had thinking along similar lines.
00:02:32.452 --> 00:02:37.232
If you're not familiar with hibiscus, it is a very common beverage in many parts
00:02:37.232 --> 00:02:41.892
of the world, including Mexico, lots of Central America, many places in Africa,
00:02:42.192 --> 00:02:44.432
Southeast Asia, etc. Very common beverage.
00:02:45.112 --> 00:02:49.452
People love drinking this. It tastes good. So it's refreshing.
00:02:49.452 --> 00:02:52.452
It's relatively easy to grow in some of these areas and so forth.
00:02:52.732 --> 00:02:55.412
So these researchers from the University of Toronto were thinking,
00:02:55.932 --> 00:03:01.532
hmm, we hear that this plant is high in iron. Many people in some of these areas,
00:03:01.652 --> 00:03:02.832
especially sub-Saharan Africa,
00:03:03.132 --> 00:03:07.512
it's very common to have iron deficiency or iron deficiency anemia.
00:03:07.712 --> 00:03:13.112
So they were thinking, I wonder if it would be feasible to promote hibiscus
00:03:13.112 --> 00:03:17.532
tea, which is already commonly accepted in these communities and accessible and so forth.
00:03:17.692 --> 00:03:22.732
We're wondering if that might be a way to alleviate some of this burden of iron deficiency.
00:03:23.072 --> 00:03:27.772
So they thought first step is let's actually find out how much iron are we talking,
00:03:28.052 --> 00:03:31.812
which is great, right? That makes a lot of sense.
00:03:32.012 --> 00:03:35.772
So what they did is they said, let's figure out how much iron is coming out
00:03:35.772 --> 00:03:40.612
in the way that people generally consume this plant, which is traditionally
00:03:40.612 --> 00:03:42.232
we are going to prepare hibiscus.
00:03:42.512 --> 00:03:45.312
It's the calyx, not the flowers. The calyx is like the little,
00:03:45.452 --> 00:03:48.192
it's a little part that kind of wraps around the flower before it comes out.
00:03:48.472 --> 00:03:51.492
So the calyx is the part that is traditionally used. That's what you're going
00:03:51.492 --> 00:03:57.432
to see if you go to buy red zinger tea or hamica, it's commonly called roselle, etc..
00:03:57.959 --> 00:04:01.219
It looks kind of like a flower petal, but it's actually the calyx.
00:04:01.659 --> 00:04:05.019
And generally what's happening is we're going to do a hot infusion,
00:04:05.019 --> 00:04:10.279
and then it's going to be served either warm or more commonly chilled as like an iced tea.
00:04:10.419 --> 00:04:14.119
A beautiful, red, sour, lovely flavored iced tea.
00:04:14.399 --> 00:04:18.119
So let's see how much iron is actually coming out when prepared that way.
00:04:18.279 --> 00:04:21.839
Not just going to look at how much iron is in the calyx, but how much iron is
00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:26.179
extracted in a water-based infusion extraction process.
00:04:26.859 --> 00:04:33.579
So what they found is that if you take about 12 grams, which is on the higher
00:04:33.579 --> 00:04:38.419
end of a daily dose for many people, some of the studies looking at hibiscus
00:04:38.419 --> 00:04:40.559
are using much less than that.
00:04:41.039 --> 00:04:45.619
Although there are studies up to 10-ish grams a day, and if people are drinking
00:04:45.619 --> 00:04:48.379
a lot of tea daily, you might get up to 12 grams.
00:04:49.259 --> 00:04:53.639
So anyway, they found that in the 12 grams, if you extract 12 grams of calyces
00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:57.939
in water, you're going to get about 1.25 milligrams of iron.
00:04:58.739 --> 00:05:04.599
Now, this is not really going to get you super close to your recommended daily amount for most of us.
00:05:04.699 --> 00:05:07.999
It's a teeny bit. It is potentially like a little bit of a top off.
00:05:08.139 --> 00:05:11.839
But I would not say this is a life changing amount of iron. However,
00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:17.139
they went on to look at how much of the iron in that extract,
00:05:17.179 --> 00:05:21.339
in the water-based infusion, is actually available to be absorbed.
00:05:21.559 --> 00:05:28.159
And they said only about 30% of that amount, remember, and it's only 1.25 milligrams,
00:05:28.619 --> 00:05:32.019
only about 30% of that was what they considered extractable.
00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:33.579
Because what happens is, as
00:05:33.579 --> 00:05:38.219
you probably know, iron, it's very easy for it to bind with polyphenols.
00:05:38.739 --> 00:05:42.719
The herb, the hamica, the hibiscus, has a lot of polyphenols in it.
00:05:42.779 --> 00:05:45.999
That's what gives it that beautiful red color and some of the other properties it has.
00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:50.639
So the iron is actually binding to those polyphenols, meaning it's not really
00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:56.339
something that we can extract in the gut and use as a daily source of iron, generally speaking.
00:05:57.068 --> 00:06:01.048
So realistically, if you're taking 12 grams of the calyces.
00:06:01.428 --> 00:06:05.128
Infusing them in water, and drinking all of that, you're really only going to
00:06:05.128 --> 00:06:11.648
get about 0.375 milligrams of iron, which is not a substantial contribution
00:06:11.648 --> 00:06:13.868
to the daily requirements.
00:06:14.168 --> 00:06:17.168
So anyway, I just wanted to share that with you because I thought it was really
00:06:17.168 --> 00:06:21.008
interesting and feel very grateful to these researchers for actually taking
00:06:21.008 --> 00:06:25.748
the time to go through this step by step and look at what are we realistically talking about.
00:06:25.748 --> 00:06:30.188
So it is interesting to see, you know, it's very easy for things for you to
00:06:30.188 --> 00:06:32.668
just read, oh, it's high in iron. Like, great, it's high in iron.
00:06:32.888 --> 00:06:37.028
But when you sit down and look at it, you're like, well, maybe relatively high in iron,
00:06:37.248 --> 00:06:40.808
comparatively speaking, but the amount that's actually absorbable and available
00:06:40.808 --> 00:06:45.888
in a standard daily dose, I would say it's probably a little bit misleading
00:06:45.888 --> 00:06:49.908
to say that this plant, this is a good source of iron for most people.
00:06:49.908 --> 00:06:52.328
Lots of other reasons to work with hibiscus.
00:06:52.628 --> 00:06:58.348
And I think it's something that many of us should be exploring a little bit more and lots to love.
00:06:58.528 --> 00:07:04.248
However, I think probably it's for the best to avoid saying that hibiscus is
00:07:04.248 --> 00:07:08.428
going to be a great source of iron for these reasons. All right, I hope that was helpful.
00:07:08.668 --> 00:07:11.548
Check the show notes if you want to look at the article yourself.
00:07:11.728 --> 00:07:16.288
Like I said, it is open source, so you can read the methods and a little bit
00:07:16.288 --> 00:07:17.988
more about how they did this yourself.
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Also, if you're a nutritionist and you want to join us in Herbs 102 for nutritionists,
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you are absolutely welcome to do that.
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It's starting on March 8, 2026.
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However, it'll be available to register sort of indefinitely.
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Everything is recorded, so you're welcome to jump in at any time.
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We would love to have you. feel free to reach out with questions and have a lovely rest of your day.