Onion is a vegetable that commonly used in cuisines. It is added to give strong taste and aroma. In some Asian countries, for example, Onion is often found in hot and spicy foods, such as sambal, curry, and many more. It has been long cultivated since ancient times and also a vegetable with high demand in market.
Usually, before it can be added to any cuisines, the skin is removed. Thus, it is rendered unusable. What people don’t know is that even the skin of onion have benefits.
In order to get the benefits, the best method is to make the onion skin into tea. In other words, it can be used as herbal tea. As we already know, herbal tea is a traditional medicine used since long time ago. So, what are the benefits of onion skin tea? Continue reading to find out. (Also read :Â Benefits of Onions for Babies)
Nutritional Value of Onion SkinÂ
Like other teas, onion skin tea is rich in antioxidants. This will contribute to why onion skin tea is good for health. For complete list of chemicals and nutrients found in onion skin tea, see below. (All values are per 100 g)
- 166 kJ (40 kcal) Energy
- 9.34 g Carbohydrates
- 4.24 g Sugars
- 1.7 g Dietary fibre
- 0.1 g Fat
- 1.1 g Protein
- 0.046 mg (4 %) Thiamine (B1)
- 0.027 mg (2 %) Riboflavin (B2)
- 0.116 mg (1 %) Niacin (B3)
- 0.123 mg (2 %) Pantothenic acid (B5)
- 0.12 mg (9 %) Vitamin (B6)
- 19 μg (5 %) Folate (B9)
- 7.4 mg (9 %) Vitamin C
- 23 mg (2 %) Calcium
- 0.21 mg (2 %) Iron
- 10 mg (3 %) Magnesium
- 0.129 mg (6 %) Manganese
- 29 mg (4 %) Phosphorus
- 146 mg (3 %) Potassium
- 0.17 mg (2 %) Zinc
- 89.11 g Water
- 1.1 μg Fluoride
It also contains folic acid and quercetin (a type of antioxidants).
What Are The Benefits of Onion Skin Tea?
Those are the nutritional values of onion skin tea. Here are the benefits of this tea you may find useful :
1. High concentration of antioxidants is good for overall body health
Based on analysis, outer part of onion (the skin) contains high antioxidants. A type of antioxidants compound that plays important role here is flavonoid. Onion skin tea contains a variant of flavonoid called quercetin. This quercetin will help fight off free radicals in the body.
Therefore, consuming onion skin tea will protect you from most diseases and improve overall health of your body. If you insist, you can boost the antioxidant effect of onion skin tea by combining it with other herbal tea. (You may interested in : Health Benefits of Yellow Onion)
2. Accelerate regeneration process and boost healing rate
What are the benefits of onion skin tea? Phytochemicals present in onion skin tea helps treat skin problems and external damage of the body by assisting cells regeneration and boost the healing rate of damaged organs. Faster time of both activities would lead to healthy body.
3. Maintain youthful appearance and skin elasticity
Onion skin tea contains dietary fibre which can dissolved in the body metabolism. This kind of fibre will stimulate the elasticity of the skin. Thus, the overall appearance would look youthful and fresh. (Recommended : Health Benefits of Fish Cake)
4. It helps solve acne problem
Similar to other home remedies, onion skin tea is known to reduce and clear the acne symptoms. It is common knowledge that consuming any kind of tea gives relaxing sensation and a feeling of relief. These circumstances might reduce the chance of getting acne, as one of the causes related to psychological state of mind. Â
Other causes of acne include excess skin oil, bacteria infection, unhealthy diet, inflammation, unusual amount of hormone, and genetic. Onion skin tea could prevents those causes and also helps treat similar dermal conditions, such as blackheads, whiteheads, pimples, cysts, dark spots, scars, and skin inflammation. (You may want to read : Benefits of Ginger Tea for Cold and Cough)
5. It helps fix eye problem
If you have eye problem and disorder, you can use onion skin tea as an alternative to conventional treatment. Onion skin tea will provides the eye with necessary nutritions. Although it’s lack of Vitamin A, other substances, especially the antioxidants, would help reduce the risk of some eye disorders and macular degeneration, thus improving your eyesight and its health.
6. Prevent ulcers
Thanks to high amount of antioxidants, consuming onion skin tea can help you prevent stomach ulcers in particular, albeit, other ulcers treatment may benefit from the consumption of this tea as well. Ulcers typically formed by a bacteria, namely Heliobacter pylori. What the antioxidants in onion skin tea does is preventing the growth of that bacteria.
As a result, the risk of getting ulcers, especially stomach ulcers, is reduced. Now, it’s should be known that Heliobacter pylori may cause other diseases, too. So, it’s possible onion skin tea could prevent them. Back to ulcers, fighting off againts free radicals in the body seems to be another way onion skin tea can helps in preventing it.
7. Reduce the risk of osteoporosis
What are the benefits of onion skin tea? According to recent study conducted by University of Bern in Switzerland, consumption of dry onion (including the skin) a gram per day has shown to increase the bone mineral density in test subject (rats) by more than 17% and mineral density by over 13%.
This data suggests onion skin tea may reduce the risks of osteoporosis in human bone, albeit not as effective as consumption of whole onion. Overall, onion and its derived products, including onion skin tea, are reputed to have positive effects on human bone. This is due to the presence of minerals (calciums, irons, manganese, etc) inside the onion.Â
8. Protects againts many diseases
Due to numerous amount of quercetin combined with healing properties, onion skin tea can helps protect and fight againts various diseases, such as cataracts, hypertension and hypotension, fever, asthma, and breast cancer.
9. An excellent anti-cancer agent
Similar to other tea, onion skin tea is reported to possess anti-cancer properties. This is largely because it contains phytochemicals (trisulfides, vinyl dithiins, cepaene, and disulfides). Those phytochemicals are said to have anti-cancer properties. Other factors are quercetin and antioxidants which can be found in onion skin tea. (You may want to read :Â Health Benefits of China Grass)
10. It acts as anti-bacterial agent
Phytochemicals found in onion skin tea are said to have anti-bacterial properties. Once you consume it, group of bacteria inhabiting your body will soon vanish. This will prevent diseases caused by bacteria infections, e.g. diphteria, tetanus, tropical ulcer, etc.
Cautions!Â
There is no major issue or outbreak related to consumptions of onion skin tea. However, onion is known as a food that contribute to body odor. Thus, consumer should monitor the amount of onion products they consume.