Bay leaves are commonly used as one of cooking ingredients. Yet, bay leaves is considered as herbal plants that brings benefits both for our health and beauty because they are rich of nutritious substances.
The nutrient contents in bay leaves are:
- They are rich of vitamin C. 100 gram of bay leaves provides 46,5 mg of vitamin C that is the same as  77,5% of our RDA.
- Bay leaves are the source of vitamin A that provides  6.185 IU (International Unit) or 206% of our daily intake.
- Bay leaves contain folic acid. In every 100 gr of bay leaves provides 180 mg or 45% of our daily intake.
- Bay leaves is rich of mineral, such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, mangan, zinc, iron, selenium and copper. Potassium is an important component of our cells and body liquid to control our heart beat and blood pressure. Meanwhile, mangan and copper are used for co enzyme factor.
18 Benefits of Bay Leaves for Our Health:
1. Healing Diabetes
Bay leaves id proven effective to heal diabetes type 2 to level down blood glucose, cholesterol and trigliserida. To get the most maximum result, diabates type 2 patients are suggested to consume bay leaves powder for 30 days. The antioxidant in bay leaves helps our body to produce insulin efficiently. Therefore, they are good for diabetes patients and people who experience insulin resistance. Either we can boil 7-15 pieces of bay leaves with 3 glasses of water until they remain 1 glass. Strain and wait until it is cold. Drink it at once before meal time. Practice this method twice a day so that the benefit of bay leaves can be absorbed by our body fast.
2. Improving Our Heart Performance.
The strong substances in bay leaves such as rutin, salicylate, caffeic acid, and fitonutrient can increase our heart performance and prevent us from stroke. Flavanoid helps to normalize blood in hypertension patients. Boil 10 pieces of bay leaves in 3 glasses of water. Drink while it is still warm once a day.
3. Relieving the Pain.
Extracted oil from bay leaves contains anti inflammation that relieves the pain because of strain, sprain, arthritis, and rheumatism. Bay leaves oil helps relieving migrain and headache. Bay leaves are beneficial for increasing blood circulation. In the case of pain in our joints, bay leaves that are tightened in pain area will relieve the pain and inflammation.
4. Preventing Cancer.
Bay leaves contain caffeic acid, quercetin, euganol and catechin that protect and prevent us from various kind of cancers. Bay leaves also contain phytonutrient that is called parthenolide and is proven effective to keep the excessive development of cervical cancer cells.
5. Healing Cough.
Bay leaves are effective to combat flu symptoms and infection. In solving respiratory problem, boil 2-3 pieces of bay leaves. Let it vapor for 10 minutes. Soak cloth in this water and put it on the chest to relieve flu, sneezing and coughing.
6. Insects Repellent.
Bay leaves are natural insect repellent as they contain laurat acid. Applying extracted bay leaves oil will reduce insects bites and stings.
7. Healing Kidney Disruption.
Kidney infection and kidney stone can be resolved by boiling 5 gr of bay leaves in 200 ml – 50 ml of water. Strain it and drink it twice a day to stop kidney stone formation.
8. Healing Uric Acid.
The content of purin in our body causes uric acid. Bay leaves are good for healing uric acid. Wash and boil 10 pieces of bay leaves with 10 glasses of water until they remain 5 glasses. Drink this twice a day.
9. Constipation.
Inserting bay leaves in our food can help to maintain the digestive system healthy. The vitamins and minerals in bay leaves facilitate the digestive system and solve digestive problems, such as diarrhoea and constipation.
10. Healing Hypertension.Â
Another benefit of bay leaves is healing hypertension. Drinking bay leaves boiled water routinely  makes our blood runs smoothly and reduce the risk of high blood pressure. Mixing bay leaves with andrographis leaves is good idea to have the best result.
11. Keeping Our Eyes Healthy.
Bay leaves boiled water can be used to heal eyes irritation and keep them healthy. We simply apply bay leaves boiled water to our irritated eyes routinely until they get better.
12. Reducing Cholesterol.
Cholesterol is good for our body. However, excessive cholesterol bring us to meet bad effect. For discarding bad cholesterol, bay leaves are the best medicine. Prepare 10-15 pieces of bay leaves. Wash them and boil with 3 glasses of water until they become 1 glass of water. After it is cold, strain it amd drink it at once routinely at night.
13. Increasing Immunity.
Mix either fresh and dried bay leaves in our cooking, such as meat, fish, rice or vegetables to make our cooking smell good. The natural substances in bay leaves are beneficial for keeping our healthy and increase our body immunity.
14. Dental Care.
Bay leaves are beneficial for keeping our teeth healthy and white. Dry fresh bay leaves and orange skin. Mash them and mix them with water until they become a toothpaste. Those potion can be used for whitening our teeth.
15. Diet.
Bay leaves are good for reducing our weight. Wash 20-30 pieces of bay leaves in 4 glasses of water until they remain 2 glasses. Let them cold. Drink them twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, 1 glass for each time.
16. Lowering Blood Pressure.
Prepare 7-10 pieces of fresh bay leaves  with 3 glasses of water until they remain 1 glass. After it is cold, strain it and drink the potion twice a day, 1 glass for each time.
17. Healing Ulcer.
For ulcer patients, bay leaves are good medicine. Wash 15-20 of fresh bay leaves. Boil with 1/2 liter of water for 15 minutes. Add sufficient palm sugar. After it is cold, drink the water as herbal tea. Do this until the pain is gone.
18. Diarrhoea.Â
Prepare 15 pieces of bay leaves. Boil them in 2 glasses of water. Add a little bit of salt and wait until it is cold. Drink it at once until the diarrhoea is gone.
Bay leaves also share benefits for our beauty of our hair and skin.
3Â Benefits of Bay Leaves for Our Hair and Skin:
- Avoiding Hair Loss. After rinse our haor with shampoo, cleaning our hair with bay leaves soaked water is effective for cleaning dandruff. They are also useful for hair loss. Moreover, bay leaves are effectively used for tonic.
- Eradicating Lice. For eradicating lice, boil 50 gr of bay leaves with 400 ml water until 100 ml of water. Strain it and apply it in our hair root. Let it for 3-4 hours before cleaning.
- Relieving Stress in Our Skin. Bay leaves are good for reducing stress skin so that they prevent if from wrinkles. Boil 5 bay leaves with 2 glasses of water in a closed pot. Then open the pot, let it open for 2 minutes. Pour the water into a big bowl. Cover our head with towel before healing the vapor.
Despite the benefits they bring, bay leaves have side effects that we should be aware of.
3 Side Effects of Bay Leaves:
- Constipation.
Bay leaves contain substances that are hard to digest. As a result, we are suffer from constipation problem. This is because our digestive system perform slowly. The side effect usually happens to people who consume bay leaves as their intense and massive medication. For example, high blood pressure patients. To overcome the problem, we can mix bay leaves with extracted grass jelly leaves. Drinking them together, our blood pressure levels down and the constipation effect can be avoided. However, if we put bay leaves in our food, we will not suffer from constipation. For one portion of vegetable, use only 1-2 pieces of bay leaves that are used for strengthening the food aroma.
- Respiratory Effect.Â
The substance in bay leaves are found to give bad effect to asthma patients. Therefore, the experts suggest not to consume too much bay leaves. If we want to use bay leaves to overcome our certain health problem, yet in the same time we are suffer from asthma, we are suggested to consult herbal experts or doctor.
- Â Expectant Mothers and Breastfeeding Mothers.
Even though the side effect of bay leaves for expectant mothers have not yet been proven, the medical experts strongly advised expectant mothers and breastfeeding mothers not to consume bay leaves because of the allergic factors they contain. Bay leaves are believed to harm the fetus. Besides, they can also decrease the water milk quality so that they will bring negative effect to the baby, especially if the mother suffers from certain allergy.
Bay leaves are indeed bring marvelous benefits for our health. However, we may not ignore the side effect after consuming them. If we have to consume them routinely, we have to make sure not to consume them a lot and in a high intensity. Besides, when we use bay leaves for medication, we have to make sure them based on the procedure to avoid side effects.