Uziza is also called as Guinean pepper is a relative of black pepper. When it comes to a comparison, uziza has more herbaceous taste than the usual black pepper we use in our cuisine. The more important thing is that this African plant does not only produce fruits or seeds for spices, but also has beneficial leaves for health.
The health benefits of uziza leaves are compatible with the Benefits of Black Pepper . The uziza leaves are pale green when fresh and turn to be darker when dried. Well, the leaves can perform health benefits of uziza leaves as it contains nutritional value.
Therefore, this peppery leaves are used both for nutritional and medicinal purpose. Nigerian use both fresh and dried leaves as it makes the same health benefits.
Nutritional Information of Uziza Leaves
The health benefits of uziza leaves come no other from the nutrition values opf the leaves. Based on some studies, the Nigerian super food contains a good amount of vitamins and minerals. Here is some of the nutrition contained in the leaves:
- Protein
- Dietary fiber
- Alkaloids
- Steroids
- Glycosides
- Flavonoids
- Glycosides
- Essential oils
- Tannins
- Saponins
- Peptides
- Phenols
Although the amount of each component has not been detailed, yet the moderate consumption will bring the health benefits of uziza leaves for you.
The Health Benefits of Uziza Leaves
We can obtain the health benefits of uziza leaves as Nigerian has used this leaves for ages and it evidently give health benefits for them. The health benefits of uziza leaves are:
- Improve fertility
Uziza leaves are surprisingly able to improve fertility in women and improve sperm in men. Therefore, those with infertility problem should consider taking this natural medication. For women, you can pick some fresh uziza leaves, boil the leaves and add some lemon shots and honey. Drink it regularly during your period. And for men, you can drink the combination regularly two shots daily.
- Relieve cough
The leaves might have peppery with slightly bitter taste. Yet, it is the best quality required to relieve cough. Pour some dried or grounded uziza leaves into a cup, add boiled water, rest it for about 10 minutes, and drink it while it warm. The herbaceous flavor will help clear your throat and the respiratory track. Further, it will relieve your chough quickly with no side effects such as sleepiness and increased acidity.
- Relieve pain
Uziza or the Nigerian black pepper leaves contains alkaloids. Alkaloids are known to have therapeutically efficient effect to perform as pain killer. Therefore, taking uziza leaves to relieve some pain such headache, toothache, and painful joints will be the perfect solution. It is also effective in treating menstrual pain. The leaves show the effective result in relieving pain. Plus, this natural ingredient is perfectly safe for you.
- Keep away the mosquitoes
As we know, mosquitoes cause some dangerous health problems. Not only give the itching bites, mosquitoes are potential in spreading serious diseases such dengue fever and malaria. Therefore, it is important to get away mosquitoes from our home. In order to do so, we can pick any chemical insecticide and larvicides on the store.
However, it may cause some side effect over a long term usage. In this case, the uziza leaves can perform effective natural larvicides for mosquitos’ larva. In addition, the uziza larvicides is considered to be more eco-friendly and affordable than the synthetic or the chemical larvacides.
- Prevent cancer
Uziza leaves are powerful anti-inflammatory agent. Therefore, it is able to calm down any inflammation within the body. Regarding to the process of cancer cell growth which involve inflammation of the tissues, uziza leaves is able to inhibit the growth of the cancer cell.
It can also actively fight the free radicals as the main culprit of cancer as the ability contributed by flavonoids in uziza leaves. Types of cancer which have been evidently prevented by uziza leaves are colon cancer and breast cancer.
- Prevent constipation
The Nigerian black pepper leaves contains high amount of dietary fiber. As we know, dietary fiber is very good for the digestive track. One of the problems solved by the content of dietary fiber in uziza leaves is constipation. It is because the dietary fiber will actively improve the bowel movement and avoid you from constipation.
- Relieve stomachache
As mentioned before, consuming uziza leaves will be beneficial for the digestive track. Sometimes, we suffer from the stomachache when there’s something wrong with the digestive system. In this case, uziza leaves will not only fix the digestion problems, but also relieve the aching effectively. Uziza leaves are also effective in relieving the menstrual stomach cramps.
- Lose weight
The dietary fiber in uziza leave will be loved by women once they know one of the health benefits of uziza leaves. Well, the dietary fiber in uziza leaves is effective in losing weight. Just like the Health Benefits of Drinking Green Tea on An Empty Stomach for Weight Loss and Health Benefits of Lipton Diet Green Tea for Weight Loss, uziza leaves can also perform the same ability. We can either boiled the fresh leaves or drink the tea of dried uziza leaves.
- Relieve flatulence
Related to the other stomach problem, uziza leaves is capable in relieving flatulence. It is attributed by the natural character of uziza leaves as aseptic, which free the stomach from flatulence as the reaction toward microorganism contamination or the post-surgical practice
- Treat diarrhea
As the ability of uziza leaves in fighting the pathogens in the digestive track, the leaves are effective for diarrhea. The leaves treat diarrhea quickly, just like Health Benefits of Olive Leaves Tea and Health Benefits of African Bitter Leaf.
The other health benefits of uziza leaves are:
- Treat rheumatism
- Lower cholesterol
- Prevent diabetes
- Prevent hypertension
- Aid postpartum recovery
- Improve appetite
- Treat dysentery
- Ease indigestion
Recommendation in Using Uziza Leaves
Uziza leaves are used for medicinal and nutritional purposes. For medicinal uses, the leaves are commonly consumed as tea. The other way in obtaining the health benefits of uziza leaves is by boiling the fresh leaves and drinks the water as herbal drink. Or else, the leaves are often grounded and capsuled to be consumed as daily health supplement capsules.
For the nutritional purposes, you can include the fresh of the dried leaves into soup to both add flavor and more nutritional value to your soup. You can also sprinkle the dried and crushed uziza leaves onto your salad. Otherwise, you can also add the fresh uziza leaves into your green salad or stir fried.