At the first sign of an upset stomach, my husband is out back plucking leaves off of our guayaba tree to make a tea. I thought I’d do a little investigation on whether or not there was any validity to these stomach ailment treatment claims and here’s what I found out.
Psidium guajava, known as guayaba or guava, is native to Mexico and its fruit ranges from white or yellow to dark pink. We have two different varieties growing in our backyard, the yellow and the light pink. Both the fruit and the leaves are used in traditional medicine to treat diabetes, hypertension, cavities, diarrhea, rheumatism, lung disease, fever, and inflammation.
My husband makes his stomachache tea from freshly picked young whole leaves. He washes then boils them for about 10 minutes and that’s it. He drinks it without any sweetener, but you could add honey if you like. The tea has an earthy taste to it.
I saw on another site, that you could make tea from dried and crushed leaves. However, that takes 3-4 weeks and there seems to be no additional benefit to drying them. Since we have a fresh source right outside our back door, we’ll stick with that. Have you tried guayaba leaf tea?
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Interested in natural remedies? Uncover herbal remedies from traditional Mexican sources for healing and wellness in the Exploring Traditional Herbal Remedies in Mexico series.
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