24 September 2012

Cat's Whiskers Tea

I have recently been adding "useful" plants to my garden, such as herbs and fruit trees.

One such plant to join my garden is the misai kucing/ cat's whiskers. It has delicate white flowers with protruding stamens giving it a distinctive look. I first saw the plant at a nursery and read about it, and that its leaves may be brewed as a tea to relieve urinary problems and possibly kidney stones.

Well that piqued my interest so I bought a little bag of the plant and grew it alongside my pandan (screwpine) and serai (lemon grass). It took a few days to settle in, and didn't look very well. I continued to tend it, made sure it didn't dry out and added some rich black soil. It is doing well now and has given me pretty blossoms.

I picked about 15 leaves last weekend and put it into a little pot with 2 cups of water. I boiled it for about 10 minutes - the leaves released a mild yet pleasant fragrance, vaguely hinting of chamomile. I drank the tea plain, with no added sugar. I gave some to hubs to try too, and he agreed it was pleasant-tasting. As for the health benefits, we'll just have to see.

4 comments:

  1. I do like misai kucing tea - it's so refreshing.

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  2. Hi Annie and Nate, hope you guys are doing well in "Kuching"! meow meow...

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  3. I heard that this is a useful plant which can be use to make a beauty supplement! I haven't see this plant yet and I'm looking for it! Can anyone give me an idea where I can find this kind of plant?

    Thank you for this informative post, I really like it!


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  4. Hi Teresa. Are you in Malaysia?

    I bought my cat's whiskers from a local plant nursery. You should be able to find it in most nurseries and it is really easy to grow.

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