Coffee Tea - a precious medicine from oriental medicine

Arabica coffee originated in the Jimma Plateau in southwestern Ethiopia and the Boma Plateau in southeastern Sudan. The name Coffee Tea comes from the low-cut shape of the tea tree, with small leaves. Coffee is often used as a favorite beverage spice of the Vietnamese people and also has medicinal properties.

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Vietnamese name: Coffee and tea

Other names: Arabica coffee.

Scientific name: Coffea arabica L.. This is a species of flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae (Coffee).

Natural features
The Arabica coffee tree is usually short, small, luxuriant, green, 6-10m high. The tree has long, symmetrical branches. The trunk and branches are cylindrical or square, with many branches. The leaves grow opposite, with short petioles 0.4-1.2cm, oval, pointed at both ends, the edges of the leaves are curly, soft and drooping. The leaf surface is smooth, the upper surface is dark green, the lower surface is lighter green.

Flowers bloom from late February to the end of April. Flowers grow in leaf axils, round and open petals, white, look like chrysanthemums. Sweet, faint fragrance.

The fruit is oval, slightly flattened, green when young, later turning yellow with red, containing 2 seeds, with a caffeine content of 1 - 2%. The fruiting season lasts from November to April.

Distribution, collection, processing
The genus Coffea L has about 100 species and subspecies, distributed throughout the tropics, but most concentrated in tropical Africa.

Currently, there are 3 types of Coffee varieties widely grown in the world. Their specific origins are as follows:

Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) from the southwestern highlands, small stem and canopy, leaves similar to green tea leaves. Arabica coffee has two types: Mocha coffee and Catimor coffee.

Robusta coffee (Coffea robusta) originates from equatorial Africa from Guinea to Uganda, the tree trunk is up to 10m high, the leaves have many similarities to the leaves of the guava tree.

Jackfruit coffee (Coffea liberica) has a large trunk and large leaves, and looks like a jackfruit tree from afar.

Arabica coffee is a light-loving plant that lives in high mountainous areas at an altitude of 1000 - 1500 m. Arabica coffee can grow well on many types of soil, but the best is still red-brown soil of the basalt group or soil weathered from volcanic lava.

Arabica coffee is harvested after about 3 to 4 years of planting. After this time, the tree begins to flower, and the amount of fruit increases over time. In Vietnam, typical coffee growing areas include Dak Lak, Lam Dong, etc.

Arabica flowers bloom for about 15-20 days, pollinated mainly by insects, the self-pollination rate is only about 10%. Coffee beans have a high germination rate (up to 95%); this germination ability will decrease after 3-6 months. However, if stored at 15°C, the high germination rate can be maintained for the next 15-30 months.

Parts used
The usable part of the Arabica plant is the seed, but the leaves are also used.

Chemical composition
Raw coffee contains components including glucid, lipid, organic acid, phenolic acid, chlorogenic acid,... in which glucid is more abundant, accounting for more than half compared to dried medicinal herbs. There is 5 - 8% reducing sugar sucrose, little mannitol, polysaccharide, galactomanan, xylan,... no starch in old beans.

Roasted coffee has many chemical changes such as the water content is reduced by about 5%, inorganic substances do not change, caffeine is partly sublimated, glucide changes a lot (saccharose is partly transformed, many soluble substances appear due to the transformation of insoluble polysaccharides).

Uses in traditional medicine:
Coffee is used as a beverage in the form of boiling water extracted from roasted coffee bean powder, or in the form of instant coffee.

Drinking coffee helps keep the mind alert and reduces fatigue. It is also used as a diuretic, to treat edema, and to aid digestion.

However, drinking a lot of coffee drinks causes digestive disorders because during the roasting process, caffeotoxin is formed, only a part of which evaporates.

Caffeine alkaloids and their salt forms such as caffeine citrate and caffeine sodium benzoate are used in emergency treatment of opioid and other hypnotic poisoning.

In folk medicine, people pound raw coffee beans and soak them in alcohol to drink to treat rheumatism and malaria. Roasted coffee has the effect of reducing fat, detoxifying alcohol and opium. People with insomnia should absolutely not drink coffee. Drinking boiled coffee leaves helps quickly digest food and water to treat edema.

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