What Are Butterfly Pea Flowers?

What Are Butterfly Pea Flowers?

Botanical Name:    Clitoria ternatea

Are you suffering from low energy or brainpower? Feeling stressed? Anxiety? Can’t sleep? Can’t conceive? Constipated? Poor eyesight? Losing your hair or premature greying? Is your skin losing collagen? Butterfly Pea is known to help.

Also known as Asian Pigeon Wings, Blue Bell Vine, Blue Pea, Cordofan Pea, and Darwin pea, ‘Butterfly Pea’ (Clitoria ternatea) is an amazing brain-boosting herb native to tropical equatorial Asia.

A traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, Clitoria Ternatea has been consumed for centuries as a memory enhancer, brain booster, anti-stress and calmative agent. Known for its luminous indigo color, Butterfly Pea has traditionally been used as a vegetable in cooking, to color deserts, or to make a strikingly vibrant colored tea.

Butterfly Pea is jam-packed full of health-promoting antioxidants, flavonoids, and peptides and has shown considerable promise in animal studies as a natural remedy for a range of health complaints.

Many beauty products have also been derived from Butterfly Pea because of the effects of the flavonoid, quercetin has on skin and hair.

Let's take a look at the reputed health benefits of Butterfly Pea:

Benefits of Butterfly Pea (Clitoria Ternatea)

• Improve eyesight - Clitoria Ternatea contains an antioxidant called proanthocyanidin, which increases blood flow to the capillaries of the eyes, useful in the treatment of glaucoma, blurred vision, retinal damage, or tired eyes.

• Improve hair growth - Rich in bioflavonoids, Butterfly Pea can promote hair growth and reduce the greying of hair.

• Improve skin - Butterfly Pea’s antioxidants stimulate collagen and elastin synthesis, which helps rejuvenate the skin and lessen wrinkles and other signs of aging.

• Aphrodisiac - Butterfly Pea has been traditionally used as an aphrodisiac particularly for women and used to treat menstruation problems or white vaginal discharge (leucorrhoea).

• Antioxidant - Flavonoids, anthocyanins and phenolic compounds in Butterfly Pea flowers activate antioxidant activity, which helps decrease oxidative stress caused by disease-causing and aging free radicals.

• Nootropic - Butterfly Pea has been shown to enhance cognitive function and boost brain function.

• Diuretic - Butterfly Pea promotes normal urination, which in turn lowers blood pressure.

• Analgesic - Clitoria Ternatea has been used traditionally as a local anesthetic as it has been shown to help relieve pain and swelling.

• Anxiolytic - Butterfly Pea has a calming effect on the body, reducing stress and anxiety.

• Anti-inflammatory -  The deep indigo flowers contain flavonoids. Found in almost all fruits and vegetables, flavonoids are powerful antioxidants with anti-inflammatory and immune system benefits.

• Anti-Asthmatic - It is used in common cold, cough & asthma as it acts as an expectorant and reduces the irritation of respiratory organs.

• Anti-anxiety and depression - Indications are that high doses of Butterfly Pea may be adaptogenic – helping the body deal with stressors.

• Anti-diabetic - Butterfly Pea has shown to inhibit glucose intake from the diet.

• Anti-HIV - Butterfly Pea is one of the few herbs to contain cyclotides, which have exhibited anti-HIV effects in studies.

• Anti-cancer and anti-tumor - Clitoria Ternatea’s cyclotides can cause cancer cell death by disrupting cell membrane integrity.

• Anti-microbial - In several Indian studies, Butterfly Pea exhibited significant anti-microbial effects against Staphylococcus Aureus.

• Anti-convulsant - Butterfly Pea has been shown to help reduce the severity and stress on the body from convulsions useful in treating epilepsy.

• Anti-pyretic - Clitoria Ternatea can help reduce fever by dilating the blood vessels right beneath the skin, whereby air can cool the blood easier.

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