The first Rooibos plantations were established
in the Pakhuis Mountains by Dr P le Frais Nortier, a physician,
in the 1930s. Local people were paid to collect seeds for planting.
While the Hottentots and Bushmen relied on the health benefits
of this tea for hundreds of years, it was only in 1968 that
its potential was "rediscovered". Annatjie Theron,
a South African mother struggling with an allergic infant, found
that Rooibos tea cured her baby's colic. Unable to find documented
evidence to verify her finding, Theron was inspired to do her
own research. Her results spoke for themselves: all the allergic
babies in her study reacted positively when Rooibos tea was
introduced to their diets. |
