Yerba Mate, Wonder Herb?

Not all Scientist Agree:

Several attempts to characterize part or all of the constituents of yerba mate' have been made during the last few decades. They agree on some points, and disagree on others. This is not unusual; different assay techniques will be sensitive to different nutrients. The one thing that unites the various researchers is the consistent detection of numerous vitamins and minerals. There is the unusual array of resins, fiber, volatile oil, and tannins that characterize many plant substances. But then there is the growing list of vitamins and minerals, including carotene, vitamins A, C, E, B1, B2, B complex, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, pantothenic acid , biotin, vitamin C complex, magnesium, calcium, iron, sodium, potassium, manganese, silicon, phosphates, sulfur, hydrochloric acid, chlorophyll, choline, inositol. Different research find different nutrients; there no single research that has found all o f them, and perhaps there are still other nutrients that have not been identified and classified.

One group of investigators from the Pasteur Institute and the Paris Scientific Society concluded that yerba mate' contains practically all of the vitamins necessary to sustain life. They focused especially on pantothenic acid, remarking that it is rare to find a plant with so much of this significant and vital nutrient. It is indeed difficult to find a plant in any area of the world equal to mate' in nutritional value.

In addition, yerba mate' contains a substance belonging to a very specialized class of chemical compounds. Though only small amounts of this substance occur in mate', its presence has generated a huge amount of attention. The substance is a xanthine alkaloid called mateine. Because of all the attention heaped upon its presence in yerbamate', the following fairly extensive treatment is given, even though in reality the substance probably contributes little if anything to the activity of the plant.

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