Do you like vegetables? Ever seen sorrel? Ever cooked soup with sorrel? Or maybe use sorrel leaves to make tea? Sorrel is a vegetable originating from Europe. The leave shape is like spinach leaves. It tastes like lemon, a bit sour but it serves a flavor that you will never forget.

In many places, sorrel is one of the ingredients that used to make soup. In addition, to make tea, other, sorrel can also be mixed with buttermilk or you can make it into juice. Many choices of dishes that use sorrel. But, this article will not discuss about it. This article will discuss about the health benefits we get from sorrel leaves.

Sorrel is a vegetable that is low in calories but has plenty of water content. Sorrel is rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, B9, and C. Sour taste on sorrel leaves is due to high oxalate content. Sorrel is one source of minerals because it contains potassium, magnesium, sodium, iron, phosphorus, and calcium. There is no fat and rich in flavonoids.

Here is a list of nutrients that sorrel leaves have per 100 g based on USDA National Nutrition Database:

Nutrition Value of Sorrel Leaves

Energy                         22 Kcal

Carbohydrates            3.20 g

Protein                         2.00 g

Total Fat                       0.7 g

Cholesterol                  0 mg

Dietary Fiber               2.9 g

Folates                         13 ug

Niacin                          0.500 mg

Pantothenic acid         0.041 mg

Pyridoxine                   0.122 mg

Riboflavin                   0.100 mg

Thiamin                       0.040 mg

Vitamin A                   4000 IU

Vitamin C                   48 mg

Sodium                        4 mg

Potassium                    390 mg

Calcium                       44 mg

Copper                         0.131 mg

Iron                             2.40 mg

Magnesium                103 mg

Manganese                  0.349 mg

Zinc                             0.20 mg

Kaempferol                 10.3 mg

Myrcetin                      5.7 mg

Quercetin                     86.2 ug

Well, very many useful contents is provided in the sorrel. This vegetable is perfect for people who think health is very important. Because the content in sorrel is very much, automatically there are many benefits also to our body if we consume it. Listed below are the benefits that we can get from the sorrel leaves.

1. Antioxidant

Scientifically, sorrel has flavonoids that have several vitamins and minerals content that can be used as an antioxidant which protects the body from free radicals that can cause deadly diseases.

2. Anti-cancer

According to research at Jamaica’s Northen Caribbean University, flavonoids that contained inside the sorrel can use to against several kinds of cancer.

3. Health for skin

Sorrel leaf rich in Vitamin C. We need this vitamin C every day to protect our skin from wrinkles and tighten our skin. Sorrel leaves have the source to relieve itchy and ringworms. Sorrel leaves contains anti-microbial and anti-allergic sources.

4. Health for hair

For you who have problems with your hair such as dry hair or damaged hair, you can also rely on the benefits of sorrel leaves. Because you can see at the draft of nutritional content above, sorrel leaves have many high Vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C contents that ready to treat our hair.

5. Against the breast cancer and good for bone.

Because Sorrel has a high calcium content, it is very useful to maintain bone health in women and overcome osteoporosis. Other than that, Sorrel is one of the very useful treatment to treat breast cancer because it has the content of vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, and chlorophyll that help against breast cancer. In particular, chlorophyll works to increase oxygen so that cancer cells cannot be last long.

6. Relieve a cough, boils, and abscesses

According to the Jamaica Gleaner, in some parts of Africa, the sorrel is used as medicine for coughs and some people relieve boils and abscesses using the leaves of sorrel.

7. Helps in weight loss

Sorrel leaves are no fat and low calories although they have vitamins, proteins, minerals and carbohydrates in high content. So, don’t worry if you consume this vegetable. you will not become fat instead you can use the leaves for your programming diet.

8. Anti-virus

A study of a journal “Antiviral Research” shows that sorrel leaves contained oligomeric, polymeric proanthocyanidins and flavonoids that can use to reduce the spread of the herpes simplex virus type-1 that can cause cold sores or fever blisters. But, we can’t make sure if it works for human or not. Therefore, before using it, you must ask the doctor.

9. Removing toxins

One of the health benefits of sorrel leaves that this leaves contains antioxidants and flavonoids, that has purgative and diuretic properties. This works for removing harmful toxins from the body. It causes the content of protocatechuic acid, that effective for detoxifying your body. You can make a tea from sorrel leaves and drink it.

10. Improves eyesight

The high content of Vitamin A inside the sorrel leaves works for improving your eyesight and also helps in getting rid of night blindness.

11. Lowers blood pressure levels

The high content of that founded in sorrel leaves its works for reducing the bad cholesterol present in the body as well as in the reduction of triglyceride levels. It can make the blood pressure turn into lower levels.

12. Rich in antioxidant

Beside vitamin, fresh leaves of sorrel are also a rich source of several vital antioxidant phenolic antioxidants like kaempferol, myricetin, quercetin, etc. The combining these compounds help to protect scavengers against oxygen-derived free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) and have a roll in aging and various disease processes.

13. Enough minerals

As you can see in the list above, sorrel leaves also contain an enough amount of minerals like manganese, calcium, potassium, magnesium, copper, and zinc. Potassium’s function is to helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Meanwhile, the manganese and copper are used to cofactor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase.

14. Overcoming anemia

The function of iron, sodium, phosphorus, and chlorophyll in the sorrel leaves helps in increasing the levels of hemoglobin in our body. This is especially needed with the person who has suffered anemia.

15. Prevents scurvy

When you have scurvy, it means that your body needs more than vitamin C. Well, the leaves of sorrel provides an enough content of vitamin C. Next time, try to prove that you can get the benefits of leaves sorrel by using the leaves to curing the scurvy.

16. Reduces cold sores and fever blisters

Another benefit of sorrel leaves is can be healing you from cold sores and fever blisters, It causes the high sources of flavonoids, oligomeric and polymeric proanthocyanidins that can resolve this problem.

Another health benefits of sorrel leaves :

1. Keep the sinuses healthy and treating sinusitis.
2. Anti-inflammatory.
3. In India, Africa and Mexico, sorrel is used as a diuretic and has benefits for kidney health when ingested daily.
4. Increase the immune system of the body.
5. Helps improve circulation throughout the body by increase red blood cell production.
6. Sorrel contains a high content of antioxidant properties that can lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the body.

Cautions of Sorrel Leaves

That is the health benefits of sorrel leaves. Although, there are many benefits, there is some several things that you have to be informed when you use the sorrel leaves. Please pay attention to list at below :

1. Sorrel leaves contain oxalic acid. Therefore, for you who have kidney stone must becareful when you use this leaves.
2. For women who are pregnant and breastfeeding would be better to avoid using sorrel leaves.
3. Consume a lot of sorrel leaves can causes stomach pain, diarrhea, skin rash, skin irritation, and liver disease.
4. Don’t use iron or aluminum cookware when you are cooking the sorrel leaves.

There are the health benefits of sorrel leaves. Hope that you can get benefits of this article.