Waakye leaves may not so familiar for you because this type of leaves is well known as sorghum; which is type of grasses harvested for both human consumption and herbal medication. One of the well known species of sorghum is Sorghum bicolour which is also well known as waakye leaves.

Health Benefits of Waakye Leaves

Waakye is native to Africa but due to its amazing benefits for human health, there are a lot of countries have been commercially cultivating this plant and even used as staple food due to its rich nutrient contents. Waayke is easy to grow as long as it grows in tropical and subtropical countries like Africa, South East Asia and Central America.

1. Improves Digestive Health

Waakye leaves are excellent to help improving the digestive health. Both the leaves and grains are packed with high fiber content to help optimizing the process of digestion. Moreover, the combination of health benefits of fiber and anti-bacterial agents are good to fight some stomach conditions like diarrhea and constipation.

2. Fighting Cancer Naturally

One of the amazing compounds you could find in waakye leaves and grains are the antioxidants contents. Some studies have found out that the polyphenols content in the leaves are enough to fight, prevent and inhibit the growth of cancerous cells.

3. Regulates Blood Sugar Level for Diabetic Patient

Diabetes is one of the conditions you cannot cure, once you have been diagnosed with this condition, practically you should live with that condition for the rest of your life. However, there are a lot of solutions to help you regulating the blood sugar level to reduce the symptoms of diabetes and waakye leaves have been used as part of diabetes treatments all this year.

4. Solution to Gluten Allergy

Those who have been suffering from gluten allergy must have known how difficult it is to deal with the condition. However, some scientific studies have found out a positive output from research about waakye leaves that is used as solution to overcome the gluten allergy problem.

5. Good for Bone Health

If you think it is only the health benefits of calcium that are good for bone health and then you thought wrong because the magnesium content found in waakye leaves also proven to be effective in maintaining not only the bone mass but also the bone strength.

6. Optimizes Blood Circulation

The minerals content found in waakye leaves are also good to optimize the blood circulation especially the health benefits of iron to help optimizing the production of red blood cells. Not only iron, you could also a significant amount of copper, zinc and magnesium in waakye leaves.

7. Natural Energy Booster

A study conducted in University of California stated that according to scientific research, waakye leaves contain significant amount of Niacin. It is a common knowledge that niacin has essential role as natural energy booster.

8. Good for Weight Loss

For those who are currently in a weight loss diet program could add waakye leaves to their daily diet to help optimizing the outcome. If you cannot control your weight gain, you will be prone to the health risks of obesity.

9. Excellent Detoxification

It is important for you to detoxify your body regularly. Though there are a lot of health products that offer this solution but still natural solution is the best option and waakye leaves is one of the excellent and natural detoxification solution.

10. Promotes Healthy Skin

Do you want to have healthy and glowing skin in longer time? Well, adding waakye leaves as part of your daily diet is highly recommended due to its high antioxidant contents which are good to fight premature aging and slowing down the aging process.

11. Prevents Hypertension

Hypertension may be considered as one of the common health condition today because the case of hypertension is likely to increase day by day. However, do you know that the risk could be fatal? Because if you are ended with heart attack, you will be ended with stroke.

12. Contains Anti-Inflammatory Properties

Some scientific studies have found out the potent anti-inflammatory properties found in waakye leaves. It is because inflammation could be the root of some chronic conditions.

13. Used as Natural Food Colour

Some local Ghana is using waakye leaves as food colouring. Waakye is one of the famous street food you could find in Ghana.

14. Good for Immunity System

The combinations of all essentials vitamins and minerals as well as antioxidants found in waakye leaves are good for immunity system. Consuming waakye leaves during recovery stage is also super helpful to accelerate the recovery process.

15. Contains Anti Viral Properties

Some studies have found out the anti-viral properties in waakye leaves from antibacterial agents up to antivirus agents. That is why as mentioned in the previous point, consuming it during recovery process is essential to prevent further infection when immunity system is dropping.

Cautions of Waakye Leaves

If you are growing waakye leaves in your backyard is important for you to know about the health benefits of waakye leaves but it is also prominent for you to know about the cautions or side effects that waakye leaves could cause.

• Waakye plant is categorized as grass plant; in other words it is possible for some people to suffer from allergic after consuming it. Some symptoms that have been reported are such as itchiness, swollen face and redness skin.
• Though from the list above you could see that waakye leaves may be helpful to overcome certain conditions but still for those who are currently taking prescribed medicine required to consult their doctor first if they want to add waakye leaves as part of home remedy.
• Those who are suffering from the certain types of diabetes, both type 1 or type 2 should not overdose in consuming waakye leaves because it could cause the drop of blood sugar when it is consumed a long with prescribed diabetic medication.

Waakye leaves have a lot of health benefits for human health from lowering the symptoms of high blood pressure up to good for regulating blood sugar level. However, still the cautions above are also important to remember.