Sideritis also known as ironwort, shepherd’s tea and mountain tea is a genus of flowering plants widely known for their use in herbal medicine as well as an herbal tea.
This tea consists of select handpicked dried flowers, leaves and stems of the native Sideritis plant which grow wild throughout the mountainous regions of Greece. The specific plant is found on rocky slopes at very high elevations.
The herb was well known to ancient Greeks, particularly to the pharmacologist/ botanist Dioscurides, philosopher Theophrastus and to the father or modern medicine Hippocrates. Back then it was used as a toning herb, commonly used to treat wounds –especially those from iron swords or arrows. Nowadays, it is mostly consumed in Greece and Spain; in Greece you can try about 17 different varieties from mountains around the country. Of these only one is cultivated, all others are wild. Its essential oils are used in a variety of herbal medicine and cosmetic products.
One of the main reasons of ironwort’s popularity has definitely been its wide range of health benefits. Since the antiquity, it was considered as a remedy for colds, aches, allergies, indigestion, respiratory issues and a boost for your immune system. All these claims proved to be true; an increasing number of researches confirm that mountain tea is packed with flavonoids and antioxidants as well that it lowers blood pressure. Recent studies at the University of Magdeburg argue that not only does Sideritis prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease but it also acts forestalling osteoporosis.
According to the a study published in 2011 at the “Journal of Ethno-pharmacology”, all Sideritis species plants were shown to have anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antispasmodic properties. They were rich in a number of natural antioxidants, including flavonoids, and almost all species also contained essential oils.