As final exam rapidly approach, many students turn to energy drinks and highly caffeinated beverages to help them maintain alertness through all-night study sessions. An excellent (but often overlooked) option is Yerba Mate, highly regarded by its South American enthusiasts as a “wonder drink” offering vitality, energy, and sustained focus. Mate is as tea-like beverage consumed mainly in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil. It is brewed from the dried leaves and stemlets of the perennial tree Ilex paraguarensis ("Yerba Mate"). The name "Mate" derives from the quichua word "matí" that names the gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris), which is traditionally used to drink the infusion. The scientific name Ilex paraguarensis was given by the French naturalist and botanist Auguste de Saint Hilaire in 1822. The tree belongs to the family Aquifoliaceae and grows between the parallels 10° and 30° (South) in the Paraná and Paraguay rivers basins. It is a plant typical of the Alto Paraná region, Alto Uruguay region and the Argentine NE. It is a tropical or subtropical plant, needing high temperatures, high humidity and up to 1500 mm of annual rain. On average, 300,000 tons of Mate are produced each year.

In the wild, the plant needs about 25 years to develop completely, reaching in that case a height of up to 15 meters. The leaves are alternated, cuneiform, elliptical or oval, with the border slightly serrated. It flowers between the months of October and December. The flowers are small, polygamous, dioicous, with calix and corolla in a tetrameric disposition. The fruit resembles a pepper berry. Among several varieties, there are three that are the most important: "angustifolia", "longifolia" and "latifolia".

Mate has a characteristic mature flavor which is somewhat sweet, bitter, withered leaf like, and alfalfa-like, similar to that obtained from tea (Camellia sinensis). Of the 196 volatile chemical compounds found in Yerba Mate, 144 are also found in tea. The infusions of Ilex paraguarensis are less astringent than those made of tea. The plant is classified vaguely, according to Western herbal medicine, as aromatic, stimulant, bitter, aperient (laxative), astringent, diuretic, purgative, sudorific (sweat inducing), and febrifuge (fever reducing). Mate contains numerous vitamins and minerals.It is used in popular medicine and employed in commercial herbal preparations as a stimulant to the central nervous system, a diuretic, and an antirheumatic.

This South American herb has won many admirers in wide-ranging parts of the world. In the search for a natural stimulant devoid of side effects and toxicity, Mate currently holds the most hope. An invigorator of the mind and body, a natural source of nutrition, and a health promoter par excellence, Mate deserves the attention of every person interested in optimum health. Yerba Mate was introduced to colonizing and modern civilizations by the primitive Guarani Indians of Paraguay and Argentina. It has seemingly always been the most common ingredient in household cures of the Guarani. In modern Argentina and Paraguay, however, Mate tea has become almost pathologically ritualized in a manner reminiscent of coffee and tea abuse in Western and Eastern countries. Among the native Guarani, on the other hand, the natural use of Mate for healthful purposes has persisted. They use it to boost immunity, cleanse and detoxify the blood, tone the nervous system, restore youthful hair color, retard aging, combat fatigue, stimulate the mind, control the appetite, reduce the effects of debilitating disease, reduce stress, and eliminate insomnia.

Yerba mate has significant antioxidant activity. In a study published in 1995 by Biochemicaland Molecular Biology International, researchers concluded that water extracts of yerba mate “were more potent antioxidants than either ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or butylated hydroxytoluene.” A few years later, a group of researchers embarked on a study to again investigate the antioxidant properties of Ilex paraguariensis infusions. Those findings were published in March of 2000 in the journal Biochemical and Biophysica Research Communications. Their results suggest “that ingestion of extracts of Ilex paraguariensis could contribute to increase the antioxidant defense of an organism against free radicals attack.” In a more recent study, published in the November 2001 issue of Fitoterapia, researchers took a look at seven different plant species in South America. They found that yerba mate “contained a higher content of flavonoids and caffeoyl derivatives than any other assayed species, including coffee and cocoa.”

While yerba mate has been used as a base for herbal medicines in South America for centuries, the plant’s benefits and therapeutic properties have recently been verified by a number of scientific studies. The chemical components of yerba mate are similar to those found in green tea.

Each infusion of yerba mate contains:
• Vitamins: A, C, E, B1, B2, Niacin (B3), B5, B Complex
• Minerals: Calcium, Manganese, Iron, Selenium, Potassium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Zinc
• Additional Compounds: Carotene, Fatty Acids, Chlorophyll, Flavonols,
Polyphenols, Inositol, Trace Minerals, Antioxidants, Tannins, Pantothenic Acid and 15 Amino Acids.

Yerba Mate is a tea, and can be used like any other tea. Its most popular form comes in 500 gram (17.6 oz.) bags of loose-leaf tea that is dried and ground. In some places it is available in tea bags, called Mate Cocido, but these do not provide the strength and full benefit of the more traditional methods for drinking it.

Yerba Mate (literally, the "Mate Herb") gets its name from the traditional cup (called Mate as well) used to drink it. This cup, originally a dried and decorated gourd, can be made out of almost anything these days. In South America, where Mate was introduced to the world, Mate is still sipped from the Mate cup using a metal or wood decorative straw & filter called a bombilla.

The modern Mate drinker can choose any number of ways to extract the beneficial tea from the herb. It can be brewed like normal loose-leaf tea and filtered before pouring into a cup. It can be use in a coffee press, where the herb is infused with hot water, and then the herb is pressed out of the way of the tea. It can be made into a flavorful iced tea to drink on a hot summer day. It can be made like coffee, in a standard automatic coffee maker (make sure you use a large amount of the herb). And, if you have a Mate cup and a bombilla, you can follow in the foot steps of the ancients by sipping Mate the traditional way.

References

1.Kawakami, M. and Kobayashi, A.; Volatile Constituents of Green Mate and Roasted Mate, J.Agric.Food Chem. 39, 1275 (1991)

2.Gosmann, G., Schenkel, E.P. and Seligmann, O.; A New Saponin from Mate, Ilex Paraguarensis, J.Nat.Prod. 52(6), 1367 (1989)

3.Vazques, A. and Molina, P.; Studies on Mate Drinking, J. Ethnopharmacology 18, 267 (1986)