The soursop, whose botanical name: Annona muricata, is a fruit that is native to South America, Southeast Asia and Africa. Everyone knows that the fruit of this plant will bring you many benefits for your health, but what about the soursop leaves? Do they also have health benefits? That is what we will find out in this article.
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Soursop leaves and their excellent benefits
Recently, some researchers said that soursop leaves have a great effect in treating various types of diseases, even the most complicated ones. Yes, it is finally revealed that soursop leaves offer you tons of greatness for your body.
Here are the health benefits that you could get from soursop leaves. Highlighting among its main benefits the properties of guanabana to lose weight.
Prevent diabetes
The health benefits of soursop leave for diabetes might be the best. Some studies show that soursop leaves may stabilize and keep the blood sugar level in your body in the normal range, between 70 mg and 120 mg. Also, soursop leaves are commonly known for their efficacy against any disease that can cause diabetes such as obesity and high levels of sugar in the body.
Soursop leaves for back pain
We are all exposed to suffering from back pain anytime and anywhere, especially when we exercise. Soursop leaf is one of the best herbal remedies for your back pain with no side effects, rather than wasting your money to buy prescription drugs that can cure your back pain.
If you want to use these soursop leaves to cure your back pain, you need to take 20 soursop leaves and add them to 5 cups of boiling water. After that, it is suggested to drink it immediately, at least once a day to ease your back pain.
Prevents uric acid
Some studies also show that soursop leaves may protect you from uric acid-associated disease, such as gout. Or if you already have it, the soursop leaves might ease it. Soursop leaf is widely known for its use as an alternative medicine and as a natural source for treating gout.
If you want to use soursop leaves to cure gout, you must boil the soursop leaves in 2 cups of water and simmer until a cup of water remains. Then you can drink it immediately and for the best result you should take these ingredients twice a day, in the morning and in the evening.
Keeps away from boils
Boils sometimes happen randomly somewhere on your skin, whether it appears on your face or other parts of your body, and it is very disturbing as it will affect your appearance and thus affect your confidence as well. This could also lead to an infection that could be dangerous for your skin.
Soursop leaf offers you the solution as an herbal remedy for boils. You should take some young soursop leaves and rub them on the place where the boils occur.
Eczema treatment
Soursop leaves also have benefits to treat any disease associated with eczema naturally. To cure yourself of this problem, you can crush some soursop leaves until they soften, and then you can rub the soursop leaves on the affected area. After rubbing them into the affected area, it can help ease the pain caused by this skin problem.
Treatment for rheumatism
If you are getting old, the chance of rheumatism will be greater. Soursop leaves will offer you the solution to cure any pain caused by arthritis. If you want to use soursop leaves as an herbal medicine to fight rheumatism, the step is very similar to how you would use it for eczema.
You could crush some soursop leaves until they soften and apply them on the body affected by arthritis pain twice a day constantly.
Treatment of hemorrhoids
Hemorrhoids are a type of disease that can attack the rectum. This disease could be very dangerous because it can make the rectum bleed, so it is surely very painful for every patient suffering from hemorrhoids.
If you want to protect your rectum from this disease or if you want to alleviate the pain caused by this disease, the soursop leaf is very beneficial. Soursop leaves contain compounds that can stop bleeding from the rectum and can also make the muscles around the rectum relax more than before, thus relieving pain caused by hemorrhoids.
Protects from cholesterol
Some studies show that soursop leaves can also be very beneficial in reducing cholesterol levels in your body as they contain some compounds that can lower cholesterol levels.
Treating liver ailments and lowering glucose levels
Soursop leaves, if you mix them with a tea, will treat liver ailment because they could stimulate the production of the hormone insulin, helping the beta cells of the pancreas. In addition to treating liver conditions, they can also lower glucose levels due to increased production of the hormone insulin, which will transform glucose into energy.
Anti-aging compounds
Soursop leaves contain a large amount of vitamin C, which will be very beneficial in releasing antioxidants that can fight free radicals. Free radicals can cause many problems for the health of your skin associated with signs of aging such as wrinkles, fine lines and intense pigmentation that can affect your overall appearance. This antioxidant will protect you from those symptoms, therefore, you will have more confidence than before.
Alleviate the pain
According to some studies, soursop leaves contain analgesic properties, which will be very beneficial in relieving pain, either internally or externally. You can apply them internally by chewing, or you can also apply them externally by placing them on your open wounds. In case of excessive pain, you can boil about 20 soursop leaves and mix with the water, and drink at least once a day, every morning and in the afternoon.
Promote sleep
Soursop leaves can also be used to promote sleep because they are a good source of aromatherapy. This aromatherapy of soursop leaves will make you relax and, therefore, you will get a quality sleep at night. Therefore, if you suffer from insomnia, you can try this herbal aromatherapy.
Protect your hair from lice
Sometimes it can be very difficult to keep hair healthy due to exposure to environmental pollution and direct sunlight when we do our daily routine.
Those incidents can cause many problems that can treat the health of our hair, such as dandruff, hair loss, premature graying and split ends.
If you want to maintain the health of your hair, the soursop leaf is one of the sources of herbs that you should consider, as it has some abilities to inhibit the growth of parasites that could be really harmful to your hair.
Treat cancer
The cancer benefits of soursop are already very popular in some Southeast Asian countries, with staggering evidence. This may be the most important benefit of soursop leaves.
Many studies suggested that the soursop leaf is really powerful in protecting you from any disease associated with cancer, such as lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, etc. Specifically, soursop leaves have active compounds that can fight cancer cells.
More benefits of soursop leaves
Here are the lists of health benefits of soursop leaves for general treatments:
- Antibacterial: they are a natural source to kill bacteria in the body.
- Antivirus: they have the ability to prevent the virus from multiplying.
- Anti-tumor: prevents tumors.
- Antiparasitic: resistant to parasites growing.
- Anti-Malaria: prevents malaria.
- Diuretic: Soursop leaves have substances to promote diuresis.
- Vermifuge: it is an anthelmintic medicine.
- Astringent: to minimize skin dryness.
- Antimutagenic: substances that prevent gene mutation.
- Hypotension: to help heal the lower blood level.
- Analgesic: to reduce pain.
- Nervina: to strengthen the nerve.
- Anti-inflammatory: To decrease the pain of inflammation.
- Hypoglycemic: Soursop leaves have the substance to lower glucose.
- Galactogogue: To produce more breast milk in the mother.
- Cardio depressive: maintain the activity of the heart.
- Vasodilator: substances for blood vessels.
Tips for consuming soursop leaves
Here are some tips for everyone who wants to use soursop leaves to cure their illnesses so that they will get the full benefit of this excellent plant.
Soursop leaves for tea
You can use soursop leaves as an herbal tea for a refreshing, natural drink. This soursop tea will be very essential to drink if you want to protect yourself from any type of cancer. These are the steps on how to make a healthy soursop tea.
- First of all, you need to bring water to a boil.
- Take 3-5 fresh and dried soursop leaves and drop them into the water in small pieces.
- Wait about 30 minutes for it to boil at a moderate temperature.
- After 30 minutes, strain the tea.
A hot and healthy soursop tea is ready to serve. You may need to add a little sugar or honey, so it’s not too bitter.
Side effects of soursop leaves
Like any other leaf, this excellent plant also has some side effects that you should consider before trying to apply it to your body, either internally or externally. Here are some side effects to consider.
Parkinson disease
Some studies show that soursop leaves have chemical compounds that are also present in a human suffering from Parkinson’s. Therefore, anyone who has a history of Parkinson’s disorder or who currently suffers from it should avoid soursop leaves, as they could make their symptoms worse.
Neurotoxicity problem
According to some researchers, consuming soursop tea too often would bring you problems related to neurotoxicity. Neurotoxicity is a type of brain damage that can eventually disrupt neurons.
The symptoms of this neurotoxic disorder are really dangerous, such as memory loss, headache, and sexual dysfunction. Therefore, you should consume soursop tea in moderate amounts. If you consume 2 or 3 cups a day, you will be safe and there will be no harmful effects on your body, including this problem of neurotoxicity.
Low blood pressure level
There are some experiments done on animals that show that soursop leaves can lower the level of blood pressure in the body. Therefore, it would be very dangerous if people with low blood pressure consume it and should avoid it at all costs.
But, if you have high blood pressure, you should also be careful with the dose of these leaves that you should consume since consuming it too often can lead to various problems such as neurotoxicity as already mentioned above, and also vomiting or nausea.
At this time, if you want to stay healthy, especially if you want to protect yourself from cancer, you must take advantage of all the benefits of these soursop leaves. Since the greatness of these soursop leaves has now already been revealed, it is essential that you not only choose soursop fruit from soursop because soursop leaves also offer you many advantages to keep you healthy.