Epazote: A Mexican Herb with Medicinal Powers Georgia Clark-Albert - Bangor Daily News
go to original July 24, 2013

Epazote is a common cooking spice and found throughout most of Central and North America. (EatTheWeeds)

Unless you cook a lot of Mexican food, you may not be familiar with the herb epazote (pronounced eh-pah-ZOH-tay). Epazote is a popular Central American herb that has been used by native Mexicans for hundreds of years. It has a strong musky flavor that provides a unique taste to Mexican and other Latin American cuisines. The herb belongs to the large family of herbs and vegetables, including amaranth, spinach, quinoa and beets. Some common names for it include wormseed, pazote and Mexican tea.

Rather than a culinary plant, epazote is usually viewed as a medicinal herb. The leaves used in cooking counter indigestion and flatulence when combined with beans or any fiber or protein rich foods. Epazote is very low in calories with 100 grams of leaves containing just 32 calories and 3.8 grams of dietary fiber.

The leaves contain many monoterpene compounds including ascaridole (a colorless liquid with a pungent smell) which is toxic to intestinal worms such as roundworm, hookworms and pinworms. Native Mayans were known to drink an infusion of epazote leaves on a regular basis to keep free of worm infestation. Epazote has a strong pungent flavor that is compared to petroleum or kerosene.

Read the rest at Bangor Daily News

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!