Essiac Tea: What Is It?

Essiac tea is an herbal tea blend that is thought to have medicinal properties.  Essiac herbal tea was created by a Canadian nurse named Rene Caisse.  The name "essiac" tea was derived from spelling Nurse Caisse's name backwards, thus giving the tea its moniker.  

When you buy essiac tea, you will want to try to get it in a loose form.  In order to prepare essiac teas, you place a teaspoon or two of the loose tea in a tea strainer.  This allows all of the purportedly beneficial components found in the essiac tea to be steeped into the hot water, leaving the tea leaves in the strainer, so that removal of them from the cup of tea is an easy matter.  

Nurse Rene Caisse believed that her essiac herbal tea might help her critically and terminally ill cancer patients whom she worked with at her free cancer clinic in Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada in the 1930s and 40s.  It is thought that Nurse Caisse's essiac tea recipe may have come from Canada's Ojibwa First people, as essiac teas were used by them in the traditional medicine practiced by their tribe.  

When you buy essiac tea, you will notice that there are a complement of herbs used in the preparation of essiac herbal tea.  It will typically include Rheum palmatum L., also known as Turkey or Indian rhubarb root, Rumex acetosella L., or Sheep Sorrel, Ulmus fulva Michx., which is slippery elm inner bark, and Arctium lappa L., commonly called burdock root.  As individual herbs, rhubarb root is commonly used as a purgative.  Sheep Sorrel is thought to be a diuretic, as is burdock root, although Sheep Sorrel may also provide help for inflammation, diarrhea, fever and scurvy.  Slippery elm inner bark may have an expectorant quality, among others.

When these herbs are blended together into essiac tea, it is thought that it might be beneficial in promoting health.    Some, including Rene Cassie, thought that the essiac herbal tea may help to strengthen the immune system, and may be useful in fighting immune system diseases as well as fighting cancers.  Others believe the tea may help to relieve pain and detoxify the body.  

As with any herbal product, it is important to remember when you buy essiac tea that herbal products are not intended to prevent, cure, treat or diagnose any disease because they have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  If you believe that you have a medical problem, you should seek your health care provider's advice immediately.