Roselle

Roselle: what was it used for?

A food, a jelly, and a diet drink. Kirtikar and Basu record that the succulent calyx was made into “Roselle” jelly in Bombay and, dried, used much like tamarind in curries; that in bilious conditions a diet drink was made by boiling it with water and a little salt, pepper, asafoetida, and molasses; and that a decoction of the seeds was recommended for painful urination, dyspepsia, and debility. They add that the fruit “possesses anti-scorbutic properties,” and that the leaves were regarded as emollient and cooked as a vegetable.

Roselle: what does modern science say?

No European monograph covers it, and the modern trials, of its extract or tea, have looked chiefly at blood pressure. A 2022 meta-analysis of thirteen trials found that it lowered blood pressure against placebo in mild-to-moderate hypertension, but not in people whose hypertension came with the metabolic syndrome, and that it was no better than antihypertensive drugs. Another of seventeen trials (2022) found blood pressure falls similar to those from medication, greatest in those with raised pressure at the start, and lower LDL cholesterol. An umbrella review of twenty-six trials (2025) found a dose-dependent fall in blood pressure, comparable to that from antihypertensive drugs, with lower total and LDL cholesterol and fasting blood sugar and higher HDL cholesterol. For weight, a 2024 meta-analysis of six trials found no clinical benefit.

Roselle: what did the older authorities say?

Kirtikar and Basu, Indian Medicinal Plants (1918)

The note they reprint from 1913 records that roselle had lately been introduced into the Philippine Islands, “the sole representative of a type, in which the calyx supplies the chief edible portion of the plant,” harvested when it has swollen to look like a large bud and made into jam or jelly of a brilliant red colour and pleasant acid taste, and into syrup and wine.