Cultivation and processing of rooibos
Cultivo y procesado del rooibos
- Date
- 1930 · confidence high
- Place
- Clanwilliam, Western Cape, South Africa
- Credited to
- Pieter le Fras Nortier and Khoisan peoples (prior knowledge)
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The physician Pieter Nortier succeeded in 1930 in germinating seeds of Aspalathus linearis, a shrub of the Cederberg mountains the Khoisan used as an infusion, and developed its cultivation and fermentation. It turned a wild herb into a commercial crop.
Benjamin Ginsberg marketed the tea from 1904, and the Khoisan used it earlier; Nortier's merit is cultivation, not discovery of the plant.
What it led to
- the rooibos export industry (caffeine-free infusion)
- a European designation of origin (2021)
- studies on aspalathin and antioxidants