Description
Fresh calyx can be eaten raw or cooked, and is used as a flavouring for cakes, soups, sauces, pickles, puddings etc. and because they are naturally rich in pectin, can be used to make jams and jellies. It adds a red colour and to acidic (from citric acid) flavour to herb teas. A delicious drink is made from the infused calyx and ginger, sweetened with sugar.
Roasted seeds can be used as a coffee substitute. Young leaves and stems can be eaten cooked or raw, and are used in salads, or a cooked as a vegetable. They are acidic and rhubarb-like in flavour and can be added to curries. Seeds and roots are edible too.
Roselle is much used as a medicinal herb in the tropics. It is antiscorbutic, appetizer, astringent, diuretic, febrifuge, and stomachic.
May help reduce fevers and is sedative. Leaves are a soothing cough remedy, and used externally as a poultice. Leaves and flowers make a tonic tea for improving digestive functions. Folk remedies made from the plant treats abscesses, bilious conditions, cancer, cough, debility, dyspepsia, dysuria, fever, hangover, heart ailments, hypertension, neurosis, scurvy, and strangury
It is also a dye herb, fibres from the plant, known as rosella hemp, is used for making sackcloth, twine and cord.
