Buchu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Buchu is either of two small flowering shrubs native to South Africa, Agathosma betulina and Agathosma crenulata. The leaves of these two species, which are rich in essential oils, have traditionally been used as an herbal remedy for ailments of the gastrointestinal and urinary tracts. They have also been widely used as a flavoring agent for tea, candy, and alcoholic beverages, especially brandy.

A. betulina, the round leaf buchu, is the rarer plant of the two, growing only in the western mountains of the Cape of Good Hope. A. crenulata, the oval leaf buchu, grows over a wider area, in low elevation mountainous terrain in coastal South Africa, but it is also the less desirable of the two due to the somewhat bitter-tasting chemical pulegone found in its tissues.

[edit] See also

• Agathosma betulina
  
• Agathosma crenulata