How nutritious is re-steeped rose hip tea?

December 8, 2010 12:51 PM

How nutritious is re-steeped rose hip tea?

I've lately been drinking a bunch of rose hip tea because it is delicious, but also because it is a good source of vitamin C. Usually after pre-soaking them, I boil dried hips for at least half an hour to make one batch, and I make several batches from the same fruit. I find that the taste is best around the third batch, and I discard the fruit after about 5 or 6 steepings. Are the healthful nutrients gone after one or two steepings, though?

posted by domnit to food & drink (4 answers total)

Vitamin C is water soluble. The rose hip flavor comes from the oil. So, I imagine, you are not getting as much of the nutrients after the first pot.
posted by munchingzombie at 12:56 PM on December 8, 2010

I saw references to putting steeped rose hips in stew, but I guess that has more to do with that sweet sweet oil than the nutrition. Don't know why I didn't think to just google vitamin C water solubility...
posted by domnit at 5:14 PM on December 8, 2010

Don't forget that vitamin C is destroyed by light and heat as well, though I don't remember the specifics (temperature and length of time cooking).
posted by Ky at 7:47 PM on December 8, 2010

OK, I'm digging deeper than I ought into vitamin C degradation.

According to a 1949 study, vitamin C in green vegetables is degraded by oxidative enzymes, particularly at high sub-boiling temperatures. When vegetables are added to boiling water, a small amount at a time to maintain boiling temperature, vitamin C destruction is minimized. Of course, I'm interested in rose hips, not green vegetables, but maybe the same idea applies.

I am unsuccessfully trying to access this article as well (The rate of degradation of L-ascorbic acid in solution has been investigated under varying conditions, such as temperature...). Fuck paywall academic repositories! At least for computer science papers there are PDFs floating around the Web, indexed by Google Scholar.</rant>

This madsci.org post says "the longer you cook and the higher the temperature you use, the more oxidation," but goes on to say that temperatures used for canning actually protect the vitamin C by destroying ascorbic acid oxidase.

Vitamin C in rose hips (1942) only considers raw fruit.

This morning I drank the water in which the dried rose hips were soaking, which I normally add to the first batch. It tasted more acidic and less oily than usual, and presumably had lots of intact vitamin C.

I feel less informed, given these known unknowns. Perhaps it would help, though, to add rose hips to boiling water instead of starting in cold water.
posted by domnit at 9:17 AM on December 9, 2010