News
Short, dated and cited. Newest first.
August 2026
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Rooibos Could Draw Tourists Like Cape Wine, NWU Researcher Says
A North-West University researcher says rooibos could anchor Cederberg tourism the way wine anchors the Winelands, and names a permanent "Rooibos to Space" interpretation centre in Clanwilliam as one possibility.
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Eight Schools Named for Rooibos’s Trip to Space
The South African Rooibos Council has named the eight schools joining its space-seed program, seven of them growing the rooibos seeds sent to the International Space Station.
July 2026
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South Africa’s Rooibos Seeds Are Headed to the International Space Station
The South African Rooibos Council is sending rooibos seeds to the ISS this October, the first indigenous South African species and the first African seeds ever sent to space, to see how six weeks in orbit changes how they grow.
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For Men’s Health Month, a Case for Moving the Afternoon Cup to Rooibos
The South African Rooibos Council marked Men's Health Month with a caffeine-timing pitch from Stellenbosch physiologist Gerald Maarman; his own eight-year research program, and the trial his campaign quote actually rests on, say more than the pitch does.
June 2026
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Fair-Trade Rooibos Pays Cederberg Growers More After Drought
A drought and flooding cut the 2026 harvests of the Heiveld and Wupperthal smallholder co-operatives roughly in half, and their fair-trade buyer raised the prices it pays so the growers can afford to replant. It is a direct look at what a fair-trade cup buys the people who grew the leaf.
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The Rooibos in Your Cup Now Pays the Khoi and San for Their Knowledge
A levy on every kilogram of rooibos, paid to the Khoi and San for the traditional knowledge behind the tea you drink, has reached Cederberg communities, funding schools, water pumps, an organic nursery, an internet café and diesel for farmers.
May 2026
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The Fullest Map Yet of What the Red Bush’s Genes Are Doing
University of the Western Cape researchers used long-read sequencing to build the most complete picture yet of which genes rooibos switches on, a step toward breeding bushes that can take a hotter, drier veld.
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A Spanish Lab Tests Green Rooibos on Anxious Roundworms and Fish, and the Anxiety Eases
A standardized green rooibos extract reduced anxiety-like behavior in zebrafish and roundworms and helped the roundworms survive oxidative stress better, Spanish researchers report. The work is preclinical, not a human result.
April 2026
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Cape Town Installation Turns Rooibos Into a Story of Loss
At Suidoosterfees 2026 in Cape Town, artist Yonela Makoba built an installation called Rooi-Land from soil and teabag paper, using rooibos to explore colonial land loss and the labour behind the cup.
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Why Cold-Water Swimmers Warm Up on Rooibos: No Caffeine to Spike the Heart
The reason a caffeine-free cup earns a place in a marathon swimmer's cold-water fuel schedule, illustrated by Karen Kennedy's quadruple Robben Island crossing.
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Rooibos Extract Makes Sunscreen Filters Last Longer
University of Malaga researchers found rooibos extract raised sun protection factor by up to 50 percent and slowed the breakdown of standard UV filters. The work is laboratory-only, not yet tested on skin.
March 2026
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How Long to Steep for the Most Out of a Cup, According to a Beirut Lab
A Lebanese food-science team ran red rooibos through twelve extraction trials at different temperatures and times and found a practical sweet spot, close to the model's best balance of yield and antioxidant strength, at 90 degrees Celsius for ten minutes.
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Rooibos Keeps Turning Up in Detective Fiction, Now on Apple TV+
The red bush has a quiet habit of appearing in crime stories, from McCall Smith and Deon Meyer to a shared cup of rooibos tea in the Apple TV+ thriller Down Cemetery Road.
February 2026
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Ordinary Water Leaves Rooibos Unchanged, Stellenbosch Finds
Stellenbosch University and ARC researchers tested rooibos infusions against water of different pH and mineral content. Ordinary water left the cup unchanged; only water at the pH and mineral extremes measurably dulled it.
September 2025
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Fermented Rooibos Calms the Gut Like a Steroid. Unfermented Strengthens the Wall.
A three-year Cape Peninsula University of Technology study on gut cells found fermented (red) rooibos eased inflammation about as well as a steroid drug, while unfermented (green) rooibos strengthened the intestinal barrier instead.
March 2025
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A Daegu Lab Ties Rooibos’s Aspalathin to Calmer Skin in Mice
South Korean researchers found aspalathin, the flavonoid unique to rooibos, eased eczema-like skin inflammation in mice by blocking a specific immune signal. The work is a mouse study, not a human result.
December 2024
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A Cape Town Review Surveys Rooibos Compounds Against Alzheimer’s Damage
A review in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research catalogues how rooibos compounds act on the cell-level damage seen in Alzheimer's. The work is preclinical, and it is not a reason to expect rooibos to prevent dementia.
May 2021
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“Rooibos” on an EU Pack Now Means Real Cape Rooibos, by Law
A pack sold in the European Union may only carry the name "rooibos" if the leaf was grown in the Cape, after the EU entered the red bush in its register of protected designations of origin.
June 2005
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“Rooibos” Is Now a Free Word in America, Any Pack Can Say It
As of June 24, 2005, "rooibos" is a generic name in the US that anyone selling the red bush can print on a label, after a Dallas firm gave up the decade-old trademark on the word.
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