by Closedeyes Open 2:19

Sunday up in Griffith Park, near the Observatory, I collected Eucalyptus, California Wild Sage, Olive leaves and made a tea. It was rather bitter but once I sweetened it with Licorice root and golden raw Mango Honey, it went rather nicely with dark chocolate coated almond cookies. I posted a note earlier today about the health benefits of olive leaves. Wilde sage adds a beautiful sweet yet sharp floral flavor to the tea. The Eucalyptus and olive leaf made the tea bitter. Anyone who lives in the Hollywood hills or visits them in the spring time after a fresh rain, knows the smell of the wild sage in the hills. CA WIld Sage can be used in cooking as a spice and has also been used in the past for a treatment to fight coughs and colds.

Only getting 4 hours of sleep last night I was remarkably energized through out the day and I am crediting the olive leaf in the tea as that is what one of the reported benefits are, increased energy levels.

As you can see, maintaining good health, demonstrating successful remedies and validated data regarding these herbs has become a hobby of mine. This data regarding olive leafs has been around for eons! I hope I can help others rediscover its benifits and have more proactive natural options for maintaining good health.

Below is more data regarding Olive leaf extract.

The ancient Egyptians may have been the first to figure out that the olive leaf packs extraordinary power. They considered the leaf a symbol of heavenly power. In keeping with that belief, they extracted the oil and used it to mummify their kings.
Later cultures discovered that the leaf was better used protecting the living than the dead. Throughout the ages, it was a popular folk remedy for combating fevers.

In the 1850's, medical reports described how olive leaves cured the worst cases of malaria. An 1854 acount in the Pharmaceutical Journal provided the following simple healing recipe: A handful of leaves boiled in a quart of water down to half its original volume. A wine glassful was then administered until the fever was cured. The author believed that a bitter substance in the leaves was the key healing ingredient. This method was said to be extremely popular in England to treat sick returnees from the tropical colonies.

Early in this century, a bitter compound from the leaf called oleuropein was indeed isolated and determined to be part of the olive tree's powerful disease-resistant properties. According to scientists, it's the stuff that helps protect the tree against insect and bacterial predators. Oleuropein is and iridoid, a structural class of chemical compounds found in plants. It is present throughout the olive tree and is, in fact, the bitter material that is eliminated from the olives when they are cured.

In 1962, a scientific paper written by an Italian researcher reported that oleuropein had the ability to lower blood pressure in animals. Other European researchers confirmed this finding and found also that it could increase blood flow in the coronary arteries, relieve arrhythmias and prevent intestinal muscle spasms. About the same time, other investigators were searching for the chemical agent within oleuropein that might be the most medically potent. A Dutch researcher found it: elenolic acid. What's more, the Europeans found it had a powerful anti-bacterial effect.

In the late 1960's, research by scientists at a major American pharmaceutical company showed that elenolic acid also inhibited the growth of viruses. In fact, it stopped every virus that it was tested against. A number of in vitro (test tube) laboratory experiments with calcium elenolate, a salt of elenolic acid, demonstrated a killer effect against many viruses, bacteria and parasitic protozoans. Among other effects, the compound was found to be potent against a variety of viruses associated with the common cold. Researchers believed a number of mechanisms were involved in its ability to combat microorganisms:

A critical interference with certain amino acid production processes necessary for the vitality of a specific virus.
Interference with viral infection and/or spread by inactivating viruses or by preventing virus shedding, budding or assembly at the cell membrane.
The ability to directly penetrate infected host cells an irreversibly inhibit viral replication.
In the case of retroviruses, it neutralizes the production of reverse transcriptase as well as protease. These enzymes are essential for a retrovirus, such as HIV, to alter the RNA of a healthy cell.
A direct stimulation of phagocytosis, an immune system response in which cells ingest microorganisms and foreign matter.

The researchers concluded that the compound acted effectively at low concentrations without any harmful influence on host cell mechanisms. They found it to be extremely safe and non-toxic, even at high doses.