Waterleaf: Wonderful Things About It | Waterleaf Health Benefits

Waterleaf (Talinum triangulare) is one common leaf in Nigeria and other tropical regions.

It can easily grow almost anywhere with rich topsoil.

This leaf is a wild plant of the family: portulacaceae.

Furthermore, waterleaf is a herbaceous that you can add to your sauce or vegetable soup.

In Nigeria, the Yoruba tribe call it gbure, while the eastern people (Igbo) call it mgbolodi (Gbologi – Delta Igbo).

In the north, Hausa people call it alenyruwai.

It is one versatile vegetable that features in most tribes’ soups in Nigeria. In the south-south, the Efik clan add it to Edikang Ikong soup.

Also, it features in a Yoruba popular dish – Gbure Elegusi.

Interestingly, it can bring plenty of water to your soup and make it watery except you know how to cook it.

It is one reason it is called waterleaf.

Nutritional Minerals In Waterleaf

Waterleaf is rich in minerals that are beneficial to humans – minerals – calcium, magnesium, and potassium.

It is also rich in vitamins – ascorbic acid (vitamin C), Vitamin A and pyridoxine (vitamin B6) (1).

Also, the leafy green is rich in phosphorus, iron, thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2) and niacin (vitamin B3).

A 100-gram serving of waterleaf contains about:

Calories: 25
Protein: 2.4 grams
Fat: 0.4 grams
Carbohydrates: 4.4 grams
Fiber: 1.0 grams

Also, waterleaf contains antioxidants and other compounds that are beneficial.

Health Benefits Of Waterleaf

With so much load of nutrients, this leaf has traditional medicine uses that studies have identified.

1. Enhances Cognitive Ability

The brain is a power house that is essential in our daily activities.

Just like the heart, it gives signal to every part of the body and contributes to how they function.

If there is an issue with the brain, an individual will be unable to function well.

There are situations where age could reduce the cognitive function of the brain.

But an inclusion of waterleaf in your diet could help improve your brain function. It can slow down effect of ageing.

Basically, there is a compound in waterleaf – kaempferol.

Studies say kaempferol (flavonoid) has the therapeutic potential for brain-related diseases, such as ischemic stroke (2).

This stroke occurs as a result of a blood clot that blocks or plugs a blood vessel in the brain.

According to a 2008 study, waterleaf contains a compound that could inhibit oxidative stress. When this happens, it prevents nerves injury (3).

Also, this leaf is rich in vitamin B2 which helps in proper development of the brain function (4).

Furthermore, the vegetable is also rich in vitamin C which reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

A diet rich in this vitamin also slows age-related cognitive decline.

2. Helps Your Body’s Metabolism

Really, it is one thing to eat a meal and another thing for your body to absorb the nutrients.

For some persons, lots of nutrients are lost if the body cannot absorb them well.

This is why there is this saying: “You are what you digest”.

Waterleaf is rich in B vitamins which support metabolism.

For instance, Niacin, which is a form of vitamin B3, plays a role in converting the food you eat into energy.

It helps the body to use proteins

On the other hand, Riboflavin, vitamin B2 is necessary for the proper development of the skin.

Also, it helps in proper development of the lining of the digestive tract and blood cells.

Furthermore, the leafy vegetable contains vitamin B1 which enables the body to use carbohydrates as energy.

This vitamin is also essential for glucose metabolism. It also plays a key role in nerve, muscle, and heart function.

The leaf is also rich in vitamin B6 which is pyridoxine.

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This is a water-soluble vitamin that your body needs for several functions.

First, it is significant to protein, fat and carbohydrate metabolism. Also, it helps in the creation of red blood cells and neurotransmitters.

Unfortunately, your body cannot produce vitamin B6, so you must obtain it from foods or supplements.

Waterleaf can provide you a reasonable amount of B vitamins that you need.

3. Waterleaf Improves Heart Health

The heart is another vital organ in the body as it helps ensure that nutrients get to all organs of the body.

The arteries to the heart need to slay free from clogs and oxidative stress.

This vegetable is amazing when it comes to promoting heart health.

It is rich in antioxidants. When examined, waterleaf was found to contain 10 carotenoids, making it a rich source of this beneficial antioxidant (5).

One thing that this antioxidant does is to lower oxidative stress which increases risk of chronic diseases.

We know that dietary guidelines recommend that you increase your consumption of fruits and vegetables.

A diet rich in antioxidants helps combat the incidence of cardiovascular disease.

Waterleaf is a good source of carotenoids. These are phytochemicals that mitigate the damaging effect of oxidative stress (6).

Earlier, you also saw that vitamin B2 offers huge benefit to the heart.

This leafy vegetable is rich in lycopene (the highest amount of carotenoid in the leaf).

Furthermore, this compound has the ability to protect against cardiovascular diseases, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Another compound in this leaf that also offers cardio-protective effect is malvidin.

According to a study, malvidin exerts potential cardioprotective effect on oxidative cardiac damage.

It improves heart health, lowering effects of oxidative stress (7).

It is antihypertensive.

4. Lowers Blood Sugar Level

Also, the leaves of Talinum triangulare contains bioactive compounds – quercetin and kaempferol.

These compounds have antidiabetic effect (8) (9).

A animal study says quercetin extract lowered blood sugar level rats (10).

According to the study, it could also inhibit oxidative stress and tissue injury biomarkers.

Also, another study says kaempferol could also be beneficial to people who are diabetic. It lower blood sugar level (11).

5. Waterleaf Contains Antibacterial/Antiviral Properties

Also, this vegetable could help fight off bacteria in the body.

Quercetin also offers this health benefit.

According to a study, quercetin damages the cell walls and membranes of E. coli and S. aureus (12).

6. Anti‐inflammatory

This is another function of quercetin, malvidin and kaempferol.

Sometimes, we are not able to control how free radicals come into our body. This is because they could come from our water, food, and the air we breathe.

Some even come from the cream we apply on our body.

Inflammation could lead to chronic diseases, but adding waterleaf to your diet could help reduce the markers (13).

7. Contains Anticancer properties

Also, waterleaf contains anticancer properties.

It is rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties, and they inhibit the replication of cancer cells.

For instance, a study says kaempferol could inhibit the replication of cancer cells (14).

Another study highlights the benefits of consuming foods that are rich in kaempferol (15).

It says kaempferol reduces the risk of chronic diseases, especially cancer.

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Also, it augments human body’s antioxidant defense against free radicals.

Furthermore, kaempferol lowers effect of oxidative stress and inflammation.

8. Waterleaf Improves Eye Health

The leaf is rich in vitamin A which can have positive effect on your eyesight.

According to a study, vitamin A can help protect against eye afflictions.

It says diets high in vitamin A could help reduce risk of cataracts and age-related eye issues (16), (17), (18).

9. Reduces Chances Of Iron Deficiency And Anaemia

The vegetable is a good source of B vitamins that help in formation of red blood cells. These cells help carry oxygen to the body’s tissues.

Basically, anaemia results from a lack of red blood cells or red blood cells that are not functioning well in the body.

This leads to reduced oxygen flow to the body’s organs.

But adding waterleaf to your diet could help boost production of red blood cells (19).

10. May Improve Fertility

Also, there are claims that oxidative stress could affect male and female fertility.

But a study says antioxidants are thought to reduce the damage caused by oxidative stress (20).

Antioxidants are widely available in plants and foods that we eat.

There are claims that flavonoid, which is also present in waterleaf, could have positive effect on fertility (20).