Mate article

A radiant future seems to await for mate, both for nutraceutic and cosmetic applications.
In France, mate is among the plants with a long-established medical function. This is why a marketing authorization regarding mate-based medicines can be obtained in France with a simplified dossier.
Taken orally, mate is traditionally used in transient fatigue conditions and to ease water renal elimination.
Mate is also traditionally used to facilitate weight loss as a complement to dietary measures in oral or local preparations.
Lastly, mate is authorized for use in food products in certain conditions such as flavoring substances and natural sources of flavorings.
In France, this typically South American plant is therefore suitable for use in food (drinks, sweets, any flavored product, nutraceutics...).
As far as cosmetics are concerned, mate challenges green tea. Similarly, it has a slimming activity (due to caffeine) and free radical scavenging properties due to its content in phenolic compounds

It seems mate has always played a major role in South America.
A legend of the Guarani Indians says that there was once an old man of a tribe that roamed the rain forest. There came a time when the old man was too old to go on. He stayed in an old refuge accompanied by his beautiful and caring daughter, Yarii. One evening a traveler arrived at the hut. Yarii and the old indian shared their meagre food and drink with the visitor. This latter, sent by the Creator, rewarded their generosity with a sprouting new plant for the rain forest. He taught them how to prepare an exquisite infusion from the leaves of the plant; to which the Shaman promised in this new beverage, you will find serenity, even in the sad hours of the cruellest solitude. Mate from then on became a symbol of hospitality.
Mate is probably the most famous herb in South America where it is called Drink of the gods. It is actually the national beverage in Paraguay. In traditional mate use, the cup is often shared among close friends and family as a sign of total acceptance and friendship.

It is the French naturalist Auguste de Saint Hilaire that gave mate its botanical name of Ilex paraguariensis in 1822. Belonging to the Aquifoliaceae family, mate is an evergreen tree of the South American rain forest. It requires high temperatures and high humidity (up to 1500 mm of rain annually). Growing wild, it can reach up to 15 meters in height in a 25-year period.
Mate grows wild and is cultivated in Argentina, Paraguay, Chili, Peru and Brazil. Its culture was due to Jesuit missions in the 17th and 18th century and to Swiss settlers in the beginning of the 20th century.
Mate's properties are due to the composition of its leaves which contain:
· phenolic compounds among which:
phenolic acids: roughly 10% total chlorogenic acids (chlorogenic acid and its isomers), caffeic acid; flavonoids;
· triterpenes: 5 to 10% triterpenic saponosides;
· puric alkaloids: 0.9 to 1.7% caffeine, theobromine.

Due to its content in caffeine, mate has nervous and muscular toning properties. It also presents diuretic and anti-rheumatic activities. It is moreover renowned for its protective effect on the venous system.
Like other puric alkaloids, caffeine gives the plant its slimming properties. This activity stems from the fact that they act on the lipolysis of the triglycerides stocked in the adipocytes by inhibition of phosphodiesterase. Moreover, an Italian study carried out in 1991 demonstrated that mate's slimming properties would be reinforced by an acceleration of the liver metabolism and an increased diuresis.
Lastly, it would decrease the appetite (or diminish the hunger feeling): in South America, infusions of mate leaves are extensively used in stimulant drinks to quench thirst and reduce the appetite. Mate is also a substitute to tea or coffee.
Experimentally, mate extracts present anti-oxidizing properties which can be very interesting in anti-aging cosmetic products.

Mate tea is made from the leaves steeped in hot water. It is ingested through a special wood or metal straw, called a bombilla, that filters out the leafy material. It is also served as a cold beverage.
The flavor of mate infusion is characteristic, somehow sweet and bitter, smoke-like and similar to that obtained from tea (Camellia sinensis) though less astringent.