Medicinal and Nutritional Plants in Rural Panama: Artisanal Lemongrass Tea has High Community Acceptability

Objective: To develop, following traditional systems, a nutritional and medicinal herbal tea and test its consumer acceptability by community residents from a rural community in Panama. Methods: Lemongrass leaves were dried with a solar dryer aimed to reach 70% or more of moisture reduction. Dried leaves were packaged into tea bags with net weight of 5g. With the participation of 15 adults (9 men), residents of the community of El Cacao, Capira, Panama, the final product was tested and compared to a commercial lemongrass tea for its organoleptic features and acceptability. We used a standard questionnaire for this evaluation. Results: Fresh leaves were gathered, cleaned and chopped into sections of 10–15cm. Moisture reduction of 75% was achieved in only one day with the solar oven reaching temperatures of 95–122°F. The leaves were cut into shorter sections and manually packaged into tea bags of 5g. Product evaluation is performed by a testing session with recruited volunteers. Based on the assessment of the organoleptic characteristics, the final product retained higher levels of aroma and color as compared to the commercial tea. 14 out of 15 respondents preferred the artisanal tea. Conclusions Using solar energy, we achieved the needed moisture reduction in a much shorter time as traditionally done with open sun exposure. The development and acceptability of an artisanal tea based on a plant of high local cultural value is a contribution to the growing interest in Panama to raise awareness on the importance of use of their ethno‐botanical resources and traditions.