Chemical Properties

Yerba Mate produces an energy like coffee, but without the muscle tension, so that one is able to stay relaxed yet alert. It produces an energy from caffeine that is unlike the caffeine energy of other caffeinated drinks. The addictive properties of caffeine are negligible in Yerba Mate: almost no one reports being addicted to Yerba Mate and next to none report any withdrawal symptoms like those reported with most other caffeinated drinks.

Unique Caffeine Content

A review of the literature shows that "Yerba Mate is widely considered to be a good natural stimulant that may be healthier than coffee, due to a unique combination of alkaloids and a relatively small caffeine content." (alternet.org) The unique combination of alkaloids that are bound around the Caffeine produces less body tension. The Herbal Stimulant Tea Sampler writes, "The effects are relatively long lasting, inducing a type of mental clarity and expansion of thought processing capabilities. A feeling of enhanced memory and accelerated intellect is often experienced, however the racy edge of physical and mental stimulation is seldom noted. This state is especially suiting to periods of intense study, calculations, and cerebral activity requiring endurance to maintain continuous attention and precision focusing."

The levels of caffeine appear to be very small. Researchers at the Free Hygienic Institute of Hamburg, Germany, concluded that the amount would be so tiny that it would take 100 tea bags of Mate in a 6-ounce cup of water to equal the caffeine in a 6-ounce serving of regular coffee. Since a gourd uses an average of 50 grams of tea, thus it appears that 6 gourds worth of tea (usually consumed over a few days) would equal the total caffeine in one cup of coffee, yet would not produce the same stimulant affects as the one cup of coffee.

The Yerba Mate stimulant is basically a form of a xanthine. Theophylline, theobromine and caffeine are all examples of xanthines. Caffeine, of course, is the most used and most common of the xanthines. It is easily accessible in any part of the world because of the benefits it can bestow upon its user.

• It is used in popular medicine and employed in commercial herbal preparations as a stimulant to the central nervous system. (Gosmann)
• It is especially convenient that the caffeine in Yerba Mate is bound in a manner that makes it far less addictive than any other form we know about.

There is some who claim that this unique presentation of caffeine in the yerba mate deserves another name; many call this Mateine. They claim, "Mateine appears to possess the best combination of xanthine properties possible. For example, like other xanthines, it stimulates the central nervous system, but unlike most, it is not habituating or addicting. Likewise, unlike caffeine, it induces better, not worse, attributes of sleep. It is a mild, not a strong, diuretic, as are many xanthines. It relaxes peripheral blood vessels, thereby reducing blood pressure, without the strong pressure effect on the medulla and heart exhibited by some xanthines. We also know that it improves psychomotor performance without the typical xanthine-induced depressant after effects." (from Yerba Mate: Unequaled Natural Nutrition by Dr. Daniel B. Mowrey, Ph.D.) This view is not perfectly accurate, as it is actually the unique binding of the caffeine that creates the unique affects, Mateine more accurately refers to this binding and not to the caffeine itself.

Other Chemical Compounds:

Of the 196 volatile chemical compounds found in yerba Mate, 144 are also found in green tea. Yerba Mate is loaded with valuable compounds.

• Some compounds of interest.
  • 2-butoxyethanol
  • linalool
  • geranylacetone
  • octanoic acid
  • hexanoic acid
  • l-penten-3-ol
  • œ-terpineol
  • nonanoic acid
  • geraniol
  • 6-methyl-(E)-3,5-heptadien-2-one
  • 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one
  • 2,6,6-trimethyl-2-hydroxycyclohexanone
  • œ-ionone
  • octanol
  • 5,6-epoxy-ß-ionone
  • ß-ionone
  • 6,10,14-trimethylpentadecanone
  • heptanol
  • (E)-2,(E)-4-heptadienal
  • hexanal
  • (E)-2-pentenol
  • (E)-2-hexena

above information from www.yerbatea.com