Avocado Leaves Uses Include Tea, Cooking, Cosmetics and Medicinals

Everyone around the world is familiar with the fruit of the avocado plant. However, the benefits of avocado leaves are only just beginning to make its way into mainstream use.

The benefits of avocado leaves for tea, cooking and medicine have been enjoyed for centuries in traditional Mexican cultures. But the avocado leaf uses and benefits are only more recently coming to light for most of us.

As our regular readers know, we are NOT medical practitioners. Rather, we are autodidactic gardeners and growers with a passion for learning, experimental gardening, and doing the deep research needed to better inform ourselves and others. So when we learned from a Mexican friend that they use avocado leaves for cooking in Mexico, we dug into the research to discover more of how we could put our avocado trees to good use.

Can You Eat Avocado Leaves?

Yes, avocado leaves are edible! It’s not just the amazing berry known as the avocado fruit that’s edible, delicious, and nutritious. The leaves of avocados are also useful for food and beverages; cosmetics and medicinal concoctions.

The tender young leaves can be used sparsely as greens in salads and cookin. The medium to large leaves are used dried for tea and culinary herbs.

We were delighted to learn more on the benefits of avocado leaves! We have two large potted avocado plants that have never yet produced avocado fruit, but they are full of healthy leaves. So upon learning of the many wonderful avocado leaf uses, we’ve begun drying them for tea and as an herb in cooking, similar to how bay leaves are used.

In fact, we’re going to resume planting avocado seeds from the fruit we eat so we’ll have plenty of fresh leaves to use dried and fresh for cooking, tea and cosmetics. We’re still hopeful that our potted avocado trees will produce fruit, but chances are they don’t have enough light for that when outdoors in summer and indoors in winter in zone 7a.

Are Avocado Leaves Toxic?

The leaves, seeds and skin are toxic to animals who consume large amounts of avocado leaves, toxic effect in humans is rare in the amounts consumed as an herb, seasoning, or tea.

Avocados and Allergic Reactions

Some people are allergic to ingesting avocados, especially if allergic to birch pollen. Symptoms can include itching of the mouth and throat.

WARNING: Avocados and avocado products can have a dangerously toxic effect if you have a latex allergy.^[1]https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/how-to-cope-with-an-avocado-allergy

What Do Avocado Leaves Taste Like?

If you were to roast fennel, bay leaf and hazelnuts in a pan, and imagine that aroma as a flavor, you’re getting an idea of the subtle flavors cooking with avocado leaves can impart in dishes.

Avocado leaves have been described by chefs to taste akin to a cross between fennel or anise and bay leaves. Traditionally, avocado leaves are toasted before use, which releases a nutty aroma and a hint of licorice flavor. The leaves may also have a slightly bitter and pungent taste.

In tea, avocado leaves remind us of a mild green or black tea.

Avocado Leaf Recipes

• Mexican Black Beans with Avocado Leaf
• Avocado Leaf Crusted Tuna Taquitos recipe
• Avocado Leaf Salsa
• Chicken Cooked in Avocado and Banana Leaves – Pílte de Pollo
• Pork Barbacoa with Avocado Leaves

Avocado Leaf Tea Recipes

Super Simple Avocado Leaf Tea

If you’re trying avocado leaf tea for the first time, we highly recommend trying it plain so that you can become acquainted with the flavor of it on its own.

INGREDIENTS:

1. 1 tablespoon crushed, dried avocado leaves
2. 12 ounces water (approximate ounces, dependent on your mug’s capacity)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Bring water to a boil. Add one tablespoon of dried leaves into a loose tea infuser or tea cup with infuser bowl and place into mug or teacup. Fill your heat-proof cup with boiling water. Steep for around 10 minutes.

We favor this stainless steel tea infuser with accompanying tray that perches on the cup. or else have a chain that hooks to the side

Sip carefully and savor the gentle flavor nuances of the avocado leaf tea. You can steep longer for a stronger brew.

Avocado Lemon Longevity Tea

Makes 2 Quarts for approximately 6 servings

As is being written in the fall of 2021, we’re enjoying a homemade herbal tea blend of the homegrown and dehydrated herbs. The following is one of our favorite brews, and you can substitute with your favorite herbal tea herbs.

This recipe makes 2 quarts using crushed or crumbled dried leaves. If using finely ground leaves, you may wish to reduce to 1/3 cup measurements, unless a stronger tea is desired, (or use more water).

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup Avocado leaves
• 1/2 cup Lemon balm leaves
• 1/2 cup Longevity spinach (Gynura procumbens)
• 1/2 cup Stevia, (sweetener is optional and you can use more or less to taste; but we recommend starting with less, as stevia can be very concentrated).

INSTRUCTIONS:

Bring kettle to boil and pour over loose leaves, or into an infusing teapot. Steep for around 10 minutes. Strain and serve hot or chilled. We typically enjoy it hot when it’s first made, then refrigerate the remaining tea to enjoy chilled, heat as needed or added as a splash or with half water for a flavored “vitamin water” effect.

We find that this brew sweetened with stevia tastes a lot like a mild sweet black tea with a hint of lemon.

The Avocado Tree – Persea Americana

• GENUS – Persea
• FAMILY – Lauraceae (laurel)
• RELATED TO – bay leaf
• SPECIES –
  • P. americana (avocado)
• SUBSPECIES –
  • drymifolia, Mexican avocado
  • guatemalensis, Guatemalan avocado
  • americana, Antillean avocado

Uses for Avocado Leaves

• Cooking –
  • dried: whole, pieces, crushed or powdered as an herb
  • dried and roasted, then used whole, as pieces, crushed or powdered
  • fresh, as an herb, food wrap and greens garnish
  • herbal substitute for avocado leaves:
    • anise
    • fennel
    • bay leaf
• Tea
• Health –
  • salves
  • capsules
  • tinctures
  • antioxidants
• Cosmetics –
  • hair rinse
  • skin –
    • salve
    • lotion
    • poultice

Avocado Leaf Tea

It’s easy to make avocado leaf tea by harvesting and drying some of the leaves from your own avocado plants

If you don’t yet have your own avocado plant, you can buy bulk dried avocado leaves or pre-packaged avocado leaf tea, depending on how you wish to use it. That’s a good way to experiment with it to help you decide to either buy an avocado plant or two, or else start your own from seeds.

Cooking With Avocado Leaves

How to Cook With Fresh Avocado Leaves

The fresh leaves and of the avocado plant are used as wraps for foods like fish, in much the way grape, cabbage, banana and taro leaves are used to cover or wrap foods to seal in flavors while adding some of their own. You can also add the fresh young leaves as green accents to soups like ramen, taco soup or other favorite.

How to Cook With Dried Avocado Leaves

You can cook with dried avocado leaves and use as you would bay leaves for adding herbal flavor to a pot of beans or soup, and to remove before serving, as the larger leaves are too fibrous to enjoy chewing. Another gourmet specialty recipe using dried avocado leaves is to use dried and crushed crush leaves with spice blends like bread crumbs for forming a crust on vegetables, chicken, meat or fish, as with this avocado leaf crusted tuna recipe.

We’re drying our avocado leaves in our food dehydrator and storing them in glass mason style jars with hinged lids. You can store them whole, broken into smaller pieces or crushed depending on your end use. The more crushed they are the less storage space they require in your jar.

If you’re cooking with whole dried leaves or larger pieces, you’ll want to remove them before serving similar to bay leaves as they’re a bit too fibrous to be enjoyable.

Avocado Leaf Extract

There’s not so much information readily available on avocado leaf extract to date. However, we shall continue our research and expect more to be coming to light as the potential and potency of this amazing plant is studied more in depth. Please let us know if you have knowledge and experience with avocado leaf extract.

There’s one company currently selling the extract on Amazon, that we’ve found thus far. Just check with your healthcare advisor… buying something that’s available doesn’t mean that it’s a good fit for you, and extracts are potent, but can be diluted in water with a similar effect to consuming the tea.

Avocado leaf extract contains phytochemical substances with a strong antioxidant that can be used to prevent and cope with oxidative stress.^[2]https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=ajsr.2018.357.363

SOURCE: Nurdin Rahman, Nikmah Utami Dewi and Bohari , 2018. Phytochemical and Antioxidant Activity of Avocado Leaf Extract (Persea americana Mill.). Asian Journal of Scientific Research, 11: 357-363.

The Benefits of Avocado Leaves

The benefits of avocado leaves based on their nutritional profile includes:

• Anticonvulsant^[3]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16775810/
• Anti-inflammatory ^[4]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0367326X02001181
• Analgesic^[5]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0367326X02001181
• Antioxidants^[6]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6337479/
  • flavonoids
  • polyphenols
  • serotonin
  • terpenes
• Antiulcer^[7]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249906/
• Antiviral^[8]https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1573(199812)12:8%3C562::AID-PTR356%3E3.0.CO;2-6
• Cancer ^[9]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6826385/table/antioxidants-08-00426-t004/?report=objectonly
• Diabetes^[10]https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2019/5984570/
• Herpes^[11]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249906/#ref38
• Kidney stones ^[12]https://avocadotea.com/pages/kidney
• Lower blood glucose / hypoglycemic^[13]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249906/
• Skin – wound healing^[14]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249906/^[15]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18376654/
• Aids asthma symptoms^[16]https://avocadotea.com/blogs/blog-1/your-introduction-to-avocado-leaf-tea?_pos=1&_sid=e05827737&_ss=r

Avocado Seeds and Peels

We love making the most use of every plant we grow, such as consuming every part of the amazing dandelion plant.

When it comes to avocados, it turns out that even the avocado seed and peels have beneficial uses. Yes, even the avocado peels.

Research proves avocado seeds to be a rich source of bioactive compounds exhibiting antioxidant capacity. With the Nariño cultivar seed containing the more phenolic compounds and greatest antioxidant benefits. The presence of procyanidins type A, with potential health benefits, was found in peel and seeds. These results showed the potential use of avocado extracts for pharmaceutical and food industries due to the huge content of bioactive compounds.^[17]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6749317/#B12-molecules-24-03209

The oil extracted from avocado seeds and peels has ample antioxidant properties, and have been found to have higher phenolic compounds than the avocado fruit.

The oils and extracts from avocado seeds and peel are used in cosmetic products, nutraceuticals, and pharmaceuticals, and the antioxidant capacity is useful as a food preservative.^[18]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6749317/

WARNING: Some compounds of the seeds and peels can be very potent and poisonous to animals, so use only under the skilled and knowledgeable guidance of an appropriately trained health practitioner.

Mexican Avocado Plants With Highest Antioxidant Benefits

There are over 500 varieties of avocados and they vary in fruit size, texture, shape, maturity rate and degree of beneficial compounds. Native to South Central Mexico, the avocado tree is said to live up to 400 years (!!!) and to bear fruit for many decades.

Of seven Mexican avocado cultivars tested, two contain the leaves with the highest in antioxidant and other health benefits Mexican Persea americana cultivars studies.

• Platano Delgado avocado cultivars – highest in the DPPH free radical ^[19]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6337479/
• Criollo 6 var. Drymifolia cultivars –
  • highest ABTS free radicals
  • best for lipid oxidation inhibition

SOURCE: Study of Extracts from Seven Mexican Persea americana Cultivars, Cecilia Castro-López, et al.

Avocado trees have a long life-span and keep on producing fruit for many decades after reaching maturity. The oldest and first Hass avocado trees planted lasted for over 70 years each.

If You Plant an Avocado Seed, Will it Bear Fruit?

This video offers a fantastic, entertaining and memorable explanation on whether an avocado seed planted, will produce good fruit. Not only that, but it offers a solution for how to get your avocado tree planted from the seed of a fruit you ate, to turn out as good as the fruit you love.

Highly recommend the 11:22 minute education from a long-time avocado grower on why a Hass avocado seed doesn’t produce a hass avocado tree, (AND, how you can get it to)! 🥑😋