Description

Coffee also known as the Arabian coffee, "coffee shrub of Arabia", "mountain coffee" or "arabica coffee", is a species of Coffea. It is believed to be the first species of coffee to be cultivated, and is the dominant cultivar, representing about 60% of global production.

Characteristics:

Coffee plant is an evergreen, glabrous shrub or small tree, up to 5 m tall when unpruned. The leaves are opposite, simple elliptic-ovate to oblong, 6-12 cm long and 4-8 cm broad, glossy dark green. The flowers are produced in axillary clusters, each flower white, and 1-1.5 cm diameter. The fruit is a berry 10-15 mm long, maturing bright red to purple, containing two seeds (the coffee bean). Coffee takes about seven years to mature fully. It is usually cultivated between 1,300 and 1,500 m altitude, but there are plantations as low as sea level and as high as 2,800 m. Coffee plants can produce economic yields for 30 - 40 years on average, though this can vary from 10 - 70 years and plants of 80 - 100 years are known. The plant is tetraploid, and over 30 mutations have been recognized. In the bisexual flowers, pollen is shed shortly after the flower opens, and the stigma is receptive immediately. Self-pollination can occur, as seed sets even when the flowers are bagged.

Medicinal Uses:

The seed contains caffeine, a widely used stimulant that is also used in proprietary painkillers to potentiate the effect of aspirin and paracetamol. It also contains the stimulants theobromine and theophylline, as well as chlorogenic acid, which is stimulant and diuretic as well as a known allergen. The seed is a bitter, aromatic, stimulant herb that has diuretic effects and controls vomiting. Whilst not usually recognized as a medical herb, coffee is a highly effective general stimulant, having a particular effect upon the central nervous system, improving perception and physical performance. Coffee is a folk remedy for asthma, atropine poisoning, fever, flu, headache, jaundice, malaria, migraine, narcosis, nephrosis, opium poisoning, sores and vertigo