Note: This post was written over Saturday, June 13th and Sunday, June 14th. Where appropriate, I tried to insert which day content was coming from.
In a way, perhaps a crazy decision made last night (Friday, 6/12), today (Saturday) I walked to a known mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin, the Persian silk tree) on the nearby college campus and collected flowers for tea. This all began on June 1st after YouTube presented me with a video on the mood-elevating and stress-relieving properties of mimosa flower tea. I was surprised I hadn’t heard about this before since I’ve put a lot of energy into researching medicinal properties of plants over the past decade plus. This is a natural extension from my college days (long, long ago) and my studies in psychology. My senior year focus was psychopharmacology, and the department head gave me a lot of leeway in where my research went. Two of my self-chosen textbooks were The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience, by R.E.L. Masters and Jean Houston, Ph.D. and Mescal and the Mechanisms of Hallucinations by psychologist Heinrich Klüver. But I digress.
The video I watched had me take a more academic approach than what was presented. There are two approaches to this, one with the flowers and a second using the bark of the tree. Since I was outside of my property, “sourcing” a tree, it seemed prudent to start with some flowers. You know, snatch and run. Also, while the flowers are rich in flavonoids and target the 5-HT1A serotonin pathway for a gentle mood lift, the bark is a heavy hitter for triterpenoid saponins (a diverse class of naturally occurring, plant-derived glycosides; compounds containing carbohydrate molecules attached to a non-sugar core). These saponins give the bark a much more profound, sedative, and physically grounding effect on the nervous system. However, because it is so saponin-heavy, it can be incredibly harsh on the stomach and gastrointestinal tract if it isn't prepared correctly. The 5-HT1A receptor is a crucial mood manager that acts like a thermostat for serotonin (the “feel good” chemical) in your brain. 5-HT1A is like a traffic controller for your emotions. For bark, it’s best to use pruned branches and not mess with the trunk of the tree. Anybody pruning their Albizia trees soon?
Before I get to yesterday's walk (yes, it's Sunday now), here's some background noise. On June 4th, I went for a neighborhood walk. There’s a mimosa tree that hangs over the sidewalk at a property a 1/4 mile from home. I know the person who lives there, and while I didn’t get permission, I swiped a handful of flowers that seemed respectable enough for a cup of tea. Besides, they were hanging over a public sidewalk. Finders keepers. You can make tea with the flowers fresh, or you can let them dry. I wanted to choose the right day to make some tea, so I let them dry out in an open plastic bag.
Fast forward to June 10th. I made some mistakes that day. I went out early and started in on the backyard shrubberies with a hedge trimmer, a hand pruner, and a couple of rakes. I took breaks; my lower lumbar demands them. The total time, including breaks, was three hours. That was about 1/4 of the shrubbery in the yard. The mistakes were on the breaks. I wasn’t hydrating. Please, always remember to hydrate! I left my piles for another day and came inside for lunch and said out loud, “HYDRATE.” 24 oz of water with electrolytes. I drank a modest amount, left the rest on the kitchen counter, and took my lunch into my office. It was too big of a lunch. It didn’t take long before I was about to lose consciousness. Blood pressure was 76/55, pulse was 106. It was also frightening. Lying down, I called my neighbor; he’s a retired doctor. That call helped me feel grounded, anchored me in the current moment, connected me to my body, and balanced me emotionally.
This leads into the mimosa flowers, it does, I promise…
A few years ago, I was looking back on a tea I made way back in 2003. It had pretty much everything under the sun that could act as a natural anxiolytic or a sedative for that matter. The base ingredient was chamomile. It also had kava root, St. John’s wort, passion flower, Scutellaria lateriflora, known commonly as blue skullcap, valerian root, etc. I honestly don’t remember everything, but the whole idea came from the flood of energy drinks on the market, and I kept thinking… why not something so people could chill out? Why did everyone want to get amped up? I made a 4-quart pot (don't ask) of tea, and I think I tried it maybe twice; it was too much. Later, I made an advertisement for Chill Out tea. Sometime after that, I found a company or two who were marketing tea with the name Chill Out. I should've applied for a trademark.
Reflecting back on Chill Out, I realized I hadn’t looked into what was actually making one feel chill. In 2023, I started to research chamomile tea, and that brought me to apigenin. Apigenin is a prevalent plant flavone concentrated in dried chamomile flowers, parsley, and celery. A flavone is a specific chemical subclass within a larger flavonoid family. Flavonoids comprise a class of naturally occurring phytochemicals in almost all plant tissues, where they play different functions. For example, they protect plants from harmful sunlight radiation, defend against pathogens, regulate plant metabolism, and serve as visual attractors for pollinators. Chamomile flowers naturally contain about 0.8% to 1.2% apigenin by mass. So, at best you might be getting 5 mg in a bag of tea, depending on how long you steep the tea. That's where supplements come into play. Apigenin supplements are typically 50 mg capsules. They act as a gentle, natural partial agonist at the GABA-A benzodiazepine binding site. Yes, the same site where medications like Xanax bind. This mechanism allows apigenin to reduce neuronal excitability, alleviate anxiety, and promote sleep. Apigenin provides a modest, functional reduction in tension and promotes natural sleep onset without clouding your daytime cognitive focus. I think most importantly, and what needs more study (meaning someone willing to pay for it), in preclinical research, apigenin has generated significant interest for its multi-target approach to neuroprotection. Unlike conventional single-mechanism drugs, apigenin’s background as a diverse plant flavonoid allows it to attack the complex, multi-factor pathology of Alzheimer’s disease from several angles at once. There have been very promising, in vivo, studies done with mice demonstrating that apigenin helps activate a vital chain reaction in the brain that scientists call the ERK/CREB/BDNF pathway. ERK, Extracellular signal-Regulated Kinase, which is a type of protein. The ERK pathway plays a crucial role in regulating cellular growth, division, and survival. CREB refers to cAMP Response Element-Binding Protein, an important cellular protein that regulates gene expression. BDNF stands for Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor. It is a critical protein that acts like Miracle-Gro for your brain, promoting the survival, growth, and maintenance of neurons (nerve cells). In simple terms, think of it as a molecular construction crew. It sends a signal (ERK) that flips on a master switch in your DNA (CREB), which then floods the brain with a powerful protein fertilizer (BDNF). This fertilizer protects your existing brain cells, sparks the growth of new ones, and glues your memories tightly in place.
Why don’t we know more about this? Probably for one because apigenin is in chamomile, parsley, and celery. For example, Namenda (memantine) is a prescription medication used to treat moderate to severe dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease. A 30-day supply averages about $525 without insurance. Generic memantine, a 30-day supply of oral tablets, typically averages $175 out-of-pocket.
Alright, where am I? Yes. I recovered within an hour but my BP spiked to 163/91 (the panic took over) but within another 1/2 hour or so, I was down to 117/75 (calm ensued and hydration took affect). I stayed in that range for subsequent readings.
However, on Thursday morning, 6/11, I was still anxious over the blood pressure incident and quite honestly a little embarrassed with myself because I know better. Long story short (okay, I’m trying!). I have had drops in BP before from dehydration, but nothing like this. Thursday was me rewinding the whole scenario. So, I made a cup of Albizia tea. I also decided to take a proven anxiolytic for me, 100 mg of apigenin, capsule form, with my mimosa tea.
With 25 minutes I felt better, more relaxed and my stomach seemed calmer, almost warm. That 25-minute mark onset tracked perfectly with the rapid absorption of the water-soluble compounds from the tea hitting my system first, followed by the apigenin clearing my stomach. The fact that my stomach settled down so quickly is actually a physiological signature of Albizia flower. In addition to the neurological effects, it contains mild smooth-muscle relaxant properties that quiet down the "nervous stomach" butterflies that usually accompany a high-alert HPA axis. The acronym stands for three distinct glands that form a major chemical relay team in the body; Hypothalamus, Pituitary Gland and Adrenal Glands. In a healthy system, the HPA axis follows a predictable rhythm. Cortisol spikes in the morning to wake you up, tapers off throughout the day, and drops to its lowest point at night so you can sleep. If a stressor pops up, the system spikes, handles it, and immediately dials back down. This self-regulating shut-off mechanism is called a negative feedback loop.
Think of your HPA axis as a home security system. In a well-regulated house, the alarm only goes off if someone tries to break a window. But when your HPA axis is on high alert, the system's sensitivity has been dialed up to an extreme level. Now, the alarm blares at full volume just because a leaf blew past the front door, or a toaster dinged in the kitchen—and once it starts ringing, the shut-off button doesn't seem to work, leaving the whole house in a state of constant, exhausting panic.
The taste is slightly sweet, with a long lingering aftertaste, it actually has a very pleasant, gentle profile.
At 4–6 minutes in, I experienced the initial behavioral and thermal phase of the experiment. The physical warmth of the mug and the liquid itself helps lower peripheral vascular resistance slightly, which is a great kickoff. After today's (Saturday) trek I have enough flower to make several cups of tea and I can skip the apigenin to get a better idea of what's what. The apigenin signal is so much louder, I've been taking that for three years now. It dominates the subjective headspace. The serotonin (5-HT1A) activity from the tea isn't going to feel like a "hit" the way GABA modulation does; instead, it acts more like a subtle background buffer, gently rounding off the sharp edges of one's mood and keeping that early relaxation from turning into heavy, sluggish sedation.
Okay, sorry for bouncing around so much, I had no idea I was going to some of the places I went with this when I started. However, whenever I wrote about something I thought might require an explanation, I made an effort to explain it. Just to reiterate, the walk for flowers was yesterday, 6/13 and it is now Sunday morning. Here are some details about the walk and why I started out this post by saying it was "perhaps a crazy decision."
When your cardiovascular system is recovering from a sudden plunge like an Omron reading of 76/55 and a rapid heart rate, your body's autonomic nervous system loses its calibration. Somatopsychic refers to the influence of the body on the mind. My body was experiencing an autonomic hangover from Wednesday, which induced a state of hyper-vigilant psychological anxiety on Saturday. Yes, I was still pretty uptight about embarking on at least a 2.06 mile walk just a couple of days after that experience. I, in fact, measured on Google Earth from where I typically park my car to where the Albizia julibrissin tree stood. It was 1.03 miles. A two mile walk seemed reasonable. It wasn't. Several times during the walk I told myself out loud, you're okay, you're doing fine. Neurosis is on a spectrum, everyone falls somewhere along this continuum.
Along the way, first photos, I stopped to talk to this mockingbird. There's always a mockingbird.
Another 1/4 mile in, I stopped to catch my composure on a bench. To add insult to my mental disposition, my left side QL (Quadratus Lumborum) muscle, lower back, was flaring up, and my lower lumbar wasn't too happy either. Although the lower lumbar issue got better as my walk progressed. This photo of the clock, atop the campus library, was taken at 8:04. So, if student tardiness is an issue, someone might want to calibrate the clock.
My destination! Albizia julibrissin, the Persian silk tree, pink silk tree, or mimosa tree. It has become an invasive species in the United States. It's a beautiful tree. I considered getting one for my front yard. I was a little disappointed seeing much of its flowers had already dropped from the canopy. If you look carefully, you may notice there's another Albizia tree behind this one. That tree is not easily accessible.
For the sake of comparison, here's a picture I took on June 29th, 2024. That year we had about 12 additional inches of rainfall over and above this past season.
My harvested flowers.
The short version of this walk report is… I went for a walk to visit a tree, so I could make a cup of tea.
Since the evening of 6/10, my blood pressure has averaged 112/75, my pulse 91. My pulse almost always runs a little high. Normal resting pulse (bpm) for adults is considered to be 60 – 100 BPM.
