Rea Tahiti

The Rea Tahiti is a spontaneous and widespread plant in French Polynesia. The natives have been cultivated it for thousands of years.
In Tahiti and the Marquesas islands, we used the rhizome (underground tuber) to dye textiles with a beautiful vivid and bright yellow.

Before Christianity, it was as a rule for the ritual dances to put on the body a dye obtained by grating the fresh root and macerating them in coconut oil. The Marquesas people put roots sap on the naked parts of their bodies to protect themselves from mosquito bites.

Long before the era of synthetic preservatives, turmeric was already playing a role as a food additive: it was able to preserve the food freshness, that is to say it has antioxidants powers. 

Nowadays, this root is still widely used, either as a condiment in food (curry), in medicine for the treatment of gastric and liver diseases, such as a chemical reagent in the pH indicator papers.

In cosmetics, it is particularly appreciated in anti-aging skin products as it is rich in curcuminoids and has anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.