Plant atlas Short
Butterfly Pea: The Blue Flower Tea That Turns Pink
Butterfly Pea Flower · อัญชัน · Clitoria ternatea
Butterfly Pea Flower — อัญชัน (an-chan) — Clitoria ternatea.
Steep the dried petals and the water turns deep midnight blue. Add a squeeze of lime and it swings to bright magenta as you watch — the color trick Thai cooks use to tint rice and layered sweets. That blue comes from anthocyanins, the same pigments that color blueberries. Mostly it lands on your plate as a tea, with the young shoots and pods eaten cooked.
Beyond the color trick, butterfly pea is simply a caffeine-free flower tea — nam anchan, barely sweet over ice — and a blue dye for rice and sweets. The cited human study tested only 15 men drinking a sugary flower beverage; it did not test memory or any disease outcome.
Nam Anchan Manao — น้ำอัญชันมะนาว (nam-an-chan-ma-nao)
Khao Yum with Blue Rice — ข้าวยำอัญชัน (khao-yam-an-chan)
Source: Chusak C, et al. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2018 (PMID: 29310631; DOI:10.1186/s12906-017-2075-7).
Educational content, not medical advice! Consult your doctor before changing diet or medication.
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Research context
A small crossover trial of 15 men found a sugary drink made with the flower blunted the after-meal blood-sugar and insulin spike and raised blood antioxidant capacity — BMC Complement Altern Med, 2018