Culinary Herbs & Leaves

Mulberry Leaf Extract

Morus alba

White mulberry (Morus alba) is a tree that can reach fifteen metres but is usually held to two or three, since the leaves are picked continually. They are alternate and oval, sometimes cut into three lobes, coarsely toothed at the edge, with three veins spreading from the stalk. Male and female flowers grow in spikes on separate trees, the female heads swelling into a compound fruit that turns red and then near-black. Chinese in origin, the mulberry came to Vietnam long ago and is now grown everywhere to feed silkworms. The leaf holds tannin and only a trace of essential oil; it is dried, then simmered in water.