Are Blue Pea Flowers really toxic?

Blue pea flower are also known as Butterfly pea flowers, asian pigeon wings while the Malaysian called it Bunga Telang.

https://articles.mercola.com/teas/butterfly-pea-tea.aspx

According to Dr Mercola's article, blue pea flowers are supposed to have some beneficial properties in the plants but on the 17th April 2019, I received a message sent by my friends claiming a man was taking those for almost 2 years and now developed severe headache. When he saw "Dr Frances" at Nam Wah Ee hospital, Penang,the doctor told him that the green sepal and the stigma of the blue pea flowers  were toxic which could cause harm to the body when consumed. There was no scientific test to confirm that the flowers was toxic when the news went "viral",  it put me off consuming them. What a shame😢😢 because.....

I was a coffee and tea lover but since I started getting severe palpitation ( sometimes heart beat went up to 116-118 beats per min), I decided to stop completely and switched to blue pea flower tea instead. Every morning I would plucked fresh blue pea flowers from my garden for my morning tea. Then came the news going viral telling the public that Blue pea flower may be toxic, I stopped taking those and make do with just lemon with honey as my morning drink.

Three days later, 20th April 2019, there were news in Kwong Wah Yit Poh & Penang Sin Poe newspaper about the flower. According to the news, a scientific test was done, on cells and animals, confirming there isn't any risk of poison, in these flowers. It also been proven that the flowers have Anti cancer properties.

Still, we must be aware, too much of anything is never good for our body.  Someone posted  a wise word in facebook ...Anything too much is poison to the body, even a simple Vitamin C is supposed to be good for us but can be harmful to the human body if overdose.

Kwong Wah Yit Poh Chinese newspaper

This is a photo of a blue pea flower plant, given by a friend on the 27th Oct 2018. Three days later, it withered,and looked like it's dying. But my friend reassured me, that it will be ok,as the plant needed time to adjust to the environment.

On 2nd November 2018 , new leaves beginning to appear. I was thrilled.

Since then,  I learnt that patience is one of the keys to success in gardening,

As the plant started to climb, I  created a trellis,making use of brick block,which only cost 1.70 Ringgit each and with the left over pipes, i stuck them into the holes of both sides as shown in the picture. Then sealed them with some cement. It's cheap and I found it easy to remove when not needed.

Now the Blue pea flower's blooming so beautifully and the unique purplish blue color of the flowers attract the little birds and butterflies making the garden looks gorgeous.

Blue pea plants are good climbers.

White and blue pea flowers in my garden look pretty together

 Pods from white and blue pea flowers
 

white and blue pea plants met to form an arch in my garden

Blue Pea Agar Agar with Santan 

Ingredients:

5 gm Agar agar strips 

60gm  sugar (adjust according to your taste of sweetness)

2 pandan leaves

1 handful of fresh blue pea flower

a cup of santan (coconut milk)

1/2 teaspoon salt

500 mls water 

Method: 

1. Boiled the blue pea flower to get the blue dye. Set aside and let it cool.To get purple, add in a drop of lime or lemon juice.

2. Wash the agar agar strip and bring to boil with 500 mls of water in a saucepan with the pandan leaves and sugar.Once boiled reduced fire and stir slowly until the agar agar has dissolved.

3. Pour in the blue pea flower fluid and stir.

4. Once it started to bubble, add coconut milk and salt. Continue to simmer slowly in slow fire. Once it bubble up again, continue to stir for another 5 mins. Turn off the fire.

5. Pour out the contents in a mould. Let it cool and then chill for an hour before serving.