Gymnema, also known as Gur-mar, Merasingi, Australian Cowplant and
Periploca of the Woods, is a vine-like, tropical plant that is
originally native to India and now also distributed throughout
Australia, Vietnam and Japan. In its homeland, the plant has played a
significant role in traditional Ayurveda for
centuries.
An interesting characteristic of this herb is that it chewing the leaf
or tasting the powdered herb makes it difficult to taste sweetness for
20 minutes to an hour, whether naturally derived from fruit or from an
artificial sweetener. It is speculated that the gymnemic acids in the
plant may block some of the receptors that sugar would normally bind to.
In fact, the Hindi name for the plant, gurmar, literally means “sugar
destroyer.”
