Amanda Swart

Amanda C. Swart is a South African biochemist who holds a professorship in biochemistry at Stellenbosch University. She is known for her research on rooibos, a herbal tea popular in South Africa, and has been funded by the South African Rooibos Council in her research. Her research has suggested that drinking rooibos may lower stress through the effects of two compounds in it, aspalathin and nothofagin, which (in laboratory conditions) block the production of stress hormone cortisol. She has also suggested that rooibos may have beneficial effects for prostate cancer by blocking another hormone, dihydrotestosterone.

Swart completed her doctorate at Stellenbosch in 1999, and returned to Stellenbosch as a faculty member in 2002.