Known in Iran as annab.
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Read one chapter at a timeAnnab is eaten as a fruit and brewed as a tea — both food-level uses.
Fresh, it tastes like a small crisp apple. Dried, sweet and date-like. Persian and Chinese traditions agree: calm, sleep, recovery.
Dried jujube is concentrated sugar — a handful is a portion.
Annab has a quiet, specific place in Iranian homes: a jar of dried red fruit kept for the evening, for a scratchy throat, for a restless week. It's one of the few traditional calming foods that's genuinely pleasant — no bitterness, no ritual, just fruit steeped in hot water. That's most of what a habit needs.
Jujube has thousands of years of traditional use for calm and sleep, and modern research highlights saponins (soap-like plant compounds) known as jujubosides studied for the GABA system and anxiety. Sleep and stress regulation are foundational to healthy aging, and a nightly cup of annab tea is one of the most accessible ways to support both.
It was used: vitamin C: higher per gram than oranges in fresh fruit. Iron and gentle blood-nourishing effect. Soothing for a dry, irritated throat.
Fresh jujube is crisp, pale-fleshed and faintly apple-like, sold for a few weeks in late summer. Dried annab is wrinkled, deep red-brown, chewy and much sweeter — the sugars concentrate as the water leaves.
They're used differently. Fresh is eaten out of hand. Dried is what goes into tea, into compotes, and into the Persian pantry jar that lasts all winter.
Primary compounds
Jujubosides: saponins (soap-like plant compounds) studied for sedative (medicines that make you sleepy) activity in animals.
Flavonoids (a family of protective plant compounds) including spinosin.
Vitamin C is high in the fresh fruit, largely lost on drying.
Vitamins
Riboflavin, Thiamin
Other notable constituents
Minerals: Iron, Potassium, Phosphorus · Antioxidants: Triterpenic acids · Fiber: ~6 g per cup dried
From laboratory work, not from people taking it
Jujube seed extracts show sedative (medicines that make you sleepy) and sleep-promoting activity in animal models. Rated: early research.
What studies in people show
Small human trials of concentrated Ziziphus preparations report modest sleep-quality improvements. Rated: early research.
Evening. Fresh annab appears in Iranian markets in early autumn. The dried fruit is what almost every traditional use means.
Steep 5–10 dried jujubes in hot water for 10 minutes — drink before bed.
Pair with chamomile or lavender for a calming evening blend.
Add to long-simmered bone broths for natural sweetness and minerals.
Store dried fruit in airtight jars away from light.
Bedtime tea: 5–10 dried fruits, torn, steeped 10–15 minutes. Eat the fruit too.
Other Ways to Use It
Three to five dried fruits make a sensible snack portion.
Buy deep red, still-pliable fruit. Hard and pale means old.
Rinse eight to ten dried jujubes, split or lightly crush them so the flesh opens, and simmer gently in about half a litre of water for fifteen to twenty minutes until the water turns amber and tastes sweet.
Boiling hard makes it cloudy and flat. Many households add the softened fruit to the cup and eat it. The skins are usually left behind.
Concentrated natural sugars when dried — modest portions for blood sugar.
May interact with sedatives (medicines that make you sleepy) or anticonvulsants — discuss with clinician if on these medications.
Persian temperament: Warm & Moist (1st degree). Persian medicine places annab among the gentle, nourishing foods — mild enough for children and the elderly. It appears in classical chest and throat formulas alongside sebestan and violet.
Persian medicine reads jujube as warm and moist — it nourishes the blood, settles the nerves, and helps sleep come more easily.
In the Household
It was used: annab tea: 5–10 dried jujubes steeped 10 minutes, drunk before bed for sleep. Hong zao (Chinese jujube) simmered in broths for blood and spleen nourishment. Dried jujubes eaten through the day as a calming snack.
Persian folk remedy of jujube decoction (a drink made by simmering the plant in water) for the throat and chest.
Traditional sleep and anxiety support (saponins, flavonoids).
In Persian households annab belongs to the end of the day — a warm, sweet, unhurried drink, usually taken with other calming botanicals rather than alone.
That link is traditional and cultural. It describes a long-standing habit, not a proven effect on sleep. What modern research does and doesn't show is set out separately in this guide.
Across Iran the dried fruit goes into a calming evening tea for stress and sleep, and a bowl of it is put out for guests as the sweet you can feel good about.
Will the tea make me sleepy?
Many find it settling, but the human evidence is weak. Treat it as a calming ritual.
Is it a kind of date?
No — Ziziphus jujuba, unrelated to the date palm. Dried, they simply look alike.
Ziziphus jujuba: A comprehensive review of phytochemistry and pharmacology — Journal of Ethnopharmacology (PubMed). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26342518/
Jujube seed extract and sleep: clinical study — Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior (PubMed). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19481105/.
Sad Giah Hezar Darman (صد گیاه و هزار درمان) — One Hundred Plants and One Thousand Remedies — Dr. Hossein Erfani, 4th edition (1375 / 1996–1997). Primary traditional Persian herbal reference cited throughout this platform. Presented as traditional knowledge, not as modern medical proof.
Office of Dietary Supplements: fact Sheets — US National Institutes of Health (NIH). https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/list-all/.
Herbal Database: memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/diagnosis-treatment/symptom-management/integrative-medicine/herbs.
Herbs at a Glance: uS NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/herbsataglance.
FoodData Central: searchable nutrient database — US Department of Agriculture (USDA). https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/.
The Nutrition Source: harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/.
PubMed — peer-reviewed biomedical literature — US National Library of Medicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
End of the Jujube guide