It appears that both the indigenous (San and Khoikhoi) and the colonial inhabitants of rooibos-growing areas contributed to the traditional knowledge of rooibos in some way. For instance, medicinal uses might have been introduced before the eighteenth century, by Khoisan pastoralists or San hunter-gatherers. And the utilisation of the "Aspalathus linearis" for making tea, including the production processes, such as bruising and oxidising the leaves, are more likely to have been introduced in colonial times, by settlers accustomed to drinking Asian tea or its substitutes.