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Stinging Nettle
Urtica dioica
Family: URTICACEAE
Blood Purifier and Tonic
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One of the most effective herbs to detoxify the blood system and build up the blood is the Stinging Nettle.
When you brush against this herb your skin comes alive with its invigorating sting. Stinging Nettle is often found growing in close proximity to Yellow Dock, another excellent blood tonic and purifier, if you are stung by the nettle rubbing a leaf of the Dock on the stung area will bring instant relief.
Nettle is rich in Vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K.
Minerals in Nettle are: Iron, Calcium, Chromium, Copper, Chlorine, Magnesium, Potassium, Manganese, Phosphorus, Selenium, Silica, Silicon, Sodium, Sulphur and Zinc.
Nettle is alterative, antiscorbutic, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antispasmodic,
astringent, circulatory stimulant, digestive, diuretic, expectorant, expel gravel and stones from any organ, especially the kidneys and gall bladder, hepatic, hemostatic, galactagogue, laxative, nervine, nutritive, refrigerant, styptic pectoral, tonic.
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Nettle is used effectively to treat these conditions and organs:
- adrenals
- anemia
- aphrodisiac
- arthritis
- asthma
- backache
- baldness
- bladder
- bleeding
- bronchitis
- colds
- constipation
- correct blood sugar levels
- dandruff
- depression
- diarrhea
- digestion
- dizzy spells
- dysentery
- eczema
- edema
- fatigue
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- fever
- fluid retention
- gall stones
- gout
- hay fever
- headaches
- heavy menstrual bleeding
- hemorrhages
- hysteria
- insect bites
- intestinal worms
- iron deficiency
- kidneys
- leucorrhea
- low blood pressure
- lowers blood sugar
- lumbago
- mood swings
- menopausal problems
- migraines
- muscle power
- nervous system
- pre-menstrual stress
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- prostate
- post-natal tonic
- viral disease
- strengthen pancreas
- thyroid
- stomach problems
- liver
- lymphatic system
- night sweats
- neuralgia
- neuritis
- mucus
- paralysis
- phlegm
- rheumatism
- rickets
- sciatica
- stomach cramps
- stomach ulcers
- tendinitis
- urinary problems
- varicose veins
- weight reduction
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as you can see it is an extremely broad-spectrum healing herb for humanity.
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Fresh Nettle leaves are used to stop all types of bleeding, due to its high Vitamin K content.
The seeds are used for coughs and shortness of breath.
People with arthritis are encouraged to use this plant directly on their aching joints, it will stimulate the blood, which reduces the pain.
Commercial Chlorophyll is generally obtained from Nettles, many tonnes of it are gathered yearly to meet the growing demand due to its potent health benefits.
Stinging Nettle can be made into beer, used as a tea and cooked as a vegetable in soup, stir fry's, or used in place of spinach.
Once cooked or heated, there is no sting from the leaves.
Soaking Nettles in water will remove the stinging chemicals from the plant, which allows them to be handled and eaten without incidence of stinging.
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The young leaves are usually a lot more palatable and the leaves are high in nutrients and can be mixed with other ingredients to make a soup rich in iron and calcium. Crushing, cooking or chopping the leaves disables the stinging hairs.
Nettles can be used in a variety of recipes, the young leaves have a similar texture to spinach or other green leafy vegetables and are a very good replacement in any recipe.
When picking this herb use your gloves, unless you want to feel the invigorating sting sensation Nettle offers.
To keep your bloodstream rich and healthy and to ward off anemia symptoms this herbal tea formula is an excellent blood restorer:
- Mix equal parts of dried Nettle, Yarrow, Yellow Dock and Peppermint together.
- Pour one cup of boiling water over one teaspoon of the above mixture
- steep for 20 minutes
- Strain
- drink one cup half an hour after eating, or make a pot of the tea and drink it cold during the day.
- You may wish to add honey if you desire.
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| Nettle tea should not be used if you have a weak heart or bad kidneys except under the guidance of an experienced herbal practitioner or naturopath |
Description
There are over 500 species of Nettle that are growing throughout the world.
Stinging nettles are a dioecious herbaceous perennial and can grow 1-2 m high in the summer and dies off to the ground in winter.
Nettle has widely spreading roots, rhizomes and stolons and the green leaves are 3-15 cm long are borne oppositely on an erect wiry green stem.
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The leaves and stems are very hairy with non-stinging hairs and also many stinging hairs called trichromes, whose tips come off when touched, transforming the hair into a needle that will inject several chemicals: acetylcholine, histamine, 5-HT or serotonin, and possibly formic acid.
This mixture of chemical compounds cause a sting or paresthesia from which the species derives its common name Stinging Nettle as well as the colloquial names burn hazel, burn nettle and burn weed. The sting can last from as long as a week to only a few minutes.
We both enjoy an occasional sting when we harvest Nettle as it makes us feel alive and tingling.
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Nettles are a larval food plant for several species of butterfly, such as the Peacock Butterfly or the Small Tortoiseshell, and are also eaten by the larvae of some moths including Angle Shades, Buff Ermine, Dot Moth, The Flame, The Gothic, Grey Chi, Grey Pug, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Mouse Moth, Setaceous Hebrew Character and Small Angle Shades. The roots are sometimes eaten by the larva of the Ghost Moth Hepialus humuli.
This exceptional organically grown herb which is high in nutrient and medicinal value is available as a tea and can be bought via our webshop.
Urtica dioica L URTICACEAE
Stinging Nettle Nettle/Common Nettle
The Nettle is now a common and painful stinging weed which appears wherever land is disturbed by man and left derelict. In the past, however, it has variously been used in cloth manufacture, as a food, and medicinally. It was once even cultivated in Scotland, Denmark and Norway.
The use of the plant in cloth manufacture only stopped in the first quarter of the twentieth century but can be traced back to the Bronze Age - and is recorded in the common name, nettle, from an old word meaning to twist (and hence make fibre).
Greeks knew it as akalyphe and Romans as urtica - but the ancients probably used the annual U. pilulifera L (or Roman Nettle) rather more, since it is native to southern Europe. Both this species and the Small Nettle (U. urens), which is also an annual, have the same values as U. dioica.
Description Dioccious perennial, from 80-180, cm tall, sterns bristly, sparsely branched, bearing opposite and decussate, acuminate, deeply serrate, petiolate and ovate leaves to 14 cm long. Flowers minute, in pendulous axillary racemes, appearing mid-summer to mid-autumn.
Distribution Widespread; Eurasian native. On wasteland, especially damp and nutrient-rich soils which have previously been disturbed by man; to 2700 m altitude.
Cultivation Wild plant. Cultivated only rarely for medicinal purposes, and as a source of commercial chlorophyll.
Propagated from seed, or by root division in spring.
Constituents (leaves) Histamine; acetylcholine; formic acid. gallic acid; tannins. 5-hydroxytryptamine; vitamins A and C; mineral salts including calcium, potassium, silicon, iron, manganese and sulphur; other active substances; unknown components.
Uses (fresh or dried leaves, root-stock rarely) Astringent; anti-haemorrhagic; diuretic; galactagogue.
The Nettle has many therapeutic applications, but is principally of benefit in all kinds of internal haemorrhages. as a diuretic; in urticaria, jaundice, haemorrhoids; a laxative; and it is used in dermatological problems including eczema.
The powdered leaf used as a snuff stops nose bleeds.
It has been shown to lower the blood-sugar level and also to lower the blood pressure slightly.
Used to promote hair growth rarely, and fresh branches applied externally in rheumatism.
Young shoots and leaves cooked like Spinach.
A commercial source of chlorophyll.
Used in paper and cloth manufacture.
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Further Reading
- Heiko Bellmann: Der Neue Kosmos Schmetterlingsführer, Schmetterlinge, Raupen und Futterpflanzen, pg. 170, Frankh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1
- Westfall R.E., Galactagogue herbs: a qualitative study and review. Canadian Journal of Midwifery Research and Practice. 2(2):22-27. (2003)
- Teucher T, et al. Cytokine secretion in whole blood of healthy subjects following oral administration of Urtica dioica L. plant extract. Arzneimittelforschung 1996 Sep;46(9):906-10.
- Obertreis B, et al. Ex-vivo in-vitro inhibition of lipopolysaccharide stimulated tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-1 beta secretion in human whole blood by extractum urticae dioicae foliorum. Arzneimittelforschung 1996 Apr;46(4):389-94. Published erratum appears in Arzneimittelforschung 1996 Sep;46(9):936.
- Balch, Phyllis A., CNC, Balch, James F., M.D., Prescription for Nutritional Healing, Avery Press, p. 104 (2000) (ISBN 1-58333-077-1)
- Lopatkin N, Sivkov A, Walther C, Schlafke S, Medvedev A, Avdeichuk J, Golubev G, Melnik K, Elenberger N, Engelmann U. Long-term efficacy and safety of a combination of sabal and urtica extract for lower urinary tract symptoms: a placebo-controlled, double-blind, multi-center trial. World Journal of Urology. 2005 June 1
- Schöttner M, Gansser D, Spiteller G. Interaction of lignans with human sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG). " Z Naturforsch [C]". 1997 Nov-Dec;52(11-12):834-43.
- Riehemann K, et al. Plant extracts from stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), an antirheumatic remedy, inhibit the proinflammatory transcription factor NF-kappaB. FEBS Lett 1999 Jan 8;442(1):89-94.
Sources
- Elliott, C. (1997). Rash Encounters. Horticulture 94: 30.
- Schofield, Janice J. (1998). Nettles ISBN 0-585-10500-6
- Thiselton-Dyer, T. F., (1889). The Folk-Lore of Plants.
- Glawe, G. A. (2006). Sex ratio variation and sex determination in Urtica diocia. ISBN 90-6464-026-2
- Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West, Gregory L. Tilford, ISBN 0-87842-359-1
External links:
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