STINGING NETTLE

STINGING NETTLE />

01/01/2020

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LATIN NAME: Urtica dioica

FAMILY: Urticaceae

GENUS: Urtica

COMMON NAMES: common nettle, stinging nettle or nettle leaf

ORIGIN: native to Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and western North America

BOTANICAL INFORMATION: Nettle is a perennial herbaceous plant with a powerful root and a long horizontal branching rhizome. It reaches a height of 60-200 cm. The stem is hollow, the surface is covered with simple and burning hairs. Leaves are opposite, equilateral, long-petioled, simple, whole, dark green, 8-17 cm long, and 2-8 cm wide. The flowers are single-sexed, greenish, actinomorphic, four-dimensional, with a flat flower base. Fruits are dry, compressed, biconvex, single-seeded, yellowish or light brown, matte, ovoid or elliptical nuts 1-1,4 mm long. One plant yields up to 22,000 seeds. Nettle blossoms from May to late autumn, the fruits ripen non-simultaneously. It is pollinated by the wind.

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION

Stinging nettle is a kind of natural multivitamin storehouse. It contains:

  • Tannins (3.2%), chlorophyll (up to 5%), glycoside urtisin, starch (up to 10%), sugar.
  • Carotenoids: β-carotene, violaxanthin, xanthophyll, epoxide.
  • Vitamins: C, K, B1, B2.
  • Flavonoids: quercetin, isoramnetin, kaempferol.
  • Organic acids: oxalic, formic, fumaric, lactic, amber, lemon, cinchona.
  • Phenol-carbonic acids: caffeic, gallic, coumaric, ferulic.
  • Alkaloids: nicotine, histamine, acetylcholine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, coumarin esculethin.
  • Macro- and microelements: iron, copper, manganese, baron, titanium, nickel.

STINGING NETTLE RECIPES

Add 60 gr of stinging nettle to 750 ml of boiling water, infuse for 30 minutes, then strain. Take one glass of infusion 3 times a day.

Add 50 gr of dried nettle leaves to 1 liter of boiling water, infuse for 1 hour, then strain. Take 50 ml of infusion 3 times a day before meals until the time when the inflammatory process disappears.

Stinging nettle tincture:

Chop the fresh plant of stinging nettle until you get one glass of green paste. Pour 500 ml of vodka over it. Close tightly and leave in the dark place for 15 days, shaking the tincture daily. When ready, strain.

“The world's a nettle. Disturb it, it stings. Grasp it firmly, it stings not.”

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

*This article is for informational purposes only. We suggest consulting with a physician before using these or any other herbal supplements.