Lou McLeod: Uses For Medicinal Weeds Commonly Found Around Your Home

Monday 25 September 2017

Uses For Medicinal Weeds Commonly Found Around Your Home – Part 7

Uses For Medicinal Weeds Commonly Found Around Your Home – Part 7 is available on http://ift.tt/1Qfw8v0

Welcome to Uses For Medicinal Weeds Commonly Found Around Your Home – Part 7! Let’s take a quick look at the medicinal wild plants I have covered thus far.

Part 1: purslane, ground ivy, and chickweed

Part 2: thistle, wild violet, hairy bitterness, and prickly lettuce

Part 3:lamb’s quarters, mallow, stinging nettle, and chicory

Part 4: henbit, curly dock, garlic mustard, and amaranth

Part 5: daisies, sheep sorrel, and elderflowers

Part 6: mullein, yarrow, and horseweed

What do all of these wild plants have in common? They can usually be found close to or around your home.

Today, I’ll cover the medicinal uses for cleavers, self-heal, and miner’s lettuce.

Medicinal Weeds Found Around Your Home

Word of caution…

As I did in part 1-6, I would like to share with you two articles which include information on safety precautions you need to be aware of when foraging for wild, edible, plants. In my article, Foraging Tips for the 7 Most Common Edible Plants, I share great tips on things to consider and to look out for when you forage for any and all wild, edible plants. Another great article, “Need To Know” Rules When Picking Edible & Medicinal Plants, is written by Mykel Hawke, star of Discovery’s “Man, Woman, Wild”. He also talks about considerations and safety precautions to take when foraging in the wild. I sincerely encourage you to read these articles if you have never foraged for wild and edible plants. Foraging can be a great experience but, safety precautions are a must!

Let’s get started!

Cleavers (Galium aparine)

Cleavers (Galium aparine) | Uses For Medicinal Weeds Commonly Found Around Your Home - Part 7

Cleavers grow in moist/wet areas such as riverbanks, for example. The stems are prickly and have thin leaves. The leaves, seeds, and stem have velcro-like, hook-tipped hairs. The flowers are a whitish-green color and have 4 petals. You can consume the entire plant as a tea which possesses detoxifying properties. The tea is used to purify the liver, bladder, kidney, and blood.

Additional health benefits of this tea include:

Helps to reduce fluid retention.
Helps to clear up urinary infections, urinary stones, and gravel.
Soothes the symptoms of arthritis and gout.

The seeds make a great coffee substitute. When the seeds are dried and lightly roasted, they taste much like coffee.

Cleavers Tea Recipe:

1 cup of boiling water
2-3 teaspoons of dried cleavers (remember, the entire plant can be used/dried)

Combine water and the dried cleavers and steep for 10-15 mins. You can drink 2-3 cups of this tea a day.

Self-Heal (Prunella vulgaris)

This beautiful wild plant has a distinctive flower cluster of purple and white flowers close together. The leaves are opposite of each other and the stem is reddish and square in shape. Full grown self-heal is 1-2 feet in height. Self-heal is considered part of the mint family but, does not have a minty flavor. It received its name because it is considered one of the most healing wild plants.

Self-heal is used medicinally for the following:

Kidney problems
Heart
Diabetes
Fever
Sore throat
Laryngitis
Diarrhea
Tumors
Cancer
Abrasions, cuts, and bruises
Sprains
Ulcers

The entire plant is edible and can used in salads, for example. You can also make cold water infusions by putting chopped, crushed, or powdered leaves in cold or lukewarm water. Self-heal can also be consumed as a tea.

Self-heal Tea Recipe:

8 ounces of hot water
1-2 teaspoons of dried self heal

Combine water and dried self-heal and steep for 1 hour. You can consume 2-3 cups a day.

Miner’s Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata)

This unique looking plant has cup-like shaped leaves with a tiny white flower in the middle of each leaf. The entire plant is edible and the leaves can be eaten raw or cooked. The leaves make a great addition to salads, soups, and green smoothies. Miner’s lettuce can also be added as an herb to egg salad. This plant is loaded with vitamin C, protein, omega-3 fatty acid, and fiber.

The medicinal benefits of this plant include the following:

- Purifies the blood
- Reduces cholesterol
- Helps to protect the lymphatic system
- Improves heart function
- Possesses laxative properties
- Reduces inflammation throughout the body

Here are the top 15 most powerful medicinal plants by [email protected]: