- Region
- Europe
- Origin
- Europe, temperate Asia, and western North Africa; Urtica dioica
Europe · Food · № 48
Urtica dioica
Food · Europe
Stinging nettle
Urtica dioica
A food and fiber plant with a long tradition in folk medicine. Medical claims are not established.
Safety notes
The stinging hairs cause itchy welts on contact. Ask for advice during pregnancy or when taking medicines.
Preparation
Young leaves are cooked in soup or as a vegetable, which disables the stinging hairs, or steeped as tea.
Use in traditions
Used since at least Saxon times as food, tea, medicine, and textile fiber.
Applications
Use by tradition
How different herbal traditions describe this herb. Amounts are traditional guidelines checked for obvious errors; they are not medical advice. For poisonous plants no dosage is given on purpose.
Herbal medicine worldwide
Attributed effects
Astringent, diuretic, tonic, nourishing, stops bleeding, promotes circulation, promotes milk flow, lowers blood sugar, antiscorbutic.
Preparation and amount
Juice of the fresh plant as a tonic for weakness and anaemia, for nettle stings, as a diuretic in heart failure with oedema; tea of young shoots as a spring tonic and for arthritis, rheumatism, gout and eczema; to increase milk production; wash for burns and insect bites; compress on painful joints; ointment for haemorrhoids; powder as snuff for nosebleeds; root as a hair rinse.
Western herbalism
Attributed effects
Cleansing, antiseptic, astringent, diuretic, expectorant, promotes milk flow, stops bleeding, nourishing; nourishing tonic and blood builder (anaemia), for allergies/hay fever, inflammatory pain and arthritis, nerve pain; seed for the thyroid, root for prostate enlargement and hair growth.
Preparation and amount
Tea: 1–2 tsp per cup, 8–12 min, 3 cups a day; tincture 30–60 drops 1–3 times a day; compress (3 tbsp per half litre, 4 hours) 2–3 times a day; fresh leaf on the body (stinging) for pain; cooked as a vegetable.
Folklore and herbal magic
Symbolic meanings from folk use and modern herbal magic. These are handed-down associations, not effects.
Cleansing, protection against danger, protects health.
- Ways to prepare herbs
- Tea (infusion)TinctureSalve and balmCompress, poultice and pastePowder and kitchen