July’s Herb of the Month: Burdock

Thinking of where the common burdock plant likes to grow, you’re most likely to find it clustered on the edges of waste sites. As in nature, so in your body, burdock has an affinity for cleaning out our metabolic waste products, especially from the gut and the liver. It’s known as a blood purifier, and so it works especially closely with the kidneys and the liver. Burdock influences the liver to help secrete bile and stimulates the gall bladder. This gentle herb is especially indicated for poor lymphatic, pancreatic, and endocrine function. It’s best used as a tonic (meaning to use it to help restore, tone, and invigorate the body’s systems, promoting overall health and well-being).  It’s rich in iron, magnesium, manganese, silicon, and thiamine. 

 

Common name: Burdock

Latin name: Arctium lappa

Part Used: Seed and Root (but Leaves can be used topically)

Benefits: The seed is used as a diaphoretic (meaning it helps stimulate sweating). The root is considered an adaptogen, alterative (meaning it helps open many of the body’s channels of elimination to help rebalance the body), antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, demulcent (meaning it forms a film to help relieve inflammation and irritation), diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant (meaning it helps loosen and thin mucous), mild laxative, nutritive. 

Taste: Slightly bitter, sweet, salty (meaning it’s mineral-rich)

Energetics: relatively neutral energetics, but slightly cooling and moistening, which makes it suitable for just about anybody 

History:

Burdock roots and seeds have been used in traditional medicine practices for thousands of years. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, burdock is used to help balance internal heat and to support skin health. It was used in folk medicine for protection, with the root buried outside the four corners of the home to keep anything inside safe. It was also thought that wearing a necklace made from the root of burdock, gathered in the waning moon, would protect the wearer from evil. Burdock was so widely used that Nicholas Culpeper wrote in his famous Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, a 17th-century herbal textbook, that burdock “is so well known, even by the little boys, who pull off the burs to throw and stick upon each other.” Culpeper was also an avid astrologer and considered the plant to be ruled by Venus, and thus, was associated with love and love charms. 

Benefits:

Skin: Your skin health is often a representation of your internal health – liver, blood, lymph, and digestion. Since burdock helps support all of these systems, you may find long-term relief for chronic skin problems. Additionally, burdock can help normalize and regulate the oil secretions of the skin. You can also use the leaves as a poultice for skin inflammation and rashes such as: psoriasis, eczema, glandular boils, and ringworm.

Alterative: Burdock is best known for its ability to detoxify and eliminate waste products from the body. Some herbs work more specifically on certain organs; however, burdock seems to be an all-purpose alterative.  

Digestion: Burdock is mildly bitter, typically indicating an affinity for digestion. Additionally, burdock root contains a prebiotic compound called inulin, which helps feed healthy gut bacteria. It’s highly nutrititve and nourishing, which helps by increasing the absorption of nutrients. 

Emotional Aspects of Burdock:

Burdock flowers can help when you find yourself saddled with deep anger, typically from an earlier stage in your life when you weren’t able to express it. It also helps you bring that deep anger to the surface in a safe way and allows it to breathe and move on. Lastly, it encourages you to nourish yourself and learn to enjoy life. 

Recipes

In Japan, burdock is used as a vegetable (called gobo) and is used similarly to how you would use carrots! 

 

Nerve Tonic by Rosemary Gladstar

This is a very energizing and revitalizing root blend

Ingredients

• 2 parts dandelion root
• 2 parts Siberian ginseng
• 1 part astragalus 
• 1 part burdock root
• 1 part cinnamon
• 1 part licorice root
• ½ part cardamom seeds
• ½ part ginger
• ½ part ginseng root, sliced

Instructions

• Combine the herbs in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Heat slowly and simmer, covered, for 20 to 45 minutes. The longer you simmer the herbs, the stronger the tea will be.

Alkalizing Herb Blend for Vascular Headaches by Rosemary Gladstar

Ingredients

• 3 parts dandelion root
• 2 parts burdock root
• 1 part yellow dock root
• Skullcap or valerian tincture

Instructions

• Combine the herbs in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Heat slowly and simmer, covered, for 20 to 45 minutes. 
• Drink ¼ cup of tea with ¼ teaspoon of skullcap or valerian tincture added every 30 minutes until symptoms subside. 

Super Immunity Syrup by Rosemary Gladstar

Ingredients

• 2 parts milky oats
• 1 part astragalus root
• 1 part burdock root
• 1 part echinacea root and tops

Instructions 

• Add 2 ounces of herb mixture to 1 quart of cold water. Over low heat, simmer the liquid down to 1 pint. This will give you a very concentrated, thick tea. 
• Strain the herbs from the liquid. Compost the herbs and pour the liquid back into the pot.
• To each pint of liquid, add 1 cup of honey (or other sweetener such as maple syrup, vegetable glycerin, or brown sugar). Most recipes call for 2 cups of sweetener (a 1-to-1 ratio of sweetener to liquid), but this tends to be far too sweet. In the days when refrigeration wasn’t common, the added sugar helped preserve the syrup. 
• Warm the honey and the liquid together just enough to mix well. Most recipes call for cooking the honey and tea together for about 20 to 30 minutes more, but this method cooks the living enzymes out of the honey. 
• Remove from the heat and bottle for use. You may wish to add a fruit concentrate or a couple of drops of essential oil such as peppermint or spearmint to flavor, or a small amount of brandy to help preserve the syrup and aid as a relaxant in cough formulas. Syrups will last for several weeks, even months, if refrigerated. 
• At the onset of infection, administer one teaspoon of the syrup every hour. After the first 24 hours and through the course of the infection, administer four to six times daily, until the symptoms clear. 

 

Loving learning about herbs? Check out some of our past herbs of the month!

 

June, Calendula: Summer’s Bride

May: Detox with Cleavers

April, Lemon Balm: the herb that makes the heart merry