I just thought I would post this here in case you didn’t see it on Facebook. Some herbalist friends and I were discussing what one of these would look like and my friend Dyan put this together as a word file. Then my daughter used her mad Photoshop skills to turn it into a jpeg. Plant folk seem to enjoy it.
I took it as a lesson in the fact that what I think I do and what I actually do are all that really matter in this world. Enjoy!
This is my first monograph written for the “My Herbal Neighbors”. I did a brief monograph on burdock when I began the Herbal Ally Challenge and it was very interesting for me to see how my knowledge of this herb changed over the year.
Botanical Name: Arctium Lappa
Family: Asteraceae (Older texts will have burdock in the family: Compositae)
Habitat: Burdock is an Old World plant but has naturalized itself easily in North Central United States. It is often considered a “pioneer species” in the process of plant succession. This can be used to your advantage when trying to re-establish soil quality in an damaged area of your yard. I am thinking specifically of compacted land; possibly the result of new construction. Burdock has huge roots and digs deeply down to bring nutrients to the surface. You will often find it in “waste areas such as abandoned construction sites. It grows in abundance near the bridges and railroad tracks here in town.
Burdock is a biennial. The taproot lives over one winter and then in the following year shoots up the flowering stalks which then develop the burrs. The roots should be harvested at the end of the first year’s growth, before they have had a chance to channel the energy and nutrients stored within into the upward growth of the 2nd year stem.
Burdock seeds should be harvested off second year plants which have gone to seed. Dispersal of burdock seed frequently occurs when the burrs attach themselves to animals and people and are carried to other areas. I experimented with putting the burrs in muslin bag, tying it shut and tossing it in the dryer (on air fluff) with a pair of heavy shoes to get the seeds out of the burrs. It worked fairly well. I am looking forward to letting the dog run around in back to collect more for me this spring.
Taste: The roots have a sweet and earthy taste with a bitter aftertaste. I feel like the raw root has a little bit of a pungent spicy taste that is less noticeable when they are dried or cooked. The seeds are straight-up bitter.
Energetics: I find Burdock to be on the warming side of neutral but I believe that its true warming/cooling action is neutral. In my observations, people like myself who find burdock mildly warming may have suffered from very dry atrophic conditions, especially of the skin. My skin is lacking the oily protective barrier, which helps insulate against the cold and regulate internal heat. So it stands to reason that I might experience the build up of a healthy lipid layer on my skin as warming. Conversely, I have a client with very overactive sebaceous glands who found burdock to have a pleasantly cooling effect. I postulate that this is due to a decrease in the natural oils of his skin, which allowed a little more heat to escape his body. This is just my personal theory which probably needs to be refined, but I will throw it out there for the consideration of my peers.
I feel like burdock called to me at a time when I was needing to find balance in my life which is fitting as that seems to be a calling of burdock. Traditionally burdock is considered an alterative. Alterative herbs gradually restore health and vitality to the body by improving the metabolism (alteration) and eliminating toxins from the lymph and blood. It’s diuretic actions increase urine flow and hurry along elimination of toxins.
It seems important to understand that along with providing nourishment, burdock achieves its actions through regulation of lipid levels in your body. Matthew Woods considers burdock to be “the indispensible oil remedy” stating, “Burdock increases the bile secretion to digest oily foods better, increases oil uptake and liver processing of lipids, and distributes lipids to the skin, hair, tissues, adrenals, and steroids and hormonal system.” (Wood, 2007)
It is certainly a good tonic herb one that, when I am consistent in its application, has served me well. I am glad I chose to work with burdock as an ally, because to be honest, it doesn’t act quickly.
Jim McDonald recommends that the herb be considered part of your diet rather than a supplement (McDonald, 2012) and I certainly understand why, now. Had I not been patiently experimenting with burdock in all of its form for those months, I might have missed out.
Its effects are subtle and not something that you might notice for some time, especially if using only the root decoction. I noticed more of an impact when I started working with the vinegar and tincture made from the root.
The seeds seem to have a quicker impact but I didn’t feel as connected after I took it. I often find with plants, that I find the nourishing, earthy roots to be more balancing for me than the light and airy seeds. They don’t balance out my Vata part, very well. My seed tincture may be bound for use in an ointment designed for acute skin issues. I haven’t had an eczema outbreak for while now, but it will keep.
My teacher, Sean Donahue, speaks of the usefulness in incorporating healthy fats into the diet of those people who are suffering from stressed adrenals and adding burdock to the diet to help the body properly utilize those fats. (Donahue, 2010) Following this logic it seems that burdock would make it a useful addition to the diet of those adding healthy fats to address cell membrane composition when working to address insulin resistance.
The scientific studies I have found, seem to reinforce the idea that burdock works as a tonic herb increasing endurance and sexual performance. These effects are probably due to providing the much needed lipid building blocks for steroids and hormones.
My favorite ways to use burdock (outside of eating it in stir-fry)…
Can you tell I am cold-blooded?
Pour burdock vinegar over cooked or braised greens.
Add burdock root to your bone broth recipe.
Eat cooked burdock, left over from decocting, like oatmeal with a bit cinnamon and some coconut milk. For those who eat grains, it can be mixed half-and-half with steel cut oats.
Burdock chai with coconut milk.
For the warm-blooded
Burdock vinegar makes a tasty salad dressing. (You can also use it in place of apples cider vinegar when making bone broth.)
I’ve mixed burdock vinegar with bit of yellow dock vinegar and blackstrap molasses for a nice invigorating tonic vinegar. You can add a bit of this to a juice concoction.
Sources:
Donahue, S. (Presenter) (2010, May 12). Herbs for working with change”. Herbal Allies for a Changing World. [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.seandonahue.org/id52.html
McDonald, J. (2012). Burdock. Retrieved from http://www.herbcraft.org/burdock.html
Wood, M. (2007, August 21). The Iindispensable Oil Remedy. Retrieved from http://www.woodherbs.com/Burdock.html
Studies
Aqueous extract of Arctium lappa L. roots enhances sexual behavior in male rats
Burdock extract stimulates the humoral immune response
My favorite blog challenge that I have ever participated in is being revived!
Sharon Astyk at the Chatelaine’s Keys is once again issuing her Independence Days Challenge and I will be participating. It sounds like Friday will be the official check-in day but I just wanted to let people know that it is back up-and-running.
The “rules” per Sharon:
Plant something: A lot of us were trained to think of planting as done once a year, but if you start seeds, do season extension and succession plant, you’ll get much, much more out of your garden, so I try and plant something every day from February into September.
Harvest something: Everything counts – from the milk and eggs you get from your animals to the first dandelions from your yard to 50 bushels of tomatoes – it all counts.
Preserve something: Again, I find preserving is most productive if I try and do a little every day that there is anything, from the first dried raspberry leaves and jarred rhubarb to the last squashes at the end of the season.
Waste not: Reducing food waste, composting everything or feeding it to animals, reducing your use of disposables and creation of garbage, reusing things that would otherwise go to waste, making sure your preserved and stored foods are kept in good shape – all of these count.
Want Not: Adding to your food storage or stash of goods for emergencies, building up resources that will be useful in the long term.
Eat the Food: Making full and good use of what you have, making sure that you are getting everything you can from your food, trying new recipes and new cooking ideas, eating out of your storage!
Build community food systems: What have you done to help other people have better food access or to make your local food system more resilient?
And a new one: Skill up: What did you learn this week that will help you in the future – could be as simple as fixing the faucet or as hard as building a shed, as simple as a new way of keeping records or as complicated as making shoes. Whatever you are learning, you get a merit badge for it – this is important stuff.
Join in, have fun and leave a comment over on Sharon’s blog if you are participating.
Imbolc came and went. I meant to post something, but I was busy in the kitchen. I did some candlemaking, made some salves and a potion, and lit a roaring fire in honor of the lady of the hearth and healing.
My candle making projects were particularly satisfying to me. Lacking a supply of new wax, I gathered old candles, melted them down and made a good number of new pillar candles and votives to store away for use in the coming year. I found the old-to-new energy to be very fitting for the day, don’t you think?
Not a bad use for a mortar with a broken pestle? My dear friend Tara made me the handkerchief.
I also spent some time working on my personal workspace. I’ve been doing a bit more desk work lately listening to recording, participating in conference calls and viewing webinars. Sometimes all the sitting in one place is tedious to me and I need to “buckle down” . I try to alleviate that by making my desk a special place that speaks to me of friends; human and plant. I re-filled the marble mortar I keep on my desk with my special concentration candle blend infused with rosemary and peppermint essential oils to help with presence and mental alertness. And boy, did I accomplish that! I almost choked the whole family out of the room when I poured it.
Some of these things used to live on the nature table, but it was getting a little busy for my taste.
To my left, is a shelf that holds file crates for record keeping. I halfheartedly threw some things on there a while ago, but I gave that a little more thought and added a few things. Soon I’ll have an altar in every room. The glass bottle holds a flower essence blend I made with some amazing mother essences that Renee sent me and the last of the cherry infused brandy from the cherries Rebecca picked up for me in Michigan. My little cauldron contains the beautiful Oregon potpourri that Anna sent me along with a bit of the Douglas Fir from Rosalee and the last little bit of juniper, I collected when I was at TWHC.
Darian made me the tree for a necklace, years ago. Isn't it lovely?
I rejuvenated the potpourri in my globe with some dried roses that Steve gave me last year. I hung the lovely print from the Herb Energetics course behind my monitor. You can’t really see them, but the special tinctures I’ve gotten from friends and use regularly live behind my globe. All-in-all, I am feeling very pleased with how it looks. It makes the time spent researching and reading so much more enjoyable, when I create intention and warmth in my studying area.
I noticed that the dry weather was getting to my tongue the other day. So I decided it was time to whip up a new batch of homemade mouthwash. The base of my mouth wash is a cold infusion of marshmallow root which is good for dry and irritated conditions, specifically for when your tongue starts getting those little horizontal cracks. Some of you won’t know what I am talking about, but if you do, you should give this a try. Even if you don’t suffer from lack of humidity the way I do, swishing this daily may help reduce inflammation of the gums and occurrences of gingivitis. It is so very soothing .
To begin, I put 1/4 cup marshmallow root in a pint of cold water and go to bed. In the morning, I wake up to a nice slimy infusion. I strain this well and add some tinctures. I start with calendula which is broadly anti-microbial and also helps against inflammation. Then I add 1 tsp of sage tincture which is recommended by Matthew Wood in cases of “sore, bleeding, ulcerated, inflamed or receding gums and canker sores”. I also put in 1 tsp of peppermint tincture. Honestly, this is pretty much for taste, you could add a teaspoon of cinnamon tincture if you prefer.
You can also use peppermint extract, from the grocery store, in the place of the tincture. It is the same thing, really, and I will bet mine is cheaper. Once that is all shaken or stirred together, it will keep at room temperature as long as you use it daily. There is more than likely enough alcohol from the tinctures to preserve a larger amount of the infusion, but it is a simple enough process, that it can be made weekly.
