Chickweed or Stellaria media:Tradition and History.

Contents

• Basic Botanical Info:Stellaria media,Chickweed.
• Chickweed Botanical Description.
• Phytochemical and Constituents of Stellaria media.
• Chickweed Gernal Uses and Medicinal Uses.
• Uses in History registration and Ancient Lore of Chickweed.
• Administration and Application Guide:Stellaria media.
• Research Update:Chickweed or Stellaria media.

Uses in History registration and Ancient Lore of Chickweed.:

The entire chickweed plant is edible. The stems and leaves are used in medicinal preparations. Herbalists, however, disagree about the medicinal potency of chickweed. One writer, a professor of pharmacognosy, dismissed chickweed as a "worthless weed" and an "ineffective herb." Other writers and herbalists praise the diminutive herb for providing "optimum nutrition" and for its "unsurpassed" ability to cool fevers and infections. The English physician Nicholas Culpeper, writing in the seventeenth century, credited chickweed as beneficial for "all pains in the body that arise of heat." Taken as an infusion, chickweed acts internally to cool inflammation of the digestive and respiratory system. It has been used to treat bronchitis, pleurisy, colitis, gastritis, asthma, and sore throat. The herb's diuretic action helps eliminate toxins from the system and reduce retention of fluids. Chickweed contains mucilage, saponins, silica, coumarins, flavonoids (including glycoside rutin), triterpenoids, and carboxylic acids. The herb is rich in minerals, including copper and iron, and vitamins A, B, and C.

 Gathered fresh, chickweed is beneficial in poultice form to ease rheumatic pain and to treat boils and abscesses. The herb can also be used to draw out splinters and the stingers of insects and to dissolve warts. Its vulnerary (wound-healing) action speeds the healing of cuts and wounds. Its emollient qualities soothe itching and irritation of eczema or psoriasis. An infusion may be added to bath water for soothing relief of inflamed skin. It also provides relief to swollen and painful hemorrhoids.

 Another species of chickweed, S. dichotoma, known as yin chai hu is used in Chinese medicine to stop nosebleed, to reduce heavy menstrual bleeding, and to bring down fevers. The species S. alsine is also used in Chinese medicine as a medicinal remedy for treating colds, snakebites, and even traumatic injury.


 Boil a handful of Chickweed and a handful of red Rose leaves dried in a quart (1.1 1) of muscadine until a fourth part be consumed, then put to them a pint(568 ml) of oil of troters or sheep's feet; let them boil a good while still stirring them well, which being strained, anoint the grieved part therewith, warm against the fire, rubbing it well with one hand; and bind also some of the herb, if you will, to the place, and with God's blessing it will help in three times dressing.

 Medicinal virtues:  The bruised herb or the juice applied with sponges to the region of the liver, doth temperate the heat of the liver, and is effectual for all imposthumes and swellings whatsoever, for all redness in the face, wheals, scabs and the itch. The juice, simply used or boiled with hog's grease and applied, helpeth cramps, convulsions and palsy.

 The juice or distilled water is good for all heats and redness in the eyes if some is dropped into them and is good to ease pain from the heat and sharpness of blood in the piles. It is used also in hot and virulent ulcers and sores in the privy parts of men and women, or on the legs or elsewhere. The leaves boiled with Marsh Mallow and made into a poultice with Fenugreek and Linseed, applied to swellings and imposthumes, ripen and break them, or assuage the swellings and ease the pains. It helpeth the sinews when they are shrunk by cramp or otherwise.

 Modern uses:  Chickweed is a valuable healing and soothing agent, used in many ways, both internally and externally. The herb digested in oil and made into an ointment is excellent for haemorrhoids and ulcers, or for eczema, psoriasis or other irritating skin diseases. A decoction of the herb is used to wash and bathe swollen and inflamed tissues. The powder is used in poultices to give relief in bronchitis, pleurisy and rheumatism. The tea can be taken internally at the same time - one teaspoonful to a cup of boiling water. Three or four cups a day may be taken.

Reference:

• 1.Chickweed or Stellaria media:Tradition and History.

This article written and edited via herbalist of MDidea Extracts Professional. They run a range of online descriptions about this herb,including general information related and summarized updating discoveries from findings of professional scientisits this field related.Describe style aimed to form a useful detecting literature space where the intertwined threshold and related questions raise out and visualize themselves.

♣ last edit date:27th,Oct.2010.