Herbs & Herbal Remedies @ Green Papaya

Arctium (species)

COMPOSITAE

burdock, great burdock, beggar’s buttons, lappa, stick button, cloibur, horse burr; plus a host of other local names including burdock rhubarb

Possibly one of the first plants with which little children become acquainted is the burdock, whose seeds with their sticky burrs literally force themselves upon the passerby. There are several species of Arctium including A. minus, a smaller-growing form. Arctium is a biennial rhubarb like plant growing on our roadsides. It is interesting to note that all of the four species listed in Gray’s Manual are introductions from Europe, yet burdock is found almost everywhere in the eastern United States.

The dried, first-year root has been used in the pharmaceutical trade for years. Although it is not presently official, it is generally considered a diaphoretic, diuretic, and alterative.

Potter’s Cyclopaedia says that it is “one of the finest blood purifiers in the herbal system, and should be used in such cases alone or with other remedies. Both root and seed may be taken as a decoction of 1 ounce to 1% pints of water, simmered down to 1 pint, in doses of a wineglassful three or four times daily.”

Other recommendations are to use the leaves in poultices for the relief of bruises, tumors, and other swellings, and some authorities mention it as an antidote for snakebites. Around any plant which has been used for as many centuries as has burdock, many stories and claims have arisen, including an interesting one by Culpeper:

Venus challenges this herb for her own, and by its leaf or seed you may draw the womb which way you please, either upwards by applying it to the crown of the head, in case it falls out; or downwards in fits of the mother, applying it to the soles of the feet, or if you would stay it in place, apply it to the navel, and that is one good way to stay the child in it.