Herbs & Herbal Remedies @ Green Papaya

Dandelion may cause skin rash in sensitive individuals.

Dandelion is included in the Food and Drug Administration’s list of herbs generally regarded as safe. For otherwise healthy non-pregnant, non-nursing adults who are not taking other diuretics, dandelion is considered safe in amounts typically recommended.

Dandelion should be used only in consultation with your doctor. If dandelion causes minor discomforts, such as stomach upset or diarrhea, use less or stop using it Let your doctor know if you experience any unpleasant effects or if the symptoms for which the herb is being used do not improve significantly in two weeks.

Don’t Tell Your Neighbors

If you cultivate dandelions, be careful whom you tell. You might end up with some unhappy neighbors.

As every gardener knows, dandelions grow like weeds.

Dandelion is a low-growing perennial with deep taproot, a rosette of jaggedly toothed leaves that radiate from its base, and a smooth, hollow, 6- to 12-inch stem capped by a single yellow flower, which gives rise to hundreds of tufted single-seed fruits. The root, leaves, and stem contain a milky fluid. Harvest young leaves as they develop. As the leaves mature, they become unpleasantly bitter. Herbalists generally recommend harvesting the root at the end of the second growing season. To prevent spreading, clip the flowers before seed tufts form.

Dandelion seeds may not be readily available, but check seed catalogs. Better yet, check nearby lawns or vacant lots. It’s unlikely that anyone will mind if you take a few. Plant seeds in early spring. They grow in almost any soil but prefer moist, well-drained loam

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to treat dandelion as a weed. Here’s the agency’s official position:

“There is no convincing reason for believing it possesses any therapeutic virtues.”

The FDA forgot to read their Ralph Waldo Emerson. “What is a weed?” Emerson wrote. “A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” As far as dandelion is concerned, truer . words were never penned, though its virtues nave been well documented.

Premenstrual Syndrome - Animal studies show that dandelion does indeed have diuretic action. Animal findings don’t always apply to people, but this one appears to. Diuretics may help relieve the bloated feeling of premenstrual syndrome. Try some before your period and see if it works for you.

Weight Loss - In one study, animals fed dandelion lost up to 30 percent of their weight. Diuretics can help eliminate water weight, but authorities do not recommend diuretics for permanent weight control. They advocate a low-fat, high-fiber diet and regular aerobic exercise.

High Blood Pressure - Physicians often prescribe diuretics to treat high blood pressure. Dandelion might help. Of course, high blood pressure is a serious condition requiring professional treatment. Use dandelion in consultation with your physician.

Congestive Heart Failure - Physicians often prescribe diuretics to treat this condition. Dandelion might be appropriate in conjunction with other medications and therapies prescribed by your physician.

Like high blood pressure, congestive heart failure is a serious condition that cannot be self-treated. If you’d like to try dandelion, discuss it with your physician and use it in addition to standard medication.

Cancer Prevention - A l-cup serving of raw dandelion leaves contains 7,000 international units of vitamin A-that’s 1½ times the Recommended Dietary Allowance and more than you’d find in a carrot. Dandelion also contains some vitamin C. Vitamins A and C are antioxidants that help prevent the cell damage scientists believe eventually causes cancer. Dandelion leaves are a zesty addition to salads, soups, and stews.

Yeast Infection - One study shows dandelion inhibits the growth of the fungus responsible for vaginal yeast infections (Candida albicans).

Digestive Aid - Score one for the Doctrine of Signatures.

Two German studies suggest that dandelion stimulates the flow of bile, which helps digest fats.

In Germany, where herbal medicine is more mainstream than it is in the United States, physicians routinely use dandelion to help stimulate bile flow and prevent gallstones. The German preparation Chol-Grandelat, a combination of dandelion, milk thistle, and rhubarb, is prescribed for gallbladder disease. (This product is not available in the United States.)

Intriguing Possibilities - Dandelion also may help reduce the amount of sugar in the blood. As a result, the herb may help manage diabetes. Diabetes is a serious condition that requires professional treatment, but try dandelion in consultation with your physician.

Some studies suggest dandelion root has anti-inflammatory properties, suggesting possible value in treating arthritis. And a Japanese study suggests some antitumor activity as well, though it’s much too early to consider it a cancer treatment.

Think twice before using dandelion as a diuretic to promote weight loss. Weight-lost using diuretics almost always returns, because the body, which is largely water, eventually senses a lack of fluid and adjusts by decreasing urine output.

In addition, long-term use of diuretics can be hazardous.

Diuretics deplete the body of potassium, an essential nutrient People taking diuretics should be sure to eat foods high in potassium, such as bananas and fresh vegetables.

Fortunately, dandelion causes less potassium loss than other diuretics because the herb itself is high in potassium. Nonetheless, if you use dandelion for long periods, be sure to eat foods high in potassium.

Pregnant and nursing women should not take diuretics.

Rx for Dandelion

Eat fresh leaves as a salad item or vegetable.

If you’re using dandelion as a diuretic (for premenstrual syndrome, high blood pressure, or congestive heart failure) or digestive aid, take it as a leaf infusion, root decoction, or tincture. The taste is reasonably pleasant with a slightly bitter sharpness.

To make a leaf infusion, use ½ ounce of dried leaves per cup of boiling water. Steep 10 minutes. Drink up to 3 cups a day.

For a root decoction, gently boil2 to 3 teaspoons of powdered root per cup of water for 15 minutes. Cool. Drink up to 3 cups a day.

In a tincture, take 1 to 2 teaspoons up to three times a day. As a potential aid to help keep vaginal yeast infections at bay, add a couple of handfuls of dried leaves and flowers to the bathwater.

Dandelion should not be given to children under age 2.

For older children and people over 65, start with a low-strength preparation and increase strength if necessary.

Much More Than a Weed

Family: Compositae; (includes Daisy, Marigold)

Genus and Species: Taraxacum Officinale

Also known as: Lion’s Tooth, Wild Endive, Piss-in-bed

Parts used: Root primarily; also leaves

Dandelion is so widely despised as a weed, it’s some. times difficult to see this plant for what it really is-a nutritious healing herb with a medicinal reputation dating back more than 1,000 years.

Dandelion may help treat premenstrual syndrome, high blood pressure, and congestive heart failure. It may also help prevent gallstones and may have other medically intriguing possibilities as well.

Chinese Cold Remedy

Chinese physicians have prescribed dandelion since ancient times to treat colds, bronchitis, pneumonia, hepatitis, boils, ulcers, obesity, dental problems, itching, and internal injuries. They also used a poultice of chopped dandelion to treat breast cancer. India’s traditional Ayurvedic physicians used the herb similarly 10th-century Arab physicians were the first to recognize that dandelion increases urine production.

During the Middle Ages, Europeans believed in the Doctrine of Signatures-the idea that plants’ physical characteristics reveal their healing value. Under this doctrine, anything yellow was linked to the liver’s yellow bile and considered a liver remedy. That’s why dandelion gained a reputation in Europe as a treatment for jaundice and gallstones.

The Doctrine of Signatures was also used to explain dandelion’s use as a diuretic to treat water retention. Dandelion has a juicy root, stem, and leaves. Anything juicy was linked to urine production. By the 17th century, dandelion was so well known as a diuretic, the English called it “piss-a-bed,” from the French pissenlit.

The Official Remedy

Thanks to such herbal exaggerators as 17th-century English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper, dandelion’s medicinal reputation spread as widely as dandelions across an untended lawn. Culpeper recommended the herb for every “evil disposition of the body.” In fact, dandelion was used for so many ailments, it became known as “the official remedy for disorders.”

Early colonists introduced dandelion to North America, and the Indians quickly adopted it as a tonic.

Dandelion root was an ingredient in Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound, a popular 19th-century patent medicine for menstrual discomforts. As a diuretic, the dandelion no doubt helped relieve the bloating many women experience before they menstruate. (There is no dandelion in the Pinkham’s Compound marketed today.)

Despite dandelion’s incorporation into the U.S. Pharmacopoeia from 1831 to 1926, many 19th-century herbalists despised it for the weed it had become. The American Eclectic physicians’ text, King’s American Dispensatory, called it “overrated …. Dandelion root possesses little medicinal virtue [except] slightly diuretic action.”

Contemporary herbalists recommend dandelion almost exclusively as a diuretic for weight loss, premenstrual syndrome, menstrual discomforts, swollen feet, high blood pressure, and congestive heart failure.