I herewith transcribe an article which appeared in the Columbus Dispatch of June 15, 2009: Entrepreneur's stinging nettles take the pain off by Mary Beth Lane (mlane@dispatch.com)
What a great article..especially after just discussing the amazing uses of this plant! 2 days ago...I was hiking thru some of this stinging lovely and found mushrooms (Marasmius sp.) growing on the stems. I was pretty shocked and happy at the same time. I also noticed? MY knee as well hasn't been giving me pains since hiking in that bundle either. I've severe pain that keeps me up at night and won't let me bend it at times and yet...after kneeling on that plant for only a few short min's (I'm not big on stings/pain) there was such a difference in the feeling with-in hours. I'm now looking into ways to make my own self-help with those plants as Kansas is in abundant supply of them. :o) Thanx togata!
I enjoyed this article thanks! Interestingly, My wife who has Kidney problems has just started drinking teas made of fresh nettles out of the garden as we have discovered that nettle tea can repair kidney damage and she has nephritus. You should only use young nettles though never when they ar in flower or after they have flowered or you can make yourself quite ill. Nath
I have been on a search to find nettles growing wild in our area (Quebec peninsula), but have found NONE!!
As an experiment and an alternative to about 15 different tablets my wife has to take a day, we have been tying fresh nettle tea out of the garden, sometimes her legs swell up something terrible, not very nice in someone so young and very depressing, however the miracle of the fresh nettle tea reduces the swelling within hours and brings the blood pressure under control. Only one problem, I'm running out of nettles. I have now tried to move the roots to one area to control their growing and make sure they are constantly available. What an incredible plant this is!!! Nath
The Salish encouraged these on Whidbey and Camano Islands (Island County, WA). After the potato was introduced by white settlers, the natives planted this new crop in places where the nettles had done well.
I'm a bit of a skeptic when reading material of that type, but I would certainly like to see results with proper controls. Growing up in Texas it was hell after a ride on the dirt bike, but I haven't seen it around here. Maybe I'm overlooking it as plants.usda.gov gives the Texas version as ssp. gracilis and here as ssp. dioica. Yet I doubt the difference is that great. I could use it myself if it works like that. Many plant properties need studied with better controls. Often good information is lost in a sea of claims.
Urtica is big around these parts, many people have their favourite patch to harvest from. Nettles like moist shady areas as opposed to open and dry and are found in forest edges and roadsides. I wanted to mention that in a herbalism course I recently took we were told once they go past the seeding stage, nettles shouldn't be harvested. Although it's a super nutritive plant with lots of calcium and iron, after going to seed there's a concentration of an active ingredient that can be too hard on the kidneys. Harvest the growing tips to use for cooking and drying for tea in the spring, and in the fall too, when there's a second growth. If the tea is taken regularly from fall onwards through the winter, it's been found that by spring time some allergy sufferers will have less reactions to pollens etc. We like it in lasagna. In olden times, "urtification" was a treatment for arthritis, which was having someone whip you with stinging nettles... great for the circulation!
bedixon, Interesting that you should mention circulation, i found out that nettles were brought to the UK by the Romans centuries ago for the soldiers that went on long marches, they grew them by the sides of the roads so that when they were tired or had cramp they would then sting themselves to get the circulation going. Now most people in the UK can't get rid of them out of their gardens. Nath
The stinging sure makes them unpopular, but they have so many benefits nettles are truly one of the marvelous herbs (there are so many!). All parts are used, roots, stems, leaves, seeds, in various ways. Gardeners make a tea for watering plants, much like with comfrey tea, and I heard that it's used "medicinally" for plants as well... don't know the details on that but it piqued my interest and I want to follow up. If you've a great whack of it growing, and have taken all you want for eating and drying for tea, it's a good addition to the compost bin for the nutritive value, after going to seed. We encourage the patch we have in a shady corner of the yard, out of the way.
