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Herbal Spotlight:
Chickweed
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Chickweed is one of the most common weeds in North America. It blooms in early spring until it becomes too hot and dry and then resumes blooming when the cool weather returns at the end of the summer. It's beautiful tiny, white, sparkling flowers resemble tiny stars and give it its name Stellaria meaning "stars". According to traditional observation, flowers open about 9:00 am and close in the evening. On rainy or overcast days they remain closed. Every night each pair of leaves folds over the tender buds and shoots until the warmth of the next day opens them.
Chickweed is a very evolved, clever plant. It is an annual, and in order to insure its prolific propagation it produces two kinds of seeds. In cold months, it produces a flower that never opens but makes a seed. In warm months, it produces a great amount of nectar for its size to insure cross-fertilization. As an example of its highly evolved systems, the line of hairs that appears down only one side of the stem and leaf stalk carry out a special function. They are readily wetted by rain and dew and retain a considerable amount of water. This is conducted down to the leaf-stalks, where some of it is absorbed by the lower cells of the hairs, and any surplus is passed farther down to the next pair of leaves and so on.
Chickweed is delicious as a food eaten raw or cooked. The whole plant is edible and can be eaten in salads, with pasta, potatoes and in stews . It can be added to sandwiches, dips, and to chicken, egg or tofu salads. As a cooked vegetable it has a pleasant, zesty taste similar to spinach but lighter.
Chickweed is a good source of vitamin C, phosphorous, copper, iron, zinc, magnesium, manganese.
Medicinal Uses
Chickweed is a nourishing and tonifying herb whose gentle and supportive therapies were dismissed as insignificant and inactive in the age when active and vigorous herbal remedies were standard. Today, with the emphasis turning to the importance of such supportive and beneficial herbs, chickweed is coming into its own.
It is moist, mucilogous and slightly sweet with nourishing properties that cool hot conditions and bring moisture to dry conditions.
Chickweed has a significant nutritive side which is of great benefit with exhaustion and fatigue conditions. Chickweed's energy dynamics include large amounts of proteins and minerals and may help to restore strength to the weak and weary.
Externally, chickweed is commonly used as a poultice or wash for rashes, itches, scabs, redness in the eyes (including conjunctivitis) and ears. Fresh chickweed infusion or tincture is excellent used on boils, carbuncles, abscesses, skin eruptions, infections, diseases, sores and swellings. Externally, chickweed removes the heat of infections and draws poisons. The active constituents - the sterodial saponins - help solubilize toxins in abscesses and rashes and increase the effectiveness of bactercides by increasing the permeability of bacterial cell walls.
Chickweed taken internally acts as a digestive aid and helps regulate the metabolism. The steroidal saponins in chickweed increase the permeability of the mucous membranes thus increasing the absorption of nutrients, especially minerals from the digestive tract. This same action helps to neutralize toxins, weaken bacterial cell walls and dissolve growths such as warts and cysts.
This same sterodial saponin action that increases the permeability of mucous membranes by partially dissolving them, produces an expectorant effect in the throat, and together with its cooling and moisture effect, is useful in heated chest conditions, such as bronchitis and other heavy respiratory congestion.
Chickweed has been used to "lubricate" the joints, soothe rheumatism, gout and arthritis, and regulate intestinal flora, absorb toxins from the bowel and regulate colonic bacterial and yeast. It has traditionally been used for obesity, dissolving and liquefying the membrane around fat cells and allowing them to pass easily out of the body (a fact still in debate), cleansing the blood and ridding the liver and kidneys of harmful wastes.
Chickweed is useful for stomach conditions where there is dryness and hunger and thirst, also for dry, unproductive coughs including whopping cough. It benefits bladder infections, helps promote urination, and is good for local congestion in tight cramped muscles. Its significant iron content makes it useful in anemic conditions.
My favorite use for Chickweed is as a preventative and restorative tonic providing strength and energy for gentle cleansing and removal of accumulated painful wastes. I use Chickweed to help restore a feeling of vitality to the body and clarity to the thinking.
Find Chickweed in the Evenstar Herbal Products Catalog.
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© Copyright 1997 - 2008 by Mary Ann Copson and Evenstar. All rights reserved.
About the Author:
Mary Ann Copson is the founder of the Evenstar Mood & Energy Wellness Center for Women. With Master's Degrees in Human Development and Psychology and Counseling, Mary Ann is a Certified Licensed Nutritionist; Certified Holistic Health Practitioner; Brain Chemistry Profile Clinician; and a Health, Wellness and Lifestyle Coach. Reconnect to your physical, emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual natural rhythms at
http://evenstaronline.com
