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The Leech's Knowing

A History Of Healthy

March 9, 2022

The stinging nettle has walked through history hand in hand with the human race. Traces of this herb have been found in the earliest of human habitation sites. It has been recognized as a potent medicine for much of that time.

From the Leechbook of Bald, written in the ninth century, we find this recipe:

A wound salve ; take heads of woad and of nettle,
also pound them well, boil in butter, strain through a
cloth, add white salt, shake thoroughly.

Let's take a closer look at this one.

Woad is anti-bacterial and anti-viral. Nettles, as well as being anti-bacterial and anti-viral, are anti-inflammatory and help relieve pain.

Butter would have been used as a base when beeswax was too expensive for the average person to use for salve and you didn't want to kill your cow for the tallow. Boiling would clarify it. You can see what the boiling would do for your salve in the video.

White salt is known to kill bacteria and viruses by desiccation. It would catch any nasty that evaded the herbs. I wouldn't use this salve on deep puncture wounds but for most surface cuts and scrapes it would work well.

John Gerard writes in the Herball, Or General Historie Of Plantes, published in 1597, of the uses of stinging nettle at that time:

"it also provoketh urine,and cxpclleth stones out of the kidnies

The same grossely powned and drunke in White wine, is a most singular medicine against the stone either in the bladder or reins,as hath bin often proved,to the great ease and comfort of those that have been grieuously tormented with that maladie.

It expelleth grauell, and provoketb urine.

"Provoking the urine" translates to "diuretic" and "the reins" refer to the kidneys. Modern usage ascribes just this action to nettles. You can read Mount Sinai Hospital's information about nettles here

Stinging nettles have been used to counter allergies, muscular aches and pains, and arthritis among other things.

I did a lot of research and pulled together many sites with much good information for you then I found this video. Most of the sources I looked up for you are cited in it but it's a lot more fun to watch this than go link jumping. I've taken an online workshop taught by this lady. She's very knowledgeable and I enjoyed the workshop. I encourage you to visit her website for more information.

The stinging nettle is as helpful to us today as it was at the dawn of our history and there's a fair bit of research to back that statement up. I will share this site with you before I go. It's full of information about stinging nettles.

Have you any experience with using nettles yourself? Share it with me in the comments below. I enjoy learning new ways to relate to old friends. Thank you for stopping by!

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