Description

Nettle is like a beast with a heart of gold. ‘Nettle’ is the common name of a group of plants with stinging bristles.

Uses and Cultivation

This herb has long enjoyed a tradition of medicinal use dating back to ancient Greece.  It is a perennial that grows two to seven feet high and is clothed in stinging hairs; its leaves are deeply serrated and pointed, growing on opposite sides of the stem.  Although leaves appear downy to the eye, clumps of upright, four-angled six inch stems hide venomous spines that emit an acrid fluid when touched. The root is creeping and branching. 

Medicinal uses are many and varied. Nettle is a rich source of iron, calcium and folic acid, vitamins A and C, magnesium, potassium and chlorophyll; it and supports the kidney and adrenals.  It is considered an age-old remedy for allergies, hay fever and respiratory problems, including having some anti-asthmatic properties.  (The juice of the roots or leaves, mixed with honey or sugar, will relieve bronchial and asthmatic troubles and the dried leaves, burnt and inhaled, will have the same effect.)

In tribal and herbal folk medicine, nettles have been used as a diuretic, for building blood vitality, and for arthritis and rheumatism.  It is a nutritive that has been used for centuries as a tonic that nourishes and detoxifies the entire system.  Some recent research on nettle focuses on its usefulness for prostate inflammation (Prostatitis) and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH).  Again, in more recent years, consumers and practitioners have learned of nettle’s many uses, adding treatment for allergies and hair loss.

Nettle also has horticultural uses.  Golden dead nettle is an ideal ground cover, especially where its rather aggressive growth is contained by a barrier of some sort.  It is also used as a fertilizer and is popular all over the world as a pot herb. Nettle is a very fibrous plant and once upon a time it was actually planted as a crop for making fabric, rope and paper.   Not limited to the tropics, nettle is now actively used in garden landscapes throughout the world.

Nettle is an herb worth using on a regular basis.  It is a weed to some and a valuable healing herb to others.  Nettle is considered to be very safe.