STINGING NETTLE (Urtica dioica)

Supplement: stinging nettle root Potency: 500mg Quantity: 100 capsules Other ingredients: gelatin, silica, microcrystalline cellulose, magnesium stearate. Price: £7.95 Click here for the order page Contraindications: stinging nettle root is not recommended for use during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

Further information on Stinging Nettle

Habitat: Stinging nettle is native to Europe and Europe is still its main stronghold, but today it can be found over most of the globe. It is particularly established over much of Asia, northern Africa and North America, but has also spread to other areas. It has reached as far east as Japan and as far south as New Zealand and has recently been introduced to parts of Latin America.

Characteristics and properties: As its name suggests, stinging nettle is best known for its ability to impart a considerable sting, which occurs when small hairs on its leaves and stem brush against skin, causing a burning sensation and a rash which can last up to 24 hours. However, despite the unpleasantness of its sting, the nettle has been highly regarded in Europe since at least antiquity as both a food and a medicine, with both the Greeks and the Romans using it for a wide variety of medicinal purposes. In the first century, Greek physicians Dioscorides and Galen reported the leaf of the nettle had diuretic and laxative properties and was useful for asthma, pleurisy and spleen illnesses. By medieval times the stinging nettle was in common use throughout the continent, being used for treating rheumatism, arthritis, allergies and eczema, baldness, bladder infections, cough, bronchitis, bursitis, anemia, gingivitis, hives, laryngitis, gout, multiple sclerosis, tendonitis, premenstrual syndrome, prostate enlargement and sciatica. According to Nicolas Culpeper in the seventeenth century, the seeds of the nettle were thought to be beneficial in the treatment of bites from "mad dogs" or the stinging of "venomous creatures." Seeds were also used at that time as an antidote to poisonous herbs such as nightshade and henbane. In early American medicine, bandages soaked in a leaf and stem infusion were used to stop the bleeding of wounds. An account of this use was recorded by Dr. Francis P. Procher, a physician in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Nettle leaves were also recommended as a nutritious food and as a weight loss aid by the famous American plant forager and naturalist, Euell Gibbons.

For some purposes the leaf of the nettle was recommended, for some purposes the stem, for some purposes the seed, and for others the root, and accordingly the whole of the plant was utilised in traditional medicine and revered for its healing properties. It was also popular as a food in many countries and we know today that nettle is highly nutritive, being rich in chlorophyll, beta carotene, vitamins A, C, E and K, several of the B vitamins, tannins, volatile oils, flavonoids, iron, calcium, potassium, phosphates, and various other minerals, especially silica. The stinging nettle is a remarkable nutritional treasure and has often been compared very favourably to spinach.

Today nettle is recognised as having astringent, expectorant, galactagogue, tonic, anti-inflammatory, hemostatic, and diuretic properties, and is recommended for treating bone and joint conditions, inflammation and irritation of the urinary tract and for preventing urinary system gravel, whilst the diuretic action of the plant has been shown to significantly increase urine volume and can help to alleviate bladder infections. However, the most popular application of stinging nettle today is the use of the root for treating the symptoms of prostate enlargement or benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). This condition is hormonal in nature, caused by testosterone and the conversion of testosterone to the extremely potent dihydrotestosterone, a conversion which increases as men age. An excess of dihydrotestosterone causes pathological prostate growth. Estrogens also play a part as they too increase as men age and also stimulate prostate growth. These hormones travel around the body in a free state, as well as bound to proteins. One such protein is called sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) and its role is to maintain a dynamic hormonal balance in the body. SHBG binds or attaches to hormones and carries them to different receptor sites on cell membranes throughout the body where they can be utilised in different ways. The effect it has depends on which hormone it binds to and which receptor site it is carried to. In the men estrogen and dihydrotestosterone bound to SHBG are usually carried to the receptor sites on the prostate gland, and once there in excessive amounts it stimulates prostate tissue cells to divide and grow rapidly - resulting in BPH.

Some of the more recent research on BPH and stinging nettle indicates that the nettle root can interfere with or block a number these hormone-related chemical processes in the body that are implicated in the development of BPH. In clinical research, nettle has demonstrated the ability to stop the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (by inhibiting aromatase, an enzyme required for the conversion), as well as to directly bind to SHBG itself - thereby preventing SHBG from binding to other hormones. Other research also reveals that nettles can prevent SHBG that has already bound to a hormone from attaching to the receptor sites on the prostate, as well as to decrease the production of estrogens (estradiol and estrone) by inhibiting an enzyme required for their production. In summary, most of the intercellular processes required to trigger the prostate to grow new cells and enlarge seems to be inhibited by nettle root. Human and animal clinical studies have confirmed these effects and also demonstrated that nettle root works as well as the drug finasteride which is prescribed for BPH and is also better tolerated than the drug.

The effect of nettle root on dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels has also made it a treatment for hair loss, as male pattern balding has often been linked to an excess of DHT, as has hair loss in women too. In folklore it was always believed that nettles were an effective treatment for baldness and modern science appears to validate this belief. Nettle root is also valuable as a source of lignans, a type of phytoestrogens, which have become more and more valued in recent years, and which accounts for its galactogogue property. Nettle root also contains a number of chemical compounds which appear to significantly stimulate the immune system.

Culinary uses: Care has to be taken in collecting nettles to avoid it's irritating sting and the wearing of stout gloves is highly recommended. However, the leaves are high in nutrients and also very tasty, making it worth the trouble, whilst cooking them destroys the stinging effect and makes them perfectly safe to eat. They are an excellent addition to soups and stews, but the leaves also make a good soup as the main or even sole ingredient. They can also be dried and used to make a tisane, as can be done with the nettle's flowers. The shoots are also edible and like the leaves can be added to soups and stews or can be boiled or steamed alone. The shoots can also be used for brewing nettle beer, an ancient and much loved drink in many countries. Both leaves and shoots are used in Scotland to make nettle pudding and in Italy to make nettle pasta. They are also renowned all over the world as a spinach substitute and can be used as an alternative to it in any recipe calling for spinach as an ingredient. When squeezed they produce nettle juice which can be used as a vegetarian substitute for rennet to curdle milk when making cheese. The root of the nettle, although better known medicinally, is not regarded as having any culinary value.

History and curiosities: The stinging nettle was referred to by Shakespeare in the play Henry IV part 1, where the character Hotspur asks that "out of this nettle, danger, we grasp this flower, safety." The common figure of speech "to grasp the nettle" has its origin in this quotation and means to face up to or take on a known problem.

Stinging nettles have long been of considerable value as fodder for livestock, although when they are growing they won't be eaten by the animals because of their known stinging power. However, if harvested and left to wilt they lose their sting and are then relished by livestock, particularly cattle which respond to a nettle diet by giving more milk, and poultry which respond by laying more eggs. In Sweden and Russia the stinging nettle has even been cultivated as a fodder plant. Horses are known to prosper on nettles and in many countries horse dealers mix nettle seeds with horse feed in order to help their horses develop a sleek and lustrous coat.

Nettle stems are very fibrous and the strong fibre taken from them has often been compared to flax, hemp and linen. It has been used in the past for making string, ropes, sacks and sails, a good quality paper and fabric for use in clothing. In the first world war nettle cloth was used in Germany for making their military uniforms. There is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen called The Princess and the Eleven Swans, in which the princess weaves some coats out of nettle cloth.