Dead Nettle

Lamium album

Archangel Blind Nettle Deadnettle Nettle Flowers Snowflake Stingless Nettle White Archangel White Deadnettle White Nettle Parts used Uses Habitat and cultivation Constituents

Dead nettle - a creeping perennial that spreads on rhizomes; dead nettle has stems reaching up to 2 feet in height. Long-stalked, oval, toothed leaves grow in opposite pairs. White flowers (May-October) grow in whorls in the axils of the leaves; the flowers have two lips, the upper one hooded and hairy on the outside, the lower one having two to three lobes.

Because dead nettle looks so much like stinging nettle, hikers may give the harmless dead nettle a wide berth. Bumblebees, however, are not deceived. They throng to the flowers, for they know that the plant, like other members of the mint family, is an abundant source of nectar . This nettle is "dead" because it does not sting. In Britain it is known as archangel, probably because it first blooms about May 8, once a feast day of the Archangel Michael.

Though dead nettle never found a place in conventional medicine, it has long enjoyed popularity as a folk remedy. Rich in tannin, the flowering plant has provided an astringent, anti-inflammatory dressing for cuts, wounds, and burns. When brewed as a tea, dead nettle has been used to halt internal bleeding. Dead nettle also is reported to cure diarrhea. Dead nettle formerly enjoyed prestige in England as a reputed cure for scrofula (a type of tuberculosis of the lymph nodes), the so-called King's Evil, which was believed to respond to a monarch's touch. Dead nettle leaves mixed with axle grease were in fact already mentioned by the Roman naturalist Pliny in the first century A.D. as a folk remedy for the disease.

PARTS USED

Flowering tops.

USES

Dead nettle is astringent and demulcent. Dead nettle is chiefly used as a uterine tonic, to arrest intermenstrual bleeding; and to reduce excessive menstrual flow. Dead nettle is also a traditional treatment for abnormal vaginal discharge. Dead nettle is sometimes taken to relieve menstrual pain. Its astringency helps to treat diarrhea, and, used externally, dead nettle can relieve hemorrhoids and varicose veins.

Dead nettle makes a nutritious vegetable or soup green. A tea from the flowering plant is a home remedy for diarrhea -a use that pharmacologists state may be effective because of the plant's tannin content.

HABITAT AND CULTIVATION

Introduced from Europe, dead nettle now grows wild in North America from Quebec to Minnesota and south to Virginia.

CONSTITUENTS

Dead nettle contains: a saponin, flavones, mucilage, and tannins.