Sometimes, you just don't know who to believe.
Nettles (Urtica dioica) are quite helpful to those suffering from allergies. They seem to work by stablizing mast cells in the blood stream so they don't release their histimines as easily. I like to think of them as "desensitizing" the "skin" of these defense cells so they aren't as touchy during allergy season.
I was taught to always use Nettles for allergies fresh or freeze dried, as it's the compounds in the little stiniging hairs that provide the protection. Drying the plant or introducing boiling water would render these compounds inactive.
However, many herbalists I trust implicitly, like Henriette Kress and Paul Bergner, are on the other side of the fence, using dried nettles for teas and the like, reporting great success with allergies. Here's what Paul has to say:
"... freeze drying is a terrible for for most herbs, because, after
extraction of the water it leaves a porous, highly oxidizable product, more
likely to be oxidized after say 3 months on the shelf than regulagly dired
material. That why in laboratories FD material is kept in amber bottles with
nitrogen atmosphere and in the refrigerator.I find dried nettles as a beverage, started before allergy season, can make
for a better season. Best to be working on food allergies and nutritional
status at the same time. Nettles can be too drying for many, possibly
depending on climate, and addition of some licorice to the tea can
neutralize this effect."
All this leads me to one conclusion: gonna have to try it myself. Mairi has a great stand of Nettles growing near her place. Time to make a little beer and dry some for my own version of a clinical trial.
Image courtesy of University of Hawai`i at Manoa Botany Dept.
Posted by Evo Terra at June 18, 2004 09:45 AM | TrackBack (0)