This post was inspired by a comment in another thread.
When people think of “medicinal gardens,” likely what comes to mind are plants grown specifically for their medicinal properties, such as arnica, feverfew, mugwort, and tulsi: plants that have to be sourced from special seed catalogues and not something you can just pick up at your local nursery. In actuality, tons of vegetable garden staples have medicinal properties! You likely are already growing a garden pharmacy without even realizing it.
For example, basically all culinary herbs have some kind of medicinal use. Probably the best known is sage (its witchy reputation isn’t arbitrary!), however many other culinary staples such as mint, oregano, thyme, rosemary, cilantro, and parsley all have their own medical benefits too. Unlike more specialized medicinal plants that can require special processing (e.g. drying the root or creating a tincture), culinary herbs are also super easy to take, either by mixing them into food or brewing a tea (turns out you can just make tea from basically any sturdy edible plant part, including flowers, leaves, stems, roots, and seeds). Probably the best part about using culinary herbs medicinally is that while their medicinal effects may be on the milder side, you’re unlikely to over-consume them or experience an interaction or side-effect, unlike other more pharmaceutical-grade plants like licorice root and ashwagandha that require care with use. This general safety, as well as their prevalence, ease of use, and multi-purpose nature, make culinary herbs fantastic entry-level additions to any medicinal garden.
Many popular garden flowers also have medicinal properties, such as jasmine, echinacea, calendula, lavender, and yarrow. It’s important to note, however, that many medicinal flowering plants have also been bred for ornamental purposes, and while ornamental varieties probably still retain some medicinal properties, it’s best to stick with varieties specifically bred for use as medicine as they tend to be the most potent (and maybe safer? I haven’t heard that you shouldn’t consume the ornamental varieties, so much as that they’re not as effective).
Also worth noting is that for many medicinal plants, the medicinal part isn’t necessarily that part that’s most commonly consumed. Raspberry (and to a lesser degree strawberry) leaves, for example, are a common treatment for menstrual discomfort, even though the part we usually eat (the fruit) does not share the same medicinal qualities. Flowers, seeds, and roots can also be surprise sources of pharmaceutical effect in plants usually consumed for their other parts.
While there are lots of online resources for learning more about medicinal plants and pharmaceutical gardening, I’d also recommend seeing what print resources are in your local library. Growing and foraging plants with medicinal properties is an ancient human tradition… even non-human animals have been observed seeking out specific plants to alleviate various ailments!
The next time you’re feeling a bit unwell, be it digestive discomfort, menstrual cramps, or just a case of the sniffles, look up your symptom online + “medicinal plants” or “herbs” or similar. You may be surprised to find just the thing is already growing in your backyard!
An obligatory disclaimer: before consuming a plant for medicinal use, you should of course always research the plant for potential interactions or side-effects (many herbs should not be consumed during pregnancy, for example, and some can interact with pharmaceutical drugs, which seems obvious if you think about it). You should also be careful which part of the plant you’re consuming: many perfectly edible plants have toxic parts (nightshades like tomatoes and eggplants being a great example).
a tea from california poppies, passion flowers and vervain and you sleep “like a baby”
I’ve long been interested in growing poppies for the… beautiful flower, yea, yea, that’s it. Nothing to do with making tea.
California poppies ( Eschscholzia californica ) are not actually in the poppy family, their calming effect is closer to chamomile (and they don’t show up on drug tests).
You want something in the papaver family for the “beautiful flowers,” specifically papaver somniferum, but all papaver varieties have some of that compound.
Eta: they really do have “beautiful flowers”
Some of my personal favorites I grow in my own garden(images taken from the web):
Catnip
Stinging nettle
Calendula
Echinacea
Oregano
Plus there are so many more medicinal plants that I wish to try someday!
Dandelion is an excellent liver tonic, all parts are edible, just make sure it’s a true dandelion (there are many lookalikes if you’re not a plant person) and that the area you harvest it from isn’t treated with any pesticides, herbicides or anything like that.
excellent liver tonic
Sorry, based on what?
Sorry, are you unable to conduct internet searches…? Or are you a troll?
Here you go dear. Maybe next time you can operate the internet machine all by yourself. I know it’s very difficult.
Background: Liver fibrosis is the main contributor to the chronic liver-associated morbidity and mortality.Purpose: The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of whole plant powder of dandelion (Taraxacumofficinale) on liver fibrosis.Methods: Liver fibrosis was induced by the oral administration of 20% carbon tetrachloride (CCL4), twice a weekfor 8 weeks. Simultaneously, dandelion root extract (500 mg/kg) was daily administered via the same route.Results: Dandelion remarkably improved the liver histology as evidenced by histopathological scoring withhematoxylin-eosin staining. Masson staining and hydroxyproline content similarly showed that dandelion decreasedcollagen deposition. Both mRNA and protein levels of α-smooth muscle actin and collagens 1 and 3 have beendecreased after dandelion treatment compared to CCL4 group. Dandelion also downregulated the mRNAexpressions of inflammatory factors interleukin-IL-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α, remodeling growth factor-β1,cyclooxygenase-2, and nuclear factor kappa-B and decreased the myeloperoxidase activity. Additionally, the effectsof dandelion were associated with the decreased levels of the hepatic oxidative stress markers (malondialdehydeand P. carbonyl) and elevation of the activity of superoxide dismutase activity. Dandelion’s effect to alleviate thefibrosis and inflammation induced by CCL4 treatment in the livers and was more pronounced than with silymarin.The total antioxidant study of dandelion extract revealed that dandelion has notable ferric reducing antioxidantpower and high total phenolic content.Conclusion: Finally, these results suggest that dandelion prevents the progression of hepatic fibrosis induced byCCL4. The dandelion’s antifibrotic effects could be attributed to its ability to scavenge free radicals and to attenuate inflammatory cells activations.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8063808/
- Discussion In the current study, D-Gal-LPS-induced ACLF in rats with HAS-induced chronic liver failure triggered an immune-mediated liver injury with pathological serum liver marker tests and histological liver changes. The liver injuries were also associated with renal failure and systemic oxidative stress. A seven days pretreatment with TOERE reduced ACLF induced liver injury. The protecting effect of TOERE can be attributed, at least in part, to the reduction of the oxidative stress associated with immune liver injury in D-Gal-LPS-induced ACLF. Depending on the dose, the hepatoprotective effect of TOERE was similar or lower than that of SYL, an already used hepatoprotective drug. […] Because the chemical composition correlates with the pharmacological effects, TO extracts from different plant parts had different activities. Several studies demonstrated that the TO roots extract reduces alcohol-induced oxidative stress, TO leaf extract alleviates high-fat diet-induced nonalcoholic fatty liver, and TO flower extract can scavenge reactive oxygen species [22]. Similar to other studies [16,42,43], and based on the evidence of the phytochemical analysis results, our TO root extract can be considered a good natural antioxidant candidate. These results encouraged us to continue by testing the in vivo hepatoprotective and antioxidant effects of TOERE in an experimental ACLF.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278691513002561
Obesity is an alarming public health issue because it causes a broad range of chronic diseases and metabolic syndromes, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and insulin resistance (Zimmet et al., 2001). NAFLD is a metabolic syndrome characterized by abnormal lipid formation in hepatocytes without excess alcohol intake. The primary danger of NAFLD is that it can lead to impaired glucose metabolism, inflammatory response, and insulin resistance, which produce elevated lipogenesis of free fatty acids (FFAs) and fat accumulation in the liver (Cornier et al., 2008, Hamaguchi et al., 2005, Sarafidis and Nilsson, 2006). Excessive dietary fat intake increases the concentration of FFAs in blood and leads to elevation of triglyceride (TG) stored in liver, which causes lipid accumulation and resulting hepatic steatosis (Jang et al., 2012). Because of their safety and efficacy, and because they may possess potential bioactive components to treat or prevent the obesity and NAFLD (Jang et al., 2012, Melo et al., 2010), natural herbs and food factors have recently been the focus of many researchers. The common dandelion, Taraxacum officinale G.H. Weber ex Wiggers, a member of the Asteraceae/Composite family, is widely used as a traditional herb to treat various disorders such as liver disease, gallbladder disorders, digestive complaints, and arthritic and rheumatic diseases because of its anti-diabetic, anti-rheumatic, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-cardiogenic and hypoglycemic properties (Bisset, 1994, Bradley, 1992, Koh et al., 2010, Racz-Kotilla et al., 1974, Schutz et al., 2005, Schutz et al., 2006). Several reports have also verified that in rodent models, dandelion inhibits oxidative stress in CCl4-induced acute liver injury, high cholesterol, streptozotocin-induced diabetes (Cho et al., 2002, Cho et al., 2003, Park et al., 2010), and fibrosis in CCl4-induced acute liver injury (Domitrovića et al., 2010). Our own recent data showed that DLE had a protective effect against liver injury induced by methionine- and choline-deficient diet in mice (Davaatseren et al., 2013). However, the underlying mechanism of DLE in preventing obesity-induced hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance remains elusive. In this study, we examined the protective effect and underlying mechanism of DLE on HFD-induced obesity. We demonstrated that DLE showed a remarkable effect on hepatic lipid accumulation and improved insulin resistance in HFD-fed mice by reducing lipid and activating phosphorylation of adenosine monophosphate (AMP)–activated protein kinase (AMPK), suggesting that DLE has a potential protective effect against NAFLD.
It’s not a natural leap to go from a few promising rat studies to “excellent liver tonic,” especially since “liver tonic” is such a vague and meaningless term.
There is actual, hard evidence of coffee’s benefits for liver health: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006295225006033#ab010
Epidemiological, experimental, and clinical evidence suggests that regular coffee consumption reduces the risk of liver disease and slows its progression to fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Dandelion may indeed have similar properties, yes, but the evidence base is not there yet to make such strong claims.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHdVFmjmQHM
He also creates wine from them in another video.
I love both dandelion leaf and root teas! The flowers probably make a decent tea too, although I’m yet to try that. Roasted dandelion root + roasted chicory root is a fantastic caffeine-free coffee substitute too.
The leaves are a nice salad green as well. But the kind you buy at the grocery store are usually a variety of chicory named “dandelion” much like how canned pumpkin is often other squashes that are close enough to be allowed to be called pumpkin.
