White Dead Nettle

Lamium album

 

This is not a nettle at all – it just looks like one. It doesn't possess any sting and is not in the same botanical family as the stinging nettle. It tends to grow where nettles grow, and is so common that its unique charms are often overlooked. On close inspection the flower is not pure white, but faintly suffused with green. Anyone who spent their childhood in the country will know that a small drop of nectar can be sucked from the base of each flower. This is for bees. They dip their long probosci down the petal tube to reach the nectar, while pollen from the stamens gets dusted onto their backs. As they settle on the next plant the pollen is rubbed onto the projecting stigmas, fertilizing the flower. Contemplation of these perfect adaptations: the nettle-like disguise to ward off browsing quadrupeds and leaf eating insects, and the sheer elegance of its relationship with bees, can provoke  wonderment at the complexity and precision of natural selection. How the relationships between living things alter their form and function over thousands of generations, and how these relationships are themselves immaterial moments and movements, made from the essence of mind, whether conscious or otherwise.

 

Lamium album has a curious place in the modern herbalist's dispensary. There has been very little research carried out into its active constituencies or therapeutic efficacy, and yet it is widely used for many different applications and, if anything, is increasing in poularity. Its most popular use is for female reproductive disorders, particularly for leucorrhoea, and as a regulator of excessively heavy menstruation and of bleeding between periods. It is used for late, irregular, or light periods related to weakness, nutritional deficiencies, and overwork, stress, or nevous tension. It contains tannins and flavonols, which may be responsible for some its haemostatic properties.

 

Some recent research has shown that the flowers have a high antioxidant potential, which may indicate their use in the prevention of degenerative and neoplastic diseases of various organs, particularly for the urinary tract and reproductive organs. This goes some way to backing up some of the other traditional uses for the herb such as bladder disorders and benign prostatic hyperplasia. As a tea I have found that the young, fresh leaves have mild nervine properties, and are useful for cases of mild insomnia.

Preparations:

The American herbalist, Charles Millspaugh recommends that “two parts of the fresh leaves and one part of the fresh flowers should be chopped and pounded to a pulp, enclosed in a piece of new linen, and subjected to pressure. The expressed juice should then be thoroughly mixed with an equal part by weight of alcohol. After allowing the mass to mascerate eight days in a well-stopped bottle, in a dark cool place, the tincture maybe separated by filtration. This tincture should be opaque, with a reddish-brown colour.” Of course, this is assuming that you have access to pure alcohol. Otherwise you could first dry the herb, and then use anything from 25-40% alcohol, such as vodka, and mascerate the whole chopped herb for a couple of weeks and then press it out and filter.

 

The dried herb also makes an acceptable herbal tea, and is mildly sedative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matowski A, Piotrowska M (2006) Antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities of some medicinal plants from the Lamiaceae. Fitoterapia, Volume 77, Issue 5, Pages 346-353