Urtica dioica
Actions:
Nutritive, Antidiabetic, Anti-inflammatory, Culinary
Therapeutic Categories:
Arthritis, Blood sugar management
Safety:
mild stomach upset, fluid retention, sweating, diarrhea, and hives or rash
Magical Uses:
Protection, warding, healing, strength, reverse hexes, banishing
Plant Parts Used: Leaves
Preparations: Edible leaves, teas, capsules, tinctures and creams
Energetics: warm, dry
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Plant Identifiers: Erect, wiry, green stem. The leaves have a strongly serrated margin, a cordate base, and an acuminate tip with a terminal leaf tooth longer than adjacent laterals. Leaves and stems are very hairy with non-stinging hairs, and in most subspecies, also bear many stinging hairs (trichomes or spicules), whose tips come off when touched.
Also known as: stinging nettle, burn-nettle, burn-weed, or burn-hazel
Chemical Constituents: fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and metals, tannins, carbohydrates, sterols, polysaccharides, isolectins, amino acids