The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Burdock

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. We're going to talk about really a common plant today that, well, I mean, it's coming up right now. You'll see it all throughout summer and fall. This time of year, it's a great wild edible. We eat the leaves. Most people in the world actually grow it as a vegetable for the root and you harvest the root in the world actually grow it as a vegetable for the root and you harvest the root in the fall. We're going to talk about a little bit of the medicinal value of burdock today.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Burdock's a really common what they call a weed. It was began brought here as food and medicine and now people just spray it with Roundup and stuff. Really abundant food source in most places and a great source of herbal medicine. So I mean you got to associate dandelion with burdock. I mean the two plants are so very similar not only are they considered weeds but they have a slight bitterness. The roots are really good for the liver and they have a lot of good medicinal properties. And I mean, okay, yeah, they have burrs and they're real pain. Like pick them out of your dog's hair. Cut, you got to cut them out or out of your horse's mane or something. They get all over you.

Starting point is 00:01:16 Other than that, they're really great. You know, I think I've spent much of my life cutting burrs out of dogs for, and, and such as that. It really is a pain. So farm raised burdock is usually called gobo. I believe that's the Japanese name given to it, G-O-B-O. And they actually grow it in farms to use it as a vegetable. It's really popular throughout Asia and parts of Europe. The, well, all right, if you ever dug burdock, you know it's like impossible to eradicate

Starting point is 00:01:51 on your property because it has this like super long root. I mean a little burdock plant that stands maybe a foot and a half, two feet tall can have a root that's like three, four feet down. And it grows straight down like a taproot. You're not going to get it all up. So usually people dig it up, break the root off, and the next year it just comes right back, right? So they get around that by doing raised beds,

Starting point is 00:02:12 really deep raised beds with very loose soil. They grow it out for a season, then they remove the side, one side of the raised bed, and just dig it out like that. If you're gonna dig burdock, it really is easier if you can find it on a hillside or a stream bank and you can kind of do the same thing, dig it out from the side. So a lot of the Japanese recipes I found were for pickling the root.

Starting point is 00:02:35 And I think that would be really good. I haven't tried it. I usually would take the young root, kind of peel it, wash it and peel it, and just toss it in with stuff. It's got a real mild flavor, it's not real bitter, it's good sliced up, cooked with bacon, onions, and cabbage, that's for sure. The leaves are good too. They usually, I probably told you my favorite streamside dish, and that is to either catch a trout and fry it in a pan with bacon and some wild onions,

Starting point is 00:03:02 some ramps, something like that. It's some sorrel. If I can find some sorrel because it's got a lemony taste. Perfect meal. But you don't have to have the pan. You can actually just take a burdock leaf. It's a big leaf, right? And put your fish in there, your onion, your sorrel inside the cavity of the fish, wrap it up and cook it right on the coals and open it up like a little envelope. Oh man, it's fantastic. If you've got some good wild mushrooms that are edible and you know they're edible, or some crawfish tails, yeah, you can throw in maybe a little angelica for a little fennel type flavor. It's really very, very good actually.

Starting point is 00:03:40 You just peel out the charred outer leaves. You can eat the inner leaves and eat everything actually, just the whole package And you just peel off the charred outer leaves. You can eat the inner leaves. And eat everything actually, just the whole package. And spit out the bones of course. I usually have some rice with that. It's really one of the most amazing wild meals you can get. The roots I usually combine with dandelion because they're very similar in property. They're good for the liver and the skin.

Starting point is 00:04:07 It's one bitter, well two bitters, I should say, both the burdock root and the dandelion root. You can combine with licorice to make a bitter that's what they call cooling to the liver. You can't mix licorice with stronger bitters like genshin. They just cancel each other out. But this is one you can use with licorice. Licorice is very supportive of the lungs and kidneys, so sometimes you would want to do that with some liver support. This is especially good in the case of inflamed liver. It's soothing to the liver and helps it do its function.

Starting point is 00:04:43 But the use of burdock goes back thousands of years, obviously. Dioscorides wrote of two burdock, a big one and a little one, and we still have big, great burdock and lesser burdock. You'll find them growing on the same property. I don't know if there are maybe two varieties of the same plant, and literally that both genetics are in one seed pod, the burrs, because I rarely see just one growing by itself. So it could be or it could be two separate varieties that were you know brought to America at the same time and ended up in the same place.

Starting point is 00:05:16 Who knows right? So for the lesser burdock he said the root and seed of this so this is deus quarides again the root and seed of this soaked in wine have the strength when held in the mouth to soothe the toothache. It is a poultice for burns and chillblains, also drunk in wine for sciatica and dysuria. Of the greater burdock, he said, well he describes it, and then says one teaspoon of the coxia of the root taken as a drink with pine kernels. He used pine nuts a lot. Depending on where you live in America, we don't really have pine nuts where I live. You may have a stone pine in the western part of the state, maybe the Pinyon, but you can always buy pine nuts. They're really expensive though. So I think you can probably substitute almonds for

Starting point is 00:06:04 them though in this drink. But anyway, he said one teaspoon of decoction taken as a drink with pine kernels help spitters of blood that's people with tuberculosis a really bad any other kind of really bad lung infection or even really bad bronchitis can cause that it and helps with corrupt matter and when smeared on it soothes sores from the wrenching of the joints. The leaves are applied to old ulcers and then he gets into different names for it at the time and different languages. We don't need to worry about that. So England 1500's Gerard also differentiated between the larger and smaller, the lesser and greater Burdock. And he said, let's see, is this Gerard?

Starting point is 00:06:52 Yes, it's definitely Gerard because he talks very unique Elizabethan English, right? So anyway, the virtue, the roots taken with kernels of pineapples as Dioscordides witnesseth are good for them that spit blood and corrupt matter." Then he quotes the Nervous Name Apuleus, he said that the same, being stamped with a little salt and applied to the biting of a mad dog, cureth the same, and so speedethly setteth free the sick man. Hey, if you get bit by a mad dog, you can go to the hospital. If you were in the woods and you had no other option,

Starting point is 00:07:30 but for some reason you had burdock and pine nuts and salt, I guess it would be worth a try, but definitely not my go-to on that. He says, the juice of the leaves given to drink with honey procureth the urine, so it's a diuretic, and and take away the pains of the bladder and that the same drunk with old wine doth wonderfully help against the bitings of serpents Again take that with a grain of salt Literally in that one case

Starting point is 00:07:56 He quotes another herbalist cumella He said cumella de clareth that the herb beaten with salt and laid upon the scarifying, which is made by a lancet or razor, draws out the poison of the viper. Now, okay, that sounds probably a little crazy, right? But actually, there are poultices, what we call drying poultices that do draw out venom. If you want to read an interesting story about it, go to the Grow Network and look up Marjorie Wildcraft's publication on how she cured rattlesnake bite using I believe it was prickly pear cactus poultices or could have been plantain. But anyway yeah long history of that there is some truth to it. Again if you get bitten by a snake

Starting point is 00:08:42 reasonably responsibly I should say go to the doctor but she treated hers at home and Jack Spearco did the same thing y'all probably familiar with Jack Spearco and he was bitten by a copperhead her husband got bitten by a rattlesnake went to the hospital and had much more tissue damage and got a whole lot sicker and she did staying home using herbs. So look into it, make your own decisions. But anyway, he said that the root being stamped, that means crushed essentially, good against serpents, and the root in like manner is good against the king's evil. That is scrofula or inflamed glands of the throat. The stalk of the bur with the rind peeled off before the bur's come forth, being eaten

Starting point is 00:09:27 raw with salt and pepper, or boiled in the broth of fat meat, is pleasant to be eaten, being taken in like manner, and increaseth the seed and stirrupeth lust. Well, I don't know about that. But yes, you can peel the stalk and cook it in some broth or grease. You know, it is quite good. The whole plant is very edible. Except for the burrs, I guess, unless you get to the seeds inside of them. But as far as increaseth the seed and stirreth up the lust, probably not, but who knows.

Starting point is 00:09:58 It is also good nourishment, especially boiled. And we said it was good against ulcers at the lungs and spitting of blood. The root stamped again or crushed and combined with good ale is a most approved medicine for windy or cold stomach. Yeah, he's probably got a couple well we already covered all but he's just quoting the Ascorides now, so I'm going to move on. 1600s England, about 100 years later. Cole Pepper, who was an apothecist pharmacist at the time, wrote that, by seed or leaf,

Starting point is 00:10:43 you may draw the womb which way you please, either upward by applying it to the crown of the head in case it falls out, or downward in fits of the mother by applying it to the soles of the feet." Yeah, no idea on that one, okay? You're really talking about like prolapse here. Anyway, we'll go and maybe he's got some little more practical. Again, he talks about putting with pine nuts and it would help them to spit blood. So it was used that's 1600 years after Dioscortes wrote that. So it must

Starting point is 00:11:16 have been pretty effective. But now let's see if there's something we haven't talked about. The leaves applied to places troubled with the shrinking of the sinews or arteries gives much ease. The juice of the leaves or rather the roots themselves given to drink with old wine doth wonderfully help the biting of serpents. All right. And that the root beaten with a little salt laid on the place easeth the pain thereof. So soothing anti-inflammatory effects more than likely. The juice of the leaves taken with honey provoked with urine and remedied with the pain of the bladder. The seed being drunk in wine for forty days together does wonderfully help the sciatica.

Starting point is 00:11:54 So boy that's a cure you gotta commit to. The leaves bruised with the white of an egg and applied to any place burnt with fire take out the fire and give sudden ease. Yes, poultices of burdock are one of the best things for burns, really very good. The decoction of them foaming in on any fretting sore or canker, stayeth the corroding quality, which must afterwise be anointed with an ointment made of the same liquor, combined with hogs grease, nitrogen, vinegar boiled together. Interestingly, he preserved the roots with sugar and said, taken fasting, taken when you haven't eaten anything else, were good for consumption,

Starting point is 00:12:36 urinary gravel, you know, bladder and kidney stones. The seed is much committed to break the stone and cause a fit to be expelled by the urine and is most used with other things that do the same purpose. Getting up to modern use and out of the hard to pronounce Elizabethan English, let's get to Ms. Grieve writing in the 1930s. I agree with her. She said it was a stout, handsome plant.

Starting point is 00:13:00 I'm quite fond of burdock actually. She said the... Let's see, she gives a lawn description and you can identify burdock. I mean, if you can't, just look it up real quick on Google. You've been around this plant your entire life. You probably considered it a weed. But let's see if she said the name. Okay, so in Latin it's Arceum Lapa. Apparently a lot of burdock grew in Ireland and such. And lap is an old Celtic word. That's not really germane to our conversation.

Starting point is 00:13:43 But as Archie Bunker used to say, it's not joyment to the conversation, but the parts used medicinally. The dried root for the plant's first year's growth forms the official drug, but the leaves and fruits, commonly though erroneously called seeds, are also used. The roots dug in Julysh should be lifted with a beat lifter.

Starting point is 00:14:04 You know, that'd be a little bit easier, but like I said, dig them out of a hillside. It's really the best way you can do it. Unless you will grow them in raised beds. So she said burdock root has a sweet and mucilaginous taste. It does. It's well, I wouldn't call it sweet, but it's certainly not bitter. Maybe it is slightly sweet. Certainly not as sweet as a carrot.

Starting point is 00:14:22 Maybe a little bit more like a parsnip. I don't know. Anyway, burdock leaves are also collected in July and dried. Modesto action is in use. Here's what we're looking for. Alterative, that means something gradually brings you back to health. Diuretic and diaphoretic. Diaphoretic means it can help break a fever. One of the best blood purifiers in all skin diseases, it is a certain remedy and is effective to cure in many cases of eczema, either taken alone or combined with other remedies such as yellow dock and sesparilla. The root is particularly employed but the

Starting point is 00:14:54 leaves and seeds are equally valuable. Both root and seed may be taken as a decoction. Anti-scorbutic properties of the root make it very useful for boils, scurvy, okay, antiscorbutic means it has vitamin C, so it helps to get scurvy. A infusion of the leaves is useful to impart strength and tone to the stomach, especially for some forms of lasting indigestion. When applied externally as a poultice, leaves are highly resolvent for tumors and gouty swellings and relieve bruises and inflamed surfaces generally. The bruised leaves have been applied by the peasantry

Starting point is 00:15:30 in many countries as cataplysms to the feet as a remedy in hysterical disorders. From the seeds both some medical tincture and fluid extract are prepared and they are a benefit in chronic skin diseases. Let's see. Also relaxant and demulsant, demulsant means softening, with a limited amount of tonic property. Infusion of seeds used in drops of global plants that's retaining fluids, good for all affections of the kidneys.

Starting point is 00:16:02 According to the late herbalist Michael Moore, not the fat communist filmmaker, the leaves are very good for poultice, juice leaves, good for abrasions, heat rash, chafing, etc. The leaf is antimicrobial. Remember how one of the old authors said it was good for infected ulcers, sores, essentially. It has antimicrobial properties. essentially. It has antimicrobial properties. Also, it's particularly good for people recovering from cancer and could help prevent cancer due to a unique effect on the DNA. So it actually has some anti-cancer properties. Increases liver bile, good for constipation. Michael more liked the fluid extract of the root. Especially liked his kidney tonic. He actually died of kidney disease.

Starting point is 00:16:53 So he had a special interest in things that were good for the kidneys. And pregnancies in winter can be particularly difficult because we excrete toxins not just through the urine but through the skin. And in the wintertime we don't sweat as much and you're covered up with a bunch of clothing. So sometimes a pregnant woman might need a little kidney support and this would be one of his go-tos for that.

Starting point is 00:17:17 But of course you'll have to look into that. Good for eczema and psoriasis. Thomas J. Elple in writing in Botany a Day, said the root contains 45% inulin. That's what gives it that slightly sweet taste. It's the same compound as in Jerusalem artichoke. So you're going to have to, if you do start eating it, it may give you some gas and stomach upset the first few times you eat those roots because your body has to learn to process inulin. It's sort of an indigestible sugar. On the bright side, once you can get your gut and you want to eat some fermented foods

Starting point is 00:17:50 with this, really the best thing to do would be to pickle ferment the root and eat it. That way you're getting the ferment plus the inulin and your body will get used to it a little bit quicker. It's your gut bacteria really and flora that has to get used to it. It's not so much your body, it's actually what lives in your body. But anyway, inulin does not spike blood sugar. It is one of the things diabetics can eat. So really good to get used to eating inulin. Let's see. PDR for Physicians Desk Reference for Herbal Medicine says, Burdock may have antibacterial, ant-neoplastic, anti-toxic, antioxidant,

Starting point is 00:18:27 anti-retroviral, anti-inflammatory, and hepato-protective properties. So liver-protected properties. Plants for Future states, Burdock is one of the foremost detoxifying herbs in both Chinese and Western herbal medicine. The dried root of one-year plants is the official herb, but the leaves and fruits can also be used. It is used to treat conditions caused by an overload of toxins such as throat or other infections, boils, rashes, or other skin problems. The root is thought to be particularly good at helping eliminate heavy metals from the body. The plant is also part of the North American formula called ESSIEC, which is a popular treatment for cancer. It's effective since it's never been reliably proven

Starting point is 00:19:05 or disproven since controlled studies have not been carried out. That's right, there's a Native American tea that's supposed to be a remedy for cancer. Some people swear by it. And the doctors and pharmaceutical companies just can't be bothered enough to test it to see if it works or not.

Starting point is 00:19:21 Why might that be? Well, could it be because cancer drugs cost a whole lot more than an herbal tea? Especially when you can grow the plants or harvest them from your own backyard. I think so. Yeah I think so. The other herbs included in the formula are Rumex. It's a doc. Olmus rubra. That's elm. Oh what else? Rium plant. I cannot remember which that one is. It's R-H-E-U-M-P-L-A-M-A-T-U-M. That's on the tip of my tongue.

Starting point is 00:19:54 It's not coming to me. Anyway, yeah, it's right there. Well, you can look it up. The plant is antibacterial, antifungal, and carminative. It has soothing mucilaceous properties and is said to be one of the most certain cures from any types of skin diseases, burns, bruises, etc. It is used in the treatment of herpes, eczema, acne, impotigo, ringworm, boils, bites, etc. The plant can be taken internally as an infusion or used externally as a wash, used with caution. The roots of one-year-old plants are harvested mid

Starting point is 00:20:28 summer and dried. They are alternative a parent blood purifier, coliog, the purative, diaphoretic, diuretic, and stomatic. The seed is alternative, anti-phlogistic, the purative, diaphoretic, and diuretic. That's a lot of big words. We've covered those all in the past. Google will tell you what they mean real easy. No sense in going back over them. A recent search has shown that seed extracts lower blood sugar levels. Another reason this plant may be good for diabetics. The seed is harvested in the summer, dried for later use. The seed is crushed into poultices for bruises the leaves poultice some burns ulcers and sores and the only known hazard that I can find on this plant is that the seed pods the birds burrs are irritating

Starting point is 00:21:15 which is why the old saying when somebody was upset they said he had a burr in his britches you don't want to have a burr in your britches so anyway y'all yeah burdock excellent food Really one of the best medicines Totally mild safe as far as I know for just about anyone Check into it look into it Stop seeing it as a weed and start seeing it as food and medicine and because it's pretty abundant and really darn tasty actually.

Starting point is 00:21:45 So y'all have a good one. The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine

Starting point is 00:22:02 and there is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs. I'm not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true. I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience and if I believe in herbs help me. I cannot nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use an herb anyone recommends, you are treating yourself.

Starting point is 00:22:25 You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, a sensitivity, an underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog,

Starting point is 00:22:44 you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices, and not to blame me for anything ever.

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The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Burdock

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