AKA: Arctium lappa (botanical name), Turkey Burrseed, Hurr-Bur, Gobo, Bardana, Burr seed, Clotbur, Cocklebur, Hardock, Lappa, Grass Burdock, Hareburr, Beggar’s buttons, thorny Burr, Cockle buttons, love leaves, Happy Major

Related to the sunflower, burdock grows to about five feet, has a furrowed, pithy stem, and wooly branches. Its hairy leaves are green on top and gray underneath and it sports reddish-purple flower clusters. The root of the burdock is long and fleshy and considered highly nutritious. This stout, attractive biennial originated in Asia and Europe but has spread throughout the rest of the world thanks to European settlers. While some prize the plant for it healing medicinal properties, many others considered it a weed. Burdock can be found growing pretty much everywhere: along fences, walls, roadsides, even in waste sites and in densely populated areas. It grows well in moist, neutral to alkaline soil and thrives in sun or light shade.

The root along with the seeds and leaves of the burdock are used for herbal medicine. It contains fixed, volatile oils called bur oil along with starch, mucilage, bitters, inulin, resin, tannic acid, iron, chromium, manganese, copper, zinc, Vitamin B complex and Vitamin E. It has been used historically as an antidote for acute poisoning because of its purported ability to neutralize and eliminate poisons from the system.

Benefits and Uses

• Diuretic
• Alternative
• Blood purifier
• Digestive Aid
• Relieves skin problems

Many herbalists consider burdock to be one of nature’s best blood purifiers and has a multitude of benefits on the body when it is used as an alternative. As an alternative, burdock helps stimulate the removal of waste products from the liver and kidneys, helping to rapidly cleanse and eliminate impurities from the blood. This helps remove the harmful acids that form in the blood because of calcification deposits. These acids overburden the blood and are a major factor behind arthritis, fevers, infections and skin diseases.

Burdock is a diaphoretic, meaning that it promotes sweating, which helps release toxins through the skin. It is also a diuretic which also helps eliminate toxins through the kidneys and bladder. The increased flow of urine helps ease pressure off of the kidneys and lymphatic system and has other beneficial side effects including ridding the body of excess water weight, relieving the swelling of jopints and alleviates edema. This diuretic action is also useful for inflammatory conditions like rheumatism, arthritis, gout, scrofula and swelling of the neck and throat.

Burdock is thought to help protect liver and heal it from damage by promoting the flow and release of bile which helps cleanse the liver. The increased bile flow also helps in the digestion process. The mucilage, bitters and inulin that burdock contains also helps support good digestion, helping smooth the digestive tract and helping with many stomach conditions.

Japanese researchers have isolated a substance in the Burdock root called the "B-factor" which is said to help reduce cell mutation. The Burdock seed also contains a dietary fiber known as “arctiin” which is believed to help slow the growth of early stage malignancies in the breast, colon, and pancreas. Arctiin also helps lower blood sugar by filling the intestines with fiber, thus preventing the absorption of sugars in the bloodstream. Arctiin's presence in the bloodstream also helps prevent the absorption of toxic compounds found in food which further supports the plant's use as a effective blood cleanser.

Taken internally, Burdock can help relieve skin diseases and inflammatory conditions that are brought on by chronic toxicity such as eczema, psoriasis, acne, leprosy, boils and sores.  It is also thought to help with diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea, which are caused by the toxicity in the blood.

Burdock can also be used externally for many skin problems and it has many of the same beneficial effects when used on the outside as it has on the inside. It has been used in poultices to help relieve boils, carbuncles, canker sores, eczema, psoriasis, skin cancers, bug bites, sores, poison oak, poison ivy, swellings, leprosy, burnsm wounds and hemorrhoids. The bur oil found in the root can help strengthen and beautify hair, stop inching, flaking and hair loss, It can be also used  to relieve the swelling and pain caused by arthritis, rheumatism, sciatica, lumbago and back pain.

Burdock also contains polyacetylenes which are believed to have antibacterial, antifungal, and antimicrobial properties. Japanese herbalists  use it to help control infections and claim that it helps kill Streptococcus bacteria, disease causing fungi even ringworm.

Dosage

Take two capsules two to three times a day with water at mealtime

Warnings

Large amounts of Burdock may cause uterine stimulation, so pregnant women should consult their physician before taking it. People on diabetic medicine should also discuss its use with a physician.

coming soon....