Big nettle – Urtica dioica

Big nettle description:

Urtica dioica L. Common name, also known as chanson, or chinensis, or common name, or common name, chinensis, ornamental species A perennial plant growing from a quarter to nearly five-quarters of a metre tall. Its stems are rigid. The whole plant is covered with burning glandular hairs. It is dioecious, one plant having only stamens and the other only bracts. The drooping panicles are longer than the leaf stalk.

Occurrence:

As a weed along roadsides and in gravel and sandy places virtually all over the globe. In our country it grows in fallows, roadsides, clearings, woods, – it prefers acacia woods, where it can form large patches.

Part to be collected:

Its leaves, which are traded as folia urticae. The leaves are heart-shaped ovate, pointed, with serrated edges.

Active ingredient:

Chlorophyll, besides a greenish dye, it contains an alkaloid and a glycosidic compound.

Collection and drying:

The leaves may be collected by cutting off the above-ground part of the plant with a sickle or scythe and stripping the leaves from it with the hand wrapped in a cloth, or by stripping the leaves from the upright stem with the hand wrapped in a cloth. The collected leaves are dried in a ventilated attic, or in the sun, but then they will be much lighter in colour. In spring, the young green shoots are picked and, after drying, are made into tea.

Cultivation:

Totally unnecessary, as the wild supply is always sufficient.

Processing and marketing:

It has been used in folk medicine for a long time against gout, and its medicinal use is becoming more and more common. In the dye industry it is used to make chlorophyll and as a harmless green dye. Its stems and fibres are used to make fabrics. Source: Dr. Ferenc Darvas and Dr Gyula Magyary-Kossa,Domestic medicinal plants, their production, marketing, effects and medicinal uses