Chickweed

Chickweed. This plant is so common, we've all stepped on it, weeded it, and seen it pretty much anywhere in the world not covered in snow. It's an incredibly useful medicinal herb, but it's also one of the most nutritious green vegetables you could find, and it's available for free, in all likely hood right outside your front, or backdoor somewhere.

Where I live I see it pretty much all year round, and same with wherever it is that Susan Weed lives. It's so common I was hesitant to identify it, thinking, I see plants that look like this all over the place, it can't be the extremely useful, health giving and legendary chickweed, can it? But yes it is.

I first handed a sprig of it to Hammy the Hamster



Hammy knows the good stuff. I tossed some in our salad, and the texture is wonderful, it's a succulent which means the leaves hold a lot of water; in a salad it's crisp and crunchy like perfect spinach, but with a milder taste.

Here is some of the good stuff I found out about Chickweed:

Ascorbic-acid, Beta-carotene, Calcium, Coumarins, Genistein, Gamma-linolenic-acid, Flavonoids, Hentriacontanol, Magnesium, Niacin, Oleic-acid, Potassium, Riboflavin, Rutin, Selenium, Triterpenoid saponins, Thiamin, and Zinc. The whole plant is used in alternative medicine as an astringent, carminative, demulcent, diuretic, expectorant, laxative, refrigerant, vulnerary. A decoction of the whole plant is taken internally as a post-partum depurative, emmenagogue, galactogogue and circulatory tonic. It is also used to relieve constipation, an infusion of the dried herb is used in coughs and hoarseness, and is beneficial in the treatment of kidney complaints. as an astringent, carminative, demulcent, diuretic, expectorant, laxative, refrigerant, vulnerary. A decoction of the whole plant is taken internally as a post-partum depurative, emmenagogue, galactogogue and circulatory tonic. It is also used to relieve constipation, an infusion of the dried herb is used in coughs and hoarseness, and is beneficial in the treatment of kidney complaints. New research indicates it's use as an effective antihistamine. The decoction is also used externally to treat rheumatic pains, wounds and ulcers. It can be applied as a medicinal poultice and will relieve any kind of roseola and is
effective wherever there are fragile superficial veins or itching skin conditions. Folklore Chickweed water is an old wives' remedy for obesity. (SOURCE)
Traditional Chinese medicine regards chickweed as sweet, moist and cool as well as vulnerary (wound healing). Stellaria dichotoma [yin chai ha]: In Chinese medicine the root of this plant is used to make a decoction which is employed as a febrifuge, emmenogogue, lactogogue, to stop noseleeds, to control heavy menstrual bleeding, and as a tonic for undernourished children.
Stellaria saxatilis [di jin cao]: A decoction of this plant is used in Chinese medicine for aching bones; is cooked with pork for cough and hemorrhage; is steeped in wine for rheumatism; is used as a poultice for rheumatism.

Google for yourself if you're interested in learning more, there's bountiful information on this plant that grows abundantly whether in fields, gardens, or cracks in the sidewalks.

There is no reason that lack of money or lack of decent produce for sale in the stores should hinder families from eating healthy, fresh vegetables on a regular basis. Between sprouting, and wildcrafting (gathering wild plants to eat, like chickweed!) there is ample cheap and ultra healthy vegetation available to anyone for mere pennies in the case of sprouting, or for free in the case of wildcrafting. Whether one is poor or not, eating greens fresh from a garden, or fresh from the earth is eating vegetables at their peak of healthfulness. Chickweed is free for the taking almost anywhere people live. Watch for this little green treasure wherever you may walk, wherever in the world you are reading this from.

Links about Chickweed:
http://www.herbalcuisine.com/Chickweed.html
http://www.herbalremediesinfo.com/chickweed.html
http://www.sacredearth.com/ethnobotany/foraging/Chickweed.php
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Chickweed.html
http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=1651
http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=871&bhcd2=1233443833
http://herbalistpath.blogspot.com/2007/04/chickweed-itch-oil.html