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The nettle is healing, spiritual – and yet unpopular. It will be medicinal plant of the year in 2022. A herb with a cultural history.
It has many names, most of which are unflattering: Pickmadam, pig’s rose, devil’s herb. The herb armed with stinging hairs also serves as caterpillar food, detox tea and is even said to have spiritual powers. The underrated all-rounder will be medicinal plant of the year in 2022.
The supporting roles of the nettle
The mostly unpopular herb has amazing things to offer. A few years ago, Ludwig Fischer dedicated an entire booklet to the nettle and its cultural history.
Finds show that the nettle served as a fiber supplier 30,000 years ago. And in countless texts, religious, but also in legends and fairy tales, there is talk of the nettle. In Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Wild Swans”, a princess has to painfully weave shirts from nettles in order to turn enchanted royal sons back into swans.
Legend:
In narratives, the nettle makes a bad trap. It was discovered early on as a useful and medicinal plant.
imago / Gottfried Czepluch
In the Bible, nettles are still mainly evil and hardship. Those who are punished by God’s judgment should, as described in Isaiah 34:13, have nettles and thistles grow in their castles.
A herb for the kidneys
Nevertheless: As a medicinal plant, the nettle has been an important herb since ancient times. The Roman naturalist Pliny recommended it especially for kidney stones, but also for nosebleeds, ulcers, joint pain and uterine problems. The Greek doctor Hippocrates attributed a blood-purifying effect to it.
In the almost 1000 year old work of the nun Hildegard von Bingen on the causes and treatments of diseases, the nettle takes up a lot of space. The famous healer emphasized the versatility of the Urtica dioica. Because every part of the nettle can be used: the fibers to make bast, leaves and seeds for food, teas, therapeutic fasts and herbs.
A plant in the fight against demons
But the nettle is not only popular in naturopathy: it is also said to have spiritual powers and ward off demons and evil fiends. At the turn of the year in the Middle Ages, houses and stables were smoked with dried nettle leaves.
The Struwwelpeter author Heinrich Hoffmann finally wrote a hymn-like song of praise in somewhat bumpy verses for the misunderstood plant in 1849.
A deserved winner
This nettle is a wonder herb – for humans and animals. Without them the butterfly “little fox” could not exist.
Dried and burned, it drives away evil spirits at the turn of the year, detoxifies the body as tea and tastes good as a vegetable. So it deserves the choice of next year’s medicinal plant.