Burdock

Burdock: what was it used for?

The Flambeau Ojibwe put the root into a medicine for pain in the stomach and held it a tonic; the Forest Potawatomi made a tea of the root for a general tonic and blood purifier; Densmore gives the root as diuretic, diaphoretic, and alterative, in the eighth United States Pharmacopoeia. In Europe and the East it was the depurant for every skin disease: Grieve has root or seeds decocted, an ounce to a pint and a half of water boiled down to a pint, a wineglassful three or four times a day, the leaves poulticed on tumours and gouty swellings, and the seeds the part the Americans preferred. Millspaugh gives the old decoction for pulmonary catarrh, rheumatism, gout, scrofula, and scurvy, thought better than sarsaparilla, and Woodville’s two dropsies relieved by it as a diuretic. As food, Rafinesque says the boiled roots, stems, and leaves were eaten in Canada and the root even raw like a radish, sweetish and austere, making the urine milky; Millspaugh has the young stems stripped of their rind eaten raw or boiled with oil, or in a potage with vinegar.

Burdock: what does modern science say?

A 2011 review gathers the laboratory work on root, seed, and leaf, antioxidant and antidiabetic compounds in the root, anti-inflammatory and tumour-inhibiting lignans in the seeds, and warns of contact dermatitis and allergic reactions. A 2023 systematic review of the fruit, the Chinese drug Arctii Fructus, counts more than two hundred compounds, chiefly the lignans arctiin and arctigenin, finds the fruit extract without toxicity but arctigenin toxic at a certain dose, and reports clinical studies of the fruit in chronic inflammation and ageing; the mechanisms, it says, still want study.

Burdock: what did the older authorities say?

Culpeper

Places it under Venus, and prescribes the leaves bruised with the white of an egg for burns.

Huron H. Smith

The big stickers: “The Flambeau Ojibwe use the root of burdock as one of the ingredients of a medicine for pain in the stomach. It is also supposed to have a tonic effect.” The Potawatomi “make a ‘tea’ from the Burdock root which is taken as a general tonic and blood purifier.”

C. S. Rafinesque

“Root valuable, diuretic, diaphoretic and detergent, equivalent to Aralia and Smilax. Useful in rheumatism, scurvy, syphilis, nephritis… gravel and gout. These properties are mild, since the boiled roots, stems and leaves are eaten in Canada; nay, the root even raw, like radishes, the taste is sweetish austere: the use of it makes the urine milky, and produces flatulence. The seeds are bitter and purgative.”

Charles F. Millspaugh

“The herb is so rank that man, the jackass, and caterpillar are the only animals that will eat of it. The young stems, stripped of their rind, may be eaten raw or boiled, as a salad with oil, or a potage with vinegar.” The fresh root is gathered in autumn, before the frost has touched the plant deeply.

Mrs. M. Grieve

“One of the best blood purifiers. In all skin diseases, it is a certain remedy,” alone or with yellow dock and sarsaparilla; root and seeds as a decoction of an ounce to a pint and a half boiled down to a pint, a wineglassful three or four times a day; the bruised leaves laid by the peasantry on the feet, and as a remedy for hysterical disorders. “Americans use the seeds only.”