# Burdock *Common burdock, *Arctium minus*; great burdock, *Arctium lappa* of Linnaeus, *Lappa officinalis*, *Lappa major*, *Bardana major*; bat weed; clotbur, wrongly; the Ojibwe *gi’masan*, big stickers; the Potawatomi *as kitä’boe*, stickers* **Known today as.** The coarse biennial emigrant of roadsides and dwellings, three to five feet high, with great heart-shaped leaves cottony beneath and purple flower-heads in burrs of hooked scales, a deep root black outside and white within: native to Europe and Asia and spread westward across America by every coat and fleece its burrs could catch. It flowers from June to October. Kind: Plant > **Caution.** Contact dermatitis and other allergic reactions have been reported from burdock, and the seed lignan arctigenin is toxic at a dose; the root and peeled stems are old foods. ## 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. ## 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. ## Pharmacognosy and toxicology - **inulin**: up to 45 per cent of the root - **arctigenin and arctiin**: lignans of the seed - **caffeoylquinic acids**: - **polyacetylenes**: antimicrobial **Mechanism.** The root is mildly diuretic and its inulin is a prebiotic; the lignans of the seed are anti-inflammatory in cells and animals; the “blood purifier” idea has no modern counterpart. **Dose.** Safe as food (gobo) and tea; the burrs are a contact irritant, and reports of poisoning from “burdock tea” were adulteration with belladonna root. **Standing.** EMA monograph (2011) for the root as a diuretic and for mild skin conditions, on traditional use. ## What lore surrounds it? Its burs, caught on a dog’s coat after a walk in the Alps, gave the Swiss engineer George de Mestral the idea for Velcro in the 1940s. Named twice for its grip: *Arctium* from the Greek bear, for the shaggy heads, and *lappa* from a word for seizing, since, as Ray said, it may be derived either from laying hold or from licking. Shakespeare’s burs, Grieve reminds us, “they’ll stick where they are thrown.” The Ojibwe simply called it big stickers, and the Potawatomi stickers. ## 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.” ## Sources - Grieve, M. (1931). *A Modern Herbal*, “Burdock.” - Culpeper, N. (1652). *The English Physitian*. - Smith, H. H. (1932). *Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians*, Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 4(3), “Common Burdock.” Project Gutenberg, 49527. - Smith, H. H. (1933). *Ethnobotany of the Forest Potawatomi Indians*, Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 7(1), “Common Burdock.” Internet Archive, ethnobotany-of-the-forest-potawatomi-indians-by-huron-h.-smith-1933. - Densmore, F. (1928). *Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians*, Forty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, “Arctium minus.” Internet Archive, usesofplantsbych00dens. - Millspaugh, C. F. (1887). *American Medicinal Plants*, vol. 1, no. 92, “Lappa,” and Plate 92. Internet Archive, americanmedicina01mill_0. - Rafinesque, C. S. (1830). *Medical Flora, or Manual of the Medical Botany of the United States of North America*, vol. 2, “Arctium lappa,” p. 193. Internet Archive, b21468710_0002. - EMA/HMPC (2011). *Community herbal monograph on Arctium lappa L., radix* (EMA/HMPC/573551/2010). - Chan, Y.-S., et al. (2011). “A review of the pharmacological effects of *Arctium lappa*.” *Inflammopharmacology* 19. - Jin, X., et al. (2023). A systematic review on botany, ethnopharmacology, quality control, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicity of *Arctium lappa* L. fruit. *Journal of Ethnopharmacology* 308: 116223. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2023.116223 --- *Burdock.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-30. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/burdock Historical description, not medical advice.