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Urtica dioica - Nettle for Allergies



I JUST LEARNED SOMETHING NEW ABOUT URTICA dioica that has me over the moon! Chatting with local Jtree clinical herbalist - Medicine Man, Doug McKern of La Larria Botanicals about making clinical medicine, solvents, desert medicine, CDC adverse effects studies and reports (i’m obsessed now with reading CDC reports & American Botanical Council) he told me that the most effective method of extraction of Urtica dioica- Nettle for allergies is by using FRESH Nettle. 


I had that AHHA moment! I see why certain tinctures of Nettle have not worked in the past for me when taken for allergies and I realize the effectiveness in comparison to the acetum’s & oxymels I have made using FRESH Nettle have helped my allergies. 


Spicy Nettle Oxymel 


Medicine Making 


I’m now in a rabbit hole of research on WHY fresh is effective and why not dried. This makes complete sense to me. I’ve made tea and infusions for allergies using dried plant material and NADA whereas having a dropper full of an acetum or oxymel I made using fresh Nettle has helped with the allergies. I’m so blissed out right now... so happy that my Desert Fire Cider, acetum and oxymels have all been made of fresh Nettle and are the effective way for treating allergies, hay fever and asthma.  

Thank you Lisa for always opening your garden to me & Doug of T&D farms for bringing me fresh Nettle & Dough McKern for sharing your wisdom with me. Herbal medicine is so fascinating to me and I am constantly learning as I go along. 


Harvesting Nettle from my girlfriends place in OC 


Harvesting Nettle in Topanga @ my friends place. 

If you’re new to plant medicine and have heard how nutritive Nettle is and you want to get the vitamin and mineral contents of Nettle, alcohol is not the solvent for extraction. So buying a tincture is not the way to go unless the label shows made from fresh Nettle. Look for oxymels or acetums, vinegar extraction or water extraction, making a Nourishing Herbal Infusion or a tea 


Nourishing Herbal Infusion - 1oz dried plant - put in a quart size jar with a lid. Bring a quart of water to a boil and cover plant material. Let sit for a minimum of 4 - 8 hours strain and compost the plant material. If you don’t compost return the plant to the earth. Plants don’t like to be tossed in the trash. Tea infusion - 1 - 3 tbs per 8oz boiling water - steep 20 minutes or longer. Check out Doug McKern’s La Larria - a wizard at medicine making with a deep understanding of the plants especially those of the Mojave. He’s not on Facebook - he’s old school and doesn’t have a cell phone. His herbal remedies are available at the Joshua Tree Health Food store & Grateful Desert Herb Shoppe & EcoMarket Herbal actions: anti-inflammatory, tonic, expectorant, diuretic, anti-arthritic, nutritive, hemostatic, stimulant, anti-allergenic, alkalizing, galactagogue, blood purifier. 

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