The Humble Dandelion & Your Health

Often regarded as a weed, the humble dandelion is actually highly nutritious and has an array of medicinal uses.

Dandelions grow all over NZ so it’s pretty easy to harvest them, the young leaves can be cooked or eaten raw or made into tea (click here for tea recipe). The roots when dried and roasted make a great coffee substitute and the flowers can be used in salads. You can also pickle the unopened flower buds the same way as you would nasturtiums.

Dandelions can also help with SARS CoV-s spike proteins and their variants. A German university study found that the common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) can block spike proteins from binding to the ACE2 cell surface receptors in human lung and kidney cells. More on this here.

Most children relish the opportunity to blow a puff of dandelion seeds into the wind. This wonderful plant is commonly regarded as a weed and can be found growing in sidewalk cracks and across untended roadsides and lawns. There are some look-alike flowers, so be sure of your identification before harvesting the plant. It is in the Aster/Daisy Family.

For more information on the humble dandelion and how it can help you improve your health go here Why you should go and pick dandelions right now.

For how to make dandelion tea click here.

Edible Use: The entire plant is edible and nutritious. The young leaves are best for greens, since the leaves grow more bitter with age. Young leaves can be cooked or eaten raw. Dandelion root is sometimes dried and roasted for use as a coffee substitute. The roots can also be cooked and eaten. They are bitter, with a taste similar to a turnip. Dandelion flowers make a nice salad garnish or can be battered and fried. Unopened flower buds are prepared into pickles similar to capers. Flowers can also be boiled and served with butter. Dandelion leaves and roots make a pleasant, but bitter tea. Flowers are fermented to make dandelion wine. Leaves and roots are used to flavour herbal beers and soft drinks.

Medicinal Use: The entire dandelion plant is used medicinally. The bitter roots are good for gastrointestinal and liver problems, while the leaves have a powerful diuretic effect. The plant makes a great general tonic and benefits the entire body. It is high in vita- mins, minerals, and antioxidants. I use dandelion tea and tincture for internal use.

The above two exerts are from Dr. Nicole Apelian who is the author of the Lost Book of Herbal Remedies which has over 550 powerful natural remedies made from plants. Many of these remedies have been used by our forefathers for hundreds of years, while others come from Nicole’s extensive natural practice.

I highly recommend this extremely useful, well written, book.

When you order this book in hard copy you also receive the digital copy along with two other digital books:

Everyday Disaster Medicine Guide & 80 Square Feet Medicinal Garden Guide

For more information and to order the digital version click here.

To order a hard copy of the book from New Zealand, which comes with the digital copy, use this link The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies ordering from NZ.