Description

Dandelion has a basal rosette of smooth, deeply indented, toothed leaves. Flowers are single, yellow composed of ray florets and have a ring of downward bending green bracts called the ‘involucre’ beneath them. The flowers are borne on a single, hollow stem that can be covered with fine hairs. Stems are individual, leafless and unbranched but a rosette may produce several.  The stem exudes a bitter white latex when damaged.

Seed heads form a globe that is easily dispersed by the wind.

Medicinal use

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale, not ‘Tarzan officials’ as my autocorrect kept trying to suggest), is one of the great Spring tonics, ideal for a clean out after winter, which is just about when it starts to show itself.

It is a premiere alterative, cleaning the blood and system via the liver and kidneys. The whole plant is rather bitter and cooling and this helps explain its use in both Western and Chinese herbalism. Bitters are great movers, sending energy downwards for elimination. They stimulate a sluggish liver which is, after all, the organ through which most of our metabolism occurs. Bitters stimulate bile activity and affect the uptake and storage of sugar. In TCM, Dandelion is said to clear heat, which it does well, especially in the liver, which benefits enormously from Dandelion’s bitterness. This bitterness, which stimulates the gallbladder to make and release bile is also the reason why Dandelion is a mild laxative. Any plant that stimulates bile can be a laxative because bile is the key lubricant of the intestines.

Toning the liver as Dandelions do, thereby affects our whole body and metabolism, they help stimulate and move that digestive fire by making our liver more effective through helping it to eliminate wastes more effectively. This elimination where there is a difference between the therapeutic use of the root and the leaves of Dandelions. Dandelion roots work on the liver, promoting the production and release of bile, while the leaves work to nourish and maintain the kidneys and their functions. Both help with detoxifying and cleansing. Both work to help relieve cases of arthritis (heat in the joints) and skin conditions, which are often linked to our liver and the need to detox pathways of elimination.

Dandelions store their energy as inulin, which is a starchy carbohydrate much loved by probiotic flora and fauna so, If you’re into fermenting foods, Dandelions can help feed those little fellows in your gut that benefit from fermented foods. Research has shown that many of the wonderful chemicals that are greatly beneficial to both our body and mind are produced by gut microbes before being whisked away to the parts of the body where they do most good. Promoting the health of good bacteria in our gut also helps to reduce the numbers of bad microbes (aka pathogens) that can exist in our digestive tract, causing all sorts of problems.Maintaining a healthy gut flora simply stops these from gaining a foothold.

Dandelion sap, applied directly onto warts is a traditional cure for that skin condition. Nicole Rose in ‘The Prisoner’s Herbal’ lists it as a discutient. That was a new action that I needed to look up. A discutient is capable of dispersing tumors and coagulated blood. That could explain, to some degree, Dandelion’s anodyne (pain relieving) property, especially if the swelling or coagulation is causing a pressure build up in the affected tissue – once again, as in TCM, Dandelion moves blood.

Lucy Jones uses a tincture of the flowers or seed heads to help folks with bipolar disorders find balance. She finds that the flower tincture, taken during a low stage helps greatly and the seed tincture helps balance the highs. It’s definitely something to follow up on.

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Now for the special bit that shows how plants know how to look after us.

Dandelion leaves are a well known and widely used diuretic (that is, they make you urinate). They are so effective that it is recommended you don’t have Dandelion tea before bedtime! The French have a term for Dandelion…’pis en lit‘, or ‘piss a bed’. That kind of lets you know how well it works.

Dandelion leaves are full of potassium. That’s good for our brains and muscle function and also for the fluid balance between our cells and the interstitial fluids (those that are outside of the cells but still in the tissue). There has to be a balance between sodium and potassium to ensure the correct balance of water both inside and outside of cells. Potassium is excreted from our body when we urinate and so is lost through the use of diuretics. Most pharmaceutical diuretics make us lose potassium when they work and we need potassium supplements to replace it but Dandelion leaves are busy putting back in what they make go out! They don’t force the kidneys to work harder, they encourage the natural process and support and nourish the cells that clean and excrete. WIth this power, Dandelion teams well with Nettles, especially the seeds which are used in herbalism to aid damaged or poorly functioning kidney cells to work better.

By supporting one of our major pathways of elimination, Dandelion helps when other pathways have had to take up the slack left by poorly functioning kidneys. In this way, they can help with such things as varied as skin rashes and bad breath when these ailments have been caused by poor elimination.

Of course, Dandelion leaves can also help in things like edema, some heart issues, fluid build ups anywhere on the body, even dandruff – all things that may be the result of the rest of the body not eliminating wastes and metabolites properly.

Dandelions are useful for eye problems. Eating Dandelions and particularly the flowers gives you an increase in the amount of lutein and zeaxanthin in your diet. Those two compounds, along with the rich vitamin content of Dandelions helps to fight eye problems such as Macular Degeneration. Lutein and zeaxanthin accumulate in the macular region of the retina, forming the macular pigment which protects the macular from damage from light and oxidative stress).

Preparing and using Dandelion

Fresh or dried Dandelion leaves can make a great, detoxifying tea or infusion. Include the fresh leaves in salads or cooking where their mineral content will add to the meal’s nutritional content and the slight bitterness will help to stimulate digestion. You can juice the leaves for a nutritional, stimulating drink or express it as a succus for extra potency and storability.

The fresh root can be cooked and eaten (Nicole Rose suggests stir fried) or dried, roasted and ground to make a decent coffee substitute when decocted. Many off the shelf Dandelion root beverages are powdered very finely and can be used as a tea. In all cases, the probiotic inulin is made available for consumption.

Because Dandelion is used to detoxify the system in various ways, I’ve never used it as a tincture, preferring the water content of other preparation methods to help flush out the body. It is however used by some folks as a tincture for (congestive) heart complaints but I’ve not gone down that path myself.

Express the latex directly onto warts for an effective traditional remedy. Crush the flowers and apply directly to minor wounds for pain relief and other healing effects.

Combine Dandelion with Nettles (particularly Nettle seeds) as a tea or infusion to help restore the proper functioning of weak or damaged kidneys.

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Identifying Dandelion

There are quite a few similar plants around that are mistaken for Dandelion, so it’s important to learn how to identify it properly. Those plants include Catsear.

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Other herb pages on Ligaya Garden

We cover a lot of ground on many herb related topics here on our website. There are whole pages devoted to different topics as well as frequent posts. Some of the links are –

Garden Herbs

Wild Herbs

Making Remedies

Mushroom medicine

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