Common names: Chickweed, Chickenwort, Winterweed
Taxonomic name: Stellaria media
Family: Caryophyllaceae
Related herbs: Dianthus, Carnations, Mouse Ears, Soapwort
Area of origin: Eurasia
Parts used: aerial parts
Can be used medicinally for: Food, anaemia, inflammation, infections, erysipelas, irritation, rashes, psoriasis, eczema, chook food, swelling, tumors, carbuncles, edema, fluid retention, gout, rheumatism, sore throat, bug bites, bruises, infections, sores, poor digestion, fevers
Organ/System affinities:
Keywords: clears heat, softens, moistens
Healing Actions: anti-inflammatory, anti-itch, antipyretic, antirheumatic, bitter, demulcent, depurative, digestive, diuretic, emmenagogue, emollient, expectorant, lactagogue, vulnerary, nutritional.
Taste: sweet, bitter
Tissue states: heat, dryness, atrophy, hardening
Energetics: cool, moist
Healing constituents: Essential oil, saponins, anthraquinones, flavonoids, coumarins, hydroxycoumarins, carboxylic acids, triterpenoids, glycosides, vitamin C
Warnings: Not recommended during pregnancy. May enhance absorption of some chemicals through the skin. Possible interaction with viagra (not that I’d ever know . Ha!).
Description
Chickweed is a delicate, sprawling plant that loves moisture and moist places, including plant pots. It’s quite important to learn to identify Chickweed as there are several other plants that can be mistaken for it. None of them will make you sick, but you will be missing out on the nutritional and medicinal benefits if you get the wrong plant. Because of this, I’ve included a whole section on identifying Chickweed, with pics, at the end of this page.
Medicinal use
Chickweed (Stellaria media) is a sprawling ground cover that comes out at the end of winter, just when our bodies need one of its main effects.
Chickweed is an excellent way to move those stagnant fluids in our bodies, those toxins that build up over winter with all the good eating, the cold and lack of movement. It is known in herbalism as a lymphatic tonic as it helps get the lymph moving and draining as it should.
Chickweed contains saponins, soap-like substances that help clean and cool our membranes and thus reduce inflammation and swelling. These also make Chickweed very good at drawing contaminants and foreign objects from the skin when applied as a fomentation or poultice. I combine it with a little Plantain for this purpose and add a little Calendula to help clear the redness and stop infection.
The mineral salts in Chickweed help to draw moisture to hardened swollen areas, making them softer. Most plants that are listed as having a herbally ‘salty’ taste have this property.
The main Folk use for Chickweed’s cooling, soothing nature is for rashes and inflammations. Almost any kind of inflammation can benefit from Chickweed, but it comes into its own when used as a cream or poultice for rashes. It is a very effective way to get diaper rash under control. Eczema responds well to it too.
Anytime you see ‘red’, ‘inflamed’ or ‘irritated’ tissues, especially in Spring, they could benefit from Chickweed. It can be used for red, inflamed eyes, where it can be directly applied as a poultice, dropped into the eyes as a tea or infusion or drunk as an infusion where its bitter property helps clear heat from the eyes via their energetic relationship with the liver.
Being a soft plant, it is best used fresh to take advantage of all its water soluble goodness as it’s not very potent when dried. When fresh, use Chickweed as a vegetable in winter and spring meals as a spring cleaner. It has so much moisture in it that 100 grams dries down to 10!
Nutritionally, Chickweed contains Vitamins A, B1, B2 and B3, iron, magnesium, manganese and zinc, potassium and sodium (the latter two making it useful for fluid imbalances). Its iron content makes it a must for anemia and after pregnancy.
In your garden, it can be used as an indicator of high nitrogen levels…and of course, chooks and other livestock love it!
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Preparing and using Chickweed
You can obtain many of the beneficial properties of Chickweed just by eating the fresh herb. It’s that easy! Add it fresh from the garden or your last forage to salads and sandwiches. You can cook it but it just vanishes and you don’t get to enjoy its taste.
On the same note, for external applications, just crush up some fresh Chickweed and apply it directly to the problem area as a poultice.
I like to blend Chickweed and Cleavers succi together to get a more potent lymphatic tonic. The Chickweed comes earlier than the Cleavers around here but there is significant overlap. Calendula can be added too as it’s a great lymphatic tonic. I often add a couple of drops of Calendula tincture to Chickweed and/or Cleavers succus both so the alcohol can help extend its shelf life and to add a lymphatic, antioxidant boost.
Chickweed makes a great ointment, though its high water content must be reduced by wilting first before adding it to oils.
Chickweed tinctures well but, as most of the constituents are readily water soluble, you can use a high concentration of alcohol because the water in the Chickweed will dilute the alcohol considerably. Learn more about the effect of the moisture in your herbs on tinctures here.
Identifying Chickweed
There are quite a few similar plants around at this time of year, so it’s important to learn how to identify Chickweed properly.
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 –
