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Nettle Tea: Uses Throughout History

The stinging nettle plant, and particularly nettle tea, has been used throughout history for healing and promoting health. Our ancestors knew the power this little herb held, and humans have always had a fascination for the plant. It has even been made the stuff of proverbs, most likely for its ability to both harm and heal.

“Though you stroke the nettle ever so kindly, and yet it will sting you.”

“He that handles a nettle tenderly is soonest stung.”

While it’s difficult to determine when nettle tea was first used, we can assume it was being administered as far back as the Bronze age, when the plant was also used to make cloth.

Nettle Tea in Early History

Archaeologists have unearthed at least one burial site in Denmark, dating back to the Bronze age, in which the body was carefully wrapped in cloth made from stinging nettles. The Romans were also fond of nettle, although instead of making nettle tea, they used the fresh stalks for a process known as urtication.

The short definition of urtication is the flogging of a part of the body, usually a paralyzed limb, with fresh nettles.  Petronius, a famous Roman author and courtier in the court of Emperor Nemo, once wrote that thrashing the kidneys and the body below the navel would improve virility. It is probably not outlandish to assume that nettle tea was also used during this time.

Nettle Tea in Medieval Medicine

Stinging nettle was also important in medieval medicine. An Anglo-Saxon herbal text dating to the 10th century states that nettle is one of nine herbs used to combat evil. People in this time period held a healthy respect of the nettle plant, and probably used nettle tea as well as fresh nettle to treat a variety of illnesses. Gerard, the revered herbalist to King James I of England, recommended stinging nettle as an antidote to other poisonous plants including henbane.

Nettle tea has enjoyed many uses throughout history, but the herb found it’s greatest support during the middle ages. It was used as an expectorant and tonic, and to treat kidney problems, fevers and chills. Nettle tea was also popular for expelling worms from the body and treating poison in the blood.

Nettle Tea in North America

It is believed that stinging nettle was introduced to North America intentionally, although it’s not clear when this happened. However, the plant continued to be an important medicinal herb and has since naturalized across the continent.

Today, herbalists continue to prescribe nettle tea for it’s magnificent health benefits, and patients continue to enjoy improved health and energy from its use. It is still used for most all of the same things for which it was revered in our early history. It appears, however, as though our ancestors only scratched the surface of stinging nettle’s numerous advantages to human health.

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