Yarrow

Yarrow is a native american plant and the references that I found show that local Indians used it extensively. They called it "wound medicine" because it was so good for cuts, bruises, and other minor injuries. This was its ability to stop bleeding. In fact, it was given the nickname of "nosebleed" by the white settlers for this reason. According to Dr. Christopher (Christopher – Volume 4 No. 11) the Micmac and Illinois tribes used it on cuts while the Winnebago Indians made a tea of it and washed bruises. The Thompson Indians of British Columbia powdered it by roasting the leaves and stems until they were dry, then ground them with stones and used the dust for skin sores.

The Indians of the Southern United States chewed the leaves fresh or dry with a little salt for a stomachache.

Eagle Shield, a Sioux healer, had some songs that he changed when he was treating someone with Yarrow. It is no secret that Eagle Shield kept it in a very special bag as it was a sacred plant to him.

The warm tea is a diaphoretic. It stimulates the blood, opens the pores and causes sweating. This eases the kidneys by helping to get rid of the toxins fast while easing chills, fevers, colic, gout and also helps the liver.

When my husband comes home and tells me that he feels a cold or flu coming on and feels chilled, I serve a cup of hot Yarrow tea made with the leaves. I use four or five dried leaves in a cup and pour hot water over the top. It has a mild flavor but can be combined with a sweetener like licorice root. The next day I ask him how he feels and he can't remember feeling poorly, the symptoms are gone.

In Dr. Christopher's "Cold Sheet Treatment) one starts with hot Yarrow tea to not only stimulate the system but to start the sweating action and hydrogenate the cells. He says that hot, wet fevers are safe and can get very high without damage. Hot, dry fevers are damaging to the brain.

As herbalists, we work with the body in helping it clean out the toxins; we do not take something to stop the action such as aspirin when we have a fever. The body creates the fever to handle the pathogens. If we stop the action, we are thwarting the body in its natural action. Pathogens live in a very narrow comfort zone. When the body takes it out of its comfort zone, the pathogens leave or die. A fever is the body's way of changing the environment. When you have a fever your body is working at its very best. Help your body by drinking quarts of hot teas and soaking in hot, steamy water. After an hour of this, tuck yourself into a cozy bed and sweat it out. I did say drink quarts, didn't I? Yes, I meant it because your body needs all of this liquid to dispense with the heat it produces to kill its enemies. Help your body heal you. With this approach, I have known people to make a very bad flu last only 24 hours instead of the two weeks that they would have had to endure if they had hindered the process.


The GOBALHERB program says that Yarrow has about 90 constituents in it and Dr. Christopher credits them as dealing with: Fevers, eruptive diseases (measles, chicken pox, small pox, etc.), hemorrhage of the lungs and bowels, jaundice, piles, incontinence of urine, typhoid fever, diarrhea, colds, suppressed urine, scanty urine, wounds, ulcers, colic, diabetes, Bright's disease, stomach gas, relaxed throat, sore nipples, flatulence, congestive headache, and loss of hair. I would say that was a long list for one small plant to tackle.

The warm Yarrow tea is also a good eye wash, making sure that you strain all the particles out first.

As a warm tea I mentioned that it is a stimulant but as a cold tea it can become a tonic for convalescents. As a tincture it is used to decrease a heavy menstruation.

Some herbalists believe that Yarrow lowers blood pressure. The information that I found was that it does, but very marginally and there are betters herbs for this.

Yarrow might be something that you would like to grow even though it is found in meadows and along paths in the wild. Yarrow is a biannual plant. The first year it forms a mat of fern-like leaves where as the second year it grows upright on a single stalk with feather-like leaves. At the top of the stalk is a cluster of tiny flowers. When I imported some tiny wasps to deal with my gypsy moths, I was told to put these near tiny flower clusters. They loved the Yarrow flowers. Because of all the botanical fun that is happening presently, one can find Yarrow flowers in many colors. I have a pink variety in my yard but when I am in the wild, I find white or yellow.

The crushed leaves have a unique smell that says Yarrow. I harvest the stalks and strip the leaves and flowers to be dried. The stalks have been used for centuries by the Oriental as a divining tool in I-Chi.