Nettle can be found growing in mild to temperate regions across the world. The most common species found in Australia, urtica dioica/urens, appears in the spring in urban gardens and around farms where it especially likes damp, shady and well-manured spots. The plant has green stems lined with characteristic stinging hairs, serrated leaves and yellowish roots, and is unfortunately considered a nuisance and routinely sprayed.

Its appearance in spring and its powerful cleansing properties mean that it was traditionally used as a spring tonic and eagerly gathered by local people wherever it was found. It was also considered a nutritious food for both people and their livestock.

Nettle was also a valuable source of fibre for making textiles in the time before the petrochemical industry mass-produced synthetic fibres. Plants like nettle, hemp, cotton and flax will no doubt replace them again in an era of climate change when acknowledgement of the ecological disaster facing the current generation means that fossil fuel use is curtailed.¹

Stinging nettle has a number of traditional uses in medicine, the first being to treat debility, anaemia or a sluggish thyroid because it is nutritive-tonic rich in minerals, vitamins, chlorophyll, fats and protein. It also contains plenty of fibre so it will treat a digestive system with poor tone when the whole plant is consumed, as is done in Europe.

Nettle leaf is also a diuretic and can help remove excess fluids which cause oedema, a condition once called dropsy. For this reason it is also known as an aid to weight loss, but while it encourages the elimination of fluids through the kidneys, it also cleanses the body of accumulated wastes, hence its role as a cleanser or detox herb. In this respect, nettle leaf was a well-known cure for gout and rheumatism as it removes acid wastes.²

Nettle leaf also has several other specific uses: it has a reputation as a fever herb; it encourages milk so can be used by mothers with inadequate supply for the newborn; it is a wound healer when applied externally; and nettle was also used for treating asthma because it can ‘open the pipes and passages of the lungs.’³

If you put aside the old herbals and their tonics for a moment, and go to the modern scientific trials, you will find that this herb has grown significantly in stature. To begin with, nettle is useful in the treatment of our modern metabolic diseases because it will help reduce weight as well as bring down blood sugar in cases of diabetes.⁴ To this end, a distillate of nettle was traditionally taken in Iran by diabetics, and when tested on rats in the modern lab was found to dramatically reduce blood sugar, while simultaneously increasing serum insulin.⁵ Nettle can also help protect against the neurotoxic side-effects of chronic elevated blood sugar.⁶

Nettle may even help regenerate the pancreas if the diet is changed radically to assist the process; nevertheless, nettle has marked anti-inflammatory activity which can help correct the general physiological state which is the accompaniment of all chronic metabolic disease such as diabetes, arthritis and vascular disease. The fact that nettle is also known to contain statin-like compounds which are capable of regulating serum cholesterol, illustrates the herb’s potential in an era of cholesterol phobia.⁷ Interestingly, compounds in nettle can also reduce blood pressure.⁸

As a urinary system herb with a history of use as a diuretic since antiquity, nettle is now known to have marked activity against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. It also has twice the phenolic content of cranberry juice which is commonly used as a prophylactic for preventing urinary tract infections. Nettle root is also indicated for men with enlarged prostates (BPH) because it is a 5-a-r reductase inhibitor.⁹

Considering the extent of the evidence, you might well consider drinking a tea made from it regularly as a tonic, and not just in spring. You could add to it the regular use of other herbs such as green tea, dandelion, milk thistle, clivers and rosemary, as well as nutritious wholefoods with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antidiabetic activity. Even better, you might decide to go sugar-free, reduce red meat consumption, eat more oily fish and go out more often for exercise.

References:

1. Ripple WJ, Wolf C, Newsome TM, et al. World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice. BioScience 2017;67:1026–8.
2. Grieve M. A Modern Herbal. London: Tiger Books International; 1994.
3. Culpepper N. Culpepper’s Complete Herbal. London: Richard Evans; 1814.
4. Dar SA, Ganai FA, Yousuf AR, Balkhi M-U-H, Bhat TM, Sharma P. Pharmacological and toxicological evaluation of Urtica dioica. Pharm Biol 2013;51:170–80.
5. Gohari A, Noorafshan A, Akmali M, Zamani-Garmsiri F, Seghatoleslam A. Urtica Dioica Distillate Regenerates Pancreatic Beta Cells in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats. Iran J Med Sci 2018;43:174–83.
6. Shokrzadeh M, Mirshafa A, Yekta Moghaddam N, Birjandian B, Shaki F. Mitochondrial dysfunction contribute to diabetic neurotoxicity induced by streptozocin in mice: protective effect of Urtica dioica and pioglitazone. Toxicol Mech Methods 2018;28:499–506.
7. Carvalho AR, Costa G, Figueirinha A, et al. Urtica spp.: Phenolic composition, safety, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Food Res Int Ott Ont 2017;99:485–94.
8. Vajic U-J, Grujic-Milanovic J, Miloradovic Z, et al. Urtica dioica L. leaf extract modulates blood pressure and oxidative stress in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Phytomedicine Int J Phytother Phytopharm 2018;46:39–45.
9. Kregiel D, Pawlikowska E, Antolak H. Urtica spp.: Ordinary Plants with Extraordinary Properties. Mol Basel Switz 2018;23.