Stinging Nettle — The Most Nutritious Plant On Earth?

[Music] everyone I'm Adam Harrison from learner land and in this video I'm going to be discussing one of my favorite wild plants which is this one right here stinging nettle Erica dioica this is one of my favorite wild plants because one of the first ones that I was introduced to early on in my foraging days and where I first discovered this plant in the wild I brought some of that home transplanted it's a little wild garden that I was tending outside my own it was really neat to watch this plant mature season after season year after year and really turn into a beautiful colony and even to this day whenever I do discover stinging nettle in the wild there's never a time when I see it where I'm not really excited needless to say it still holds a very special place in my heart and in this video what we're going to do is talk all things stinging nettle including what causes it to sting you and what we do to mitigate some of that sting we're going to talk about the identification of course nutritional benefits medicinal benefits including brand new research there's definitely one to pay attention to that we're gonna talk about how to properly process this plant for consumption in a whole lot more so stay tuned not any further introduction of my part let's dig deeply into the wonderful wild world of stinging nettle [Music] so let's address the sting of stinging that oh really quickly because I think the image that comes to mind whatever most people get a two-word stinging nettle is a plant that the nuisance and a plant that's best to be avoid because of this day now that's unfortunate because there is a whole lot of edible value and medicinal value and a lot of useful properties beyond that is when it comes to singing metal and so we shouldn't really avoid the plant entirely if we're looking to optimize nutrition we're looking to connect with a very medicinal plant in our ecosystem so there are stinging hairs all throughout the singing metal plant mainly on the stem on the leaf petioles and on the leaf surfaces both on the top and the bottom depending on the species and botanically these hairs are known as trichomes they act like hypodermic needles so every human being brushes up against these hairs whenever they're mature there's a silicon tip that breaks off and these trichomes almost act like hypodermic needles that pierce the skin they pierce the skin actually inject a chemical cocktail various compounds and there are various neurotransmitters and acids that are injected into the skin neurotransmitters like acetylcholine histamine serotonin yes that feel-good chemical serotonin subjected into you and it can cause an irritation various acids like formic acid tartaric acid and oxalic acid now there are many ways to mitigate these things and if you harvest a plant the right time you probably won't get stung at all and we are going to address all these concerns as we work our way through the video stinging nettle belongs to the family or to KCA and worldwide they're about 54 gener and over 2,600 species here in North America we only have about six general and this family mainly describes plants that are herbaceous they've got simple leaves and leaves that are opposite one another in most cases not always we're going talk about a look-alike that does not have the oppositely arranged leaves but at least in the case of stinging nettle and many of the other plants in the family they've got opposite leaves that are simple here in Pennsylvania we have two species in the genus Erica we have stinging nettle orchid iota we also have article urines orchid urines is mainly found the southeastern portion of the state that's an annual plant but here in western Pennsylvania we really see article dioica now what's interesting is that there are two subspecies of urtica dioica singing meadow we have subspecies dioica which is native to Europe so it's non-native here to the United States and that one has chordates shapely faces so heart shaped leaf faces the stinging hairs are both in the top in the bottom of the leaves the subspecies grassless is native to the United States it does not really have prominent cordate leaf shaped faces it doesn't look like it's heart shaped at the base and a stinging hairs are mainly confined to the bottom of the leaves so Erica do get subspecies dioica native to europe erica dioica subspecies grassless native to the United States they're both stinging nettle though they're both the same species we can both use them in the same exact way stinging nettle is a perennial plant that can grow to be rather large so when it's mature it can reach heights of two meters which is about six and a half feet and it can get even larger than that now it grows in dense colonies connected by underground rhizomes and if you look at this specimen right here you will see that this is the aerial portion right here and then here is a portion of the underground rhizome and these are the roots that are shooting off from the underground rhizome which is the underground stem and this is how most of the colonies are connected we look at the aerial portion you'll see that the leaves are opposite one another they're directly across from each other almost like a cross they're not staggered left-right left-right they're not alternate but they're directly opposite one another and this is the characteristic that is very common for members of the air to case be a family in the leaves are coarsely toothed so they're serrated they're not completely smooth around you'll see that there are many teeth around here they're not very fine like you might see in a birch tree but they're more coarsely toothed all the way around and you will see shades of green and purple and the purple is really prominent when the plant is young so it's late March right now approaching early April and you'll usually see some of these purple tints especially on the underside of the leaves so that's on the top it's dark green but in the bottom if you can see it right here you'll see some of those purple reddish hues now you'll typically find stinging nettle almost anywhere in North America usually you'll see it in sunny opening frequently along streams creeks and in other wet places but you also see it in fields and farms along fence rows and in disturbed areas like empty lot and one of the key identifying features that I just mentioned is that it does typically grow in sunny opening because one of its local likes is the wood metal for Kia canadensis and honestly whenever people will talk about sting metal I get the feeling that a lot of them are referring to wood metal Laporte dia canadensis because that plant typically grows in the understory it likes partial shade or shaded areas so if you're walking through the woods it's a shaded area and you're getting stung by a plant it could be the wood metal of Portilla canadensis also that plant has alternately arranged leaf so left right left right all the way up the stock doesn't have opposite leaves like you would see in stinging nettle this one has opposite leaves but what nettle has ultimately arranged leaves regardless that one is edible there's another look-alike which is the false metal boom area cylindrical that one does not have stinging hairs but it superficially resembles stinging nettles so that one has opposite leaves as well but does not have stinging hairs the wood metal has stinging hairs that one will sting you it's got a pretty potent sting as well but that one has alternately arranged leaves so let's talk about the nutritional and medicinal profile of stinging nettle thinking that was one of the most nutritious plants and habitats where it grows one of the reasons that I first got introduced to singing that owned one became obsessed with it early on because I discovered how nutritious this plant could be and according to authors like Sam fair without the stinging hairs this plant would be obliterated by herbivores almost immediately that's all nutritious it is and that's why I does have these trichomes perhaps to defend off herbivores that know how nutritious this plant is so nutritionally speaking this point is very high in protein about 30 percent dry mass of the leaves some people say up to 40% use protein so very high in protein also minerals were looking at non heme iron very high source of non heme iron calcium and magnesium carotenoids so we're talking about the vitamins now and vitamin C one of the richest sources of vitamin C that we have out here in the wild about 238 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 grams of tissue and that's pretty high let's compare that to the orange to the orange about 100 grams of tissue which is about a medium size orange has about fifty three point two milligrams of vitamin C that's pretty good but it's not as high as two hundred and thirty-eight milligrams of vitamin C so that's over four times the amount of vitamin C gram per gram in singing that when vitamin C is an absolutely essential nutrient that we all need with manufactured ourselves and one of the easiest ways to acquire vitamin C it's to nibble on some wild plants from time to time including the very nutritious stinging nettle now we're going to move into some of the medical research on stinging nettle and there's a lot of research on this plant in human health and we're only going to focus on three particular areas of human health in this video three particular areas that have been heavily researched when it comes to stinging nettle the first is benign prostatic hyperplasia or BPH the BPH is non cancerous enlargement of the prostate gland this is a pretty serious condition 50% of men by the age of 60 experience symptoms of BPH and 90% of men by the age of 85 experience symptoms of BPH and there are at least three if not more double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trials showing that stinging nettle helps to alleviate symptoms of BPH so this is the gold standard when you look at double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trials on human participants we're not talking about tattoos we're not talking about rats we're talking about real living breathing men experiencing the benefits of stinging nettle now in these studies and in most of the research its the rhizome of the plant so these underground stem structures that provide the benefit for BPH not necessarily the aerial portions though it may help to some degree but if you're looking to use is definitely looking to the rhizome which is the underground stem you can make effective decoction so teas you could also make alcohol extractions as well another area where we see stinging nettle shine is when it comes to allergies or allergic rhinitis seasonal allergies and there was a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial utilizing 69 human participants showing that a freeze-dried extract at the aerial portions of staying metal fared better than placebo at treating seasonal allergies and I can attest this I've experimented with singing their own allergies myself in the past and I found that it works just an alcohol extract a simple alcohol extract of the aerial portion - meaning the leaves and maybe some of the above-ground stems it works successfully in treating some seasonal allergies not just me but it's also worked in other people that I've talked to and other people that I've administered stinging nettle to and last but certainly not least let's briefly talk about stinging nettle in diabetes over the years have been various double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trials for example one showing that taking stinging nettle extract was able to decrease certain inflammatory molecules associated with diabetes and these inflammatory molecules would be interleukin 6 in tumor necrosis factor another more recent study found that ingestion of stinging nettle was able to successfully decrease fasting blood glucose levels decrease to our postprandial glucose levels and also decreased hemoglobin a1c numbers and the most recent study from 2016 found the ingestion of stinging nettle in women for eight weeks this was an alcohol / water extract ingestion of sting that was able to successfully decrease fasting blood glucose levels decreased triglyceride levels increase HDL which is the good cholesterol and also increased s OD or superoxide dismutase activity inside of our bodies and Sode superoxide dismutase is a group of antioxidant enzymes that is absolutely essential to combat excessive oxidation inside of our bodies an excessive oxidation is responsible for a host of degenerative conditions so DC singing metal is a very medicinal plant these aren't the only studies showing that thing that all may benefit human health or other areas as well besides benign prostatic hyperplasia besides allergies besides diabetes and I encourage you to look into them and if any of these illnesses that I mention are relevant to you do more research on stinging nettle and see what this plant may or may not be able to do for you so now let's talk about how to properly harvest this plant so that you do not get stung and you're probably wondering how I'm not getting stung right now you know I'm handling this plant and I'm not feeling any stinging sensation whatsoever it's because this plant is very very young the best time to harvest stinging nettle so that it tastes great so that the texture is great so that you do not get stung is early in the season so late winter early spring it's about a six week window whenever this plant is about two inches tall or less so here in Pennsylvania that's about late March all the way through April month late April approaches the plants are getting much taller and there's trichomes are maturing and they're going to sting you much more readily you can see the trichomes right now if I look really close I can see them but they're not going to sting me because they're not now once this plant does mature and you know July it's August its September you can still harvest portions of this plant what I would recommend it to harvest the tender top there's young growing tips right here you can still eat those raw but I would probably cook them you can harvest the bigger leaves in the summer time but they're going to be much more mature they're going to sting you much more readily so you might need to wear gloves you can use scissors to snip them off but what I like to do is harvest those leaves in the summertime and dry them out so that I could save them to make teas out of them so earlier in the season I'm usually harvesting stinging nettle so that I could eat the plant later on throughout the summer months whenever the plants a little too mature I'll harvest some of the tender tips to eat I'll cook that up I'll steam it up like spinach but I'll usually harvest some of the bigger leaves and they can get to be pretty big and I will dehydrate those and put those in a jar and save them for tea and I'll drink that tea pretty much throughout winter until the jar runs empty and it's almost like a soup whenever you're drinking it's more like food than it is a tea because it's so nourishing and it's so medicinal as well it feels really good consuming that broth throughout the winter months but again whenever you harvest this plant in the springtime it's okay to harvest it without any gloves because you probably won't get stung once this plant matures though throughout the summer months you're going to want to harvest the tender tops or use scissors or gloves and cook this plant later on earlier in the year you're not going to get stung but later in the year you definitely will then there's a resurgence again and you know October November when everything is dying back and you might see some of these plants sprout up again you might be able to harvest plants raw without getting stung but once the summer months it's definitely just harvested top portions or just cut off the leaves and dehydrate this so that you can make a tea out of them and cook this plant up it basically can be substituted for anything that you would use spinach for so it kind of has a nice rich hearty broth II kind of flavor - it's very hard to describe you can't really compare to spinach but whatever you would use spinach for you can definitely use thing metal for as well alright so there we have it a lot of information on the beautiful stinging nettle Otakon dioica but of course only a small fraction of everything that we could ever possibly discuss and I encourage you to get out there to introduce yourself to this plant if you haven't already learn more information on it and don't just stop there but then personally connect with this plant one of the best ways to act with any plant that edible or medicinal is to personally ingest it make it part of your dietary strategy and perhaps even your medicinal strategy and if it is already a part of your dietary medicinal strategy leave a comment down below I'd love to hear how it's been working for you and I've been a big big fan of stinging nettle for many years and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon thanks so much for watching this video as always I truly appreciate it I encourage you to head on over to learn your landcom sign up for the email newsletter follow me on social media subscribe to my youtube channel if you're into that kind of thing so that we could stay in touch I'd greatly appreciate that thanks again I'll see you on the next video [Music] you

Channel: Learn Your Land

Views: 3,559,150

Keywords: Adam Haritan, Learn Your Land, Foraging, Wild Plants, Medicinal Plants, Mushrooms, Fungi, Hiking, Nature, God, Universe, Stuart Wilde, David Wolfe, Daniel Vitalis, Wild Food, Stinging Nettle, Eat Wild, Outdoors, Woods, Forests, Foraging Pittsburgh, Western Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Wild Foodism

Id: ANZ60K3h2ow

Length: 15min 27sec (927 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 26 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/inahd]

apparently there are schools of thought on the medicinal benefit of the stings as well ;)