Healing Oil of the Week: Dandelion
They spring up everywhere on your front lawn, but this very ordinary plant has some very extraordinary health properties. Often used as bitter herbs at Passover, dandelion (taraxacum officinale) has been used traditionally as a remedy for cancer, diabetes, hepatitis, osteoporosis, and rheumatism.
Contemporary herbalists recommend dandelion almost exclusively as a diuretic for weight loss. (It provides potassium rather than depleting it as diuretic drugs do.) Its leaves are rich in vitamin C and contain more beta-carotene than carrots, and its roots act as a diuretic and purgative useful for treating kidney and liver disorders.
Source: James A. Duke, Ph.D., Herbs of the Bible: 2000 Years of Plant Medicine (Loveland, CO: Interweave Press, 1999) |
