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Benefits |
Preparation |
Medicinal Uses |
Side Effects |
Plant |
Folklore |
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| Common Names |
| Yarrow |
| Botanical Name |
| Achillea millefolium |
| Family |
| ASTERACEAE or COMPOSITAE Sunflower family |
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Abrasions/Cuts *
Arthritis *
Colds *
Dysmenorrhea *
Hypertension HBP *
Menorrhagia *
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| Parts Used: aerial parts, essential oil |
| Constituents:Up to 1.4% volatile oil (composed of up to 51 % azulene; borneol, terpineol, camphor, cineole, isoartemesia ketone, and a trace of thujone), lactones, flavonoids, tannins, coumarins, saponins, sterols, a bitter glyco-alkaloid (achilleine), cyanidin, amino |
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Yarrow was once known as "nosebleed", its feathery leaves making an ideal astringent swab to encourage clotting. It is a well known and versatile herb that is still effective for its historical use of staunching bleeding and disinfecting wounds, but it's uses extend far beyond that. Yarrow is one of the best-known herbal remedies for fevers, a hot cup of yarrow tea induces a therapeutic sweat which cools fevers and helps the body expels toxins. The chemical makeup of yarrow is complex, and it contains many active medicinal compounds in addition to the tannins and volatile oil azulene. |
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Prep Methods :Dry or fresh herb, oil or water infusions, tincture. The tea is bitter.
 Remedies using Yarrow
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In China, yarrow is used fresh as a poultice for healing wounds. A decoction of the whole plant is prescribed for stomach ulcers, amenorrhoea, and abscesses.
Mabey, Richard ,40 |
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 Sharp, woody, herbaceous dark blue essential oil contains azulene and has been used in the past in dilute the most expensive roman chamomile. Yarrow oil has anti-inflammatory properties and may help balance hormones and heal wounds. Also can be helpful as a styptic to stop bleeding. |
 For sinusitis, use a foot bath of two cups of yarrow tea or essential oil of eucalyptus. |
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| High Blood pressure | | Although useful as a wound herb, yarrow is mostly used for fevers and to relax blood vessels in high blood pressure. 383
(Ody,Penelope ) | | menstrual cramps, Bleeding | | Yarrow helps to stop bleeding and counters inflammation and tissue swelling. Some of yarrow's phytochemicals ease muscle spasms, making it useful in menstrual cramps. 384
(Duke, James A, Ph.D. ) | | Heavy menstrual bleeding | | Use in combination with shepherds purse, yarrow will help decrease heavy menstrual bleeding 946
| | Childrens Colds | | Yarrow opens the pores freely and purifies the blood, and is recommended in the early stages of children's colds, and in measles and other eruptive diseases. 466
(Grieve, Maude ) | | Stop bleeding | | Traditionally used to staunch bleeding and disinfect wounds. 1123
(Ody,Penelope ) | | Rheumatism | | Yarrow also has anti-inflammatory properties, it's constituents cyanidin and azulene are anti-inflammatory, as is salicylic acid. This may account for the folk use of yarrow in treating rheumatism. 1254
(Mabey, Richard p40) |
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| Side Effects: |
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| Avoid in pregnancy, can cause allergic skin reactions in sensitive people who suffer from allergies related to the Asteraceae family. Moderation is the key to safe use, the thujone content can be toxic over an extended period of time
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Bilder ur Nordens Flora
- Flowers: Grayish-white, rarely pinkish, in a hard, close, flat-topped, compound cluster. Ray florets 4 to 6, pistillate, fertile; disk florets yellow, afterward brown, perfect, fertile.
- Stem: Erect, from horizontal root-stalk, 1 to 2 ft. high, leafy, sometimes hairy.
- Leaves:Very finely dissected (Millefolium (thousand leaf), narrowly oblong in outline.
- Preferred Habitat:Waste land, dry fields, banks, roadsides.
- Flowering Season:June - November
- Distribution: Naturalized from Europe and Asia through-out North America
Netje Blanchan Wild Flowers worth Knowing(1917)
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 Everywhere this commonest of common weeds confronts us; the compact, dusty-looking clusters appearing not by
waysides only, around the world, but in the mythology, folk-lore, medicine, and literature of many peoples. Chiron, the centaur, who taught its virtues to Achilles that he might make an ointment to heal his Myrmidons wounded in the siege of Troy, named the plant for this favorite pupil, giving his own to the beautiful Blue Cornflower (Centaurea Cyanus). As a love-charm, as an herb tea brewed by crones to cure divers ailments, from loss of hair to the ague; as an inducement to nosebleed for the relief of congestive headache; as an ingredient of an especially intoxicating beer made by the Swedes, it is mentioned in old books. Nowadays we are satisfied merely to admire the feathery masses of lace-like foliage formed by young plants, to whiff the wholesome, nutty, autumnal odor of its flowers, or to wonder at the marvellous scheme it employs to overrun the earth.
Netje Blanchan Wild Flowers worth Knowing(1917) |
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 It is under the influence of Venus. As a medicine it is drying and binding. A decoction of it boiled with white wine, is good to stop the running of the reins in men, and whites in women Nicholas Culpeper |
 Yarrow stalks are still used by the Chinese for casting I Ching predictions. |
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Annies Remedys
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