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Benefits |
Preparation |
Medicinal Uses |
Side Effects |
Plant |
Folklore |
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| Common Names |
| Red Clover , |
| Botanical Name |
| Trifolium pratense |
| Family |
| FABACEAE or LEGUMINOSAE Pea Family |
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Red Clover has been used traditionally to treat respiratory and skin problems, today it is of most interest in menopause and in the prevention of breast cancer because of its strong concentration of natural estrogens. Red clover's phytoestrogens, the plant world's equivalents of human female estrogen, preform functions in the body similar to those of natural and synthetic estrogens, relieving menopause and menstruation related problems and perhaps protecting against osteoporosis and cancer of the breast, colon and prostate.
At the root of red clovers attributes are an impressive array of vitamins, and trace minerals in synergy with many active medical compounds.
Although red clover has a strong following among herbalists as a blood purifying alterative and anticancer agent and has been used safely and effectively for hundreds, if not thousands of years, little scientific study has been done. |
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Prep Methods :Red clover makes an excellent tea, especially sweetened with clover honey. You can also take red clover as an extract, or in capsule form. Red clover is often combined with black cohosh in herbal formulas for menopause. Externally a cooled tea or poultice can be applied to dry, itching skin.
 Remedies using Red Clover
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 Drink 3 cups of red clover tea a day to help purify the liver, and clear up skin problems |
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| Menopause | | Clover's phytoestrogens relieve menopause and menstruation related problems 393
(Duke, James A, Ph.D. ) | | Foklore cancer | | Mostly antidotal evidence for use in cancer. Included in both Hoxsey and essiac herbal formulas. Flavinoids in red clover have been shown in some studies to inhibit carcinogenic substances. A poultice of red clover flowers can be applied in cancerous lesions on the skin. 1052
| | Fertility | | Two or more quarts of the infusion of dried red clover blossoms per week does wonders for fertility no matter what your age. 1200
(Weed, Susan ) | | Bronchitis, whooping cough | | The fluid extract of Trifolium is used as an alterative and antispasmodic. An infusion made by 1 OZ. to 1 pint of boiling water may with advantage be used in cases of bronchial and whooping-cough. Fomentations and poultices of the herb have been used as local applications to cancerous growths. 1201
(Grieve, Maude ) |
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| Side Effects: |
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| Safe in normal amounts, but consult a physician if you are pregnant or nursing. Pregnant animals have had miscarriages after grazing heavily on clover. |
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- Flowers:Magenta, pink, or rarely whitish, sweet-scented the tubular corollas set in dense round, oval, or egg-shaped heads about 1 in. long, and seated in a sparingly hairy calyx.
- Stem: 6 in. to 2 ft. high, branching, reclining, or erect, more or less hairy
- Leaves: On long petioles, commonly compounded of 3, but sometimes of 4 to 11 oval or oblong leaflets, marked with white crescent, often dark-spotted near centre; stipules egg-shaped, sharply pointed, strongly veined, more than 1/2 in. long.
- Preferred Habitat:Fields, meadows, roadsides
- Flowering Season: April - November.
- Distribution: Common throughout Canada and United States
Meadows bright with clover-heads among the grasses, daisies, and buttercups in June resound with the murmur of unwearying industry and rapturous enjoyment. Bumblebees by the tens of thousands buzzing above acres of the farmer's clover blossoms should be happy in a knowledge of their benefactions, which doubtless concern them not at all. They have never heard the story of the Australians who imported quantities of clover for fodder, and had glorious fields of it that season, but not a seed to plant next year's crops, simply because the farmers had failed to import the bumblebee. After her immigration the clovers multiplied prodigiously.
No, the bee's happiness rests on her knowledge that only the butterflies' long tongues can honestly share with her the brimming wells of nectar in each tiny floret. Children who have sucked them too appreciate her rapture. If we examine a little flower under the magnifying glass, we shall see why its structure places it in the pea family. Bumblebees so depress the keel either when they sip, or feed on pollen, that their heads and tongues get well dusted with the yellow powder, which they transfer to the stigmas of other flowers; whereas the butterflies are of doubtful value, if not injurious, since their long, slender tongues easily drain the nectar without depressing the keel.
Netje Blanchan Wild Flowers worth Knowing(1917)
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 Once used to ward off witches and other evil forces, finding a four leaved clover has always been considered a lucky charm. Tradition holds that clover is the favorite plant of the fairies. Holding clover in your hand is thought to gain you "fairy sight" (the ability to see the fairies.)
"To live in clover," from the insect's point of view at least, may well mean a life of luxury and affluence. Most peasants in Europe will tell you that a dream about the flower foretells not only a happy marriage, but long life and prosperity. For ages the clover has been counted a mystic plant, and all sorts of good and bad luck were said to attend the finding of variations of its leaves which had more than the common number of leaflets. At evening these leaflets fold downward, the side ones like two hands clasped in prayer, the end one bowed over them. In this fashion the leaves of the white and other clovers also go to sleep, to protect their sensitive surfaces from cold by radiation, it is thought.
Netje Blanchan Wild Flowers worth Knowing(1917) |
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Annies Remedys
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