Purple Loosestrife

[Fey]

Lythrum salicaria:

I’m glad this pretty plant is a medicinal herb. It’s a good reason to grow it.

Purple loosestrife offers great potential as a valuable and practically useful medicinal, possessing an admirable balance of astringent and mucilaginous properties. This may seem odd if you think of astringents as being drying and mucilage as being moistening, but remember that astringents do not dehydrate tissues, they tighten and restore tone to them, and in doing they lessen oversecretion. So purple loosestrife restores tone to tissues while also bathing them in a soothing mucilage, which eases inflammation and ensures lubrication. I find that including more leaves and stems in preparations yields a more astringent medicine, while collecting mostly the flowering spikes increases the presence of mucilage in water based preparations.

Purple loosestrife has been studied with regards to its antimicrobial actions. In particular, it was found to be highly effective against Candida albicans, (especially for topical applications)

Beyond that, Purple Loosestrife possesses the incredible virtue of phytoremediation, which is to say that it can accumulate environmental pollutants (such as PCBs) and break them down into inert compounds.

“http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/l/loopur40.html”>http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/l/loopur40.htm

Here are my babies;

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[Dr. Patrick JonesHomestead Instructor]

We have a similar-looking plant from the same order (Mytrales) but a different family that lives around here that is also quite good for yeast infections. It’s called fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium). It’s a really good anti-inflammatory too.

I’ll have to keep my eyes open for the loosestrife. It’s supposed to be in every state in the USA and is one of the invasive species that governments get excited about.

Having abundant mucilage and good astringency in the same plant is handy. Those two properties combined with the anti-yeast component would likely make this a great choice for canine ear infections. I’ve been meaning to try the fireweed on doggy ears for the longest time but haven’t gotten it done. I’ll tell Steven…he’ll make me do it! 🙂

Doc

Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.

[Fey]

Wow they do look alike! It’s easy to see they’re related. Can you send me some seeds?

I’ve got another herb that is related to yours….Epilobium parviflorum, (small flowering willow herb) It doesn’t look anything like a relative though. I haven’t got a clear picture yet. I can’t get the camera or the phone to zoom in close enough to get details of the flower and its colour.

I got this photo from the net showing some of the differences between Loosestrife and Fireweed. It looks like Fireweed has the same type of seed pods as Small flowering willow.

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[Dr. Patrick JonesHomestead Instructor]

Fey wrote: Wow they do look alike! It’s easy to see they’re related. Can you send me some seeds?

I’ve got another herb that is related to yours….Epilobium parviflorum, (small flowering willow herb) It doesn’t look anything like a relative though. I haven’t got a clear picture yet. I can’t get the camera or the phone to zoom in close enough to get details of the flower and its colour.

I got this photo from the net http://www.purpleloosestrife.org/faq/ showing some of the differences between Loosestrife and Fireweed. It looks like Fireweed has the same type of seed pods as Small flowering willow.

Fireweed used to be in the genus Epilobium but they moved it. Nowadays, since all the plants are named, the only way to get a Ph.D. in botany is to rearrange things and give them new names. :face palm 2:

Doc

Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.

[AnnettStudent]

Regarding the fireweed: How long would you suggest taking it for candida?

[Dr. Patrick JonesHomestead Instructor]

annett wrote: Regarding the fireweed: How long would you suggest taking it for candida?

Couple of weeks.

This works too:

https://homegrownherbalist.net/collections/cleanse-formulas/products/candida-formula-1

During that time, don’t eat anything sweet, starchy or fungal.

Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.

[NikkyStudent]

We have purple loosestrife here in our ares it used to be just at lake lowell but now its spread to every canal ditch that comes from there. it has crowded out the biological diversity of the lake over the last 16 years its covered 1/4 of the lake and the shallow parts to the shore along the whole south side of the lake. i think that’s why its listed as a noxious weed and in some stated its illegal to ship 🙁 any part of the plant 🙁

[Michelle KochStudent]

Yep, purple loosestrife is banned in many states in the US. Deliberately growing it could get get you lynched! :rant:

[Author]

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