deja-vu, all over again

The Dandelion. It’s yellow, it smells a bit, it’s got big leaves, and for gardeners it’s a pretty but annoying weed. But did you know that there are over 100 species of dandelion, and all are beneficial to our health?

Early colonists took the dandelion to North America, teaching of its medical advantages, and the French grow it as a commercial crop used for salads. One particular salad being named ‘Pissenlit’, which is quite literally translated as “Urinate in the bed..”

So after much research poring over my dads old plant encyclopedias and scrolling through Google, Good old Wikipedia tells me the “Dandelion (Taraxacum) is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. They are tap-rooted biennial or perennial herbaceous plants”, just known as weeds and pests to you and me. But the funny thing is, and something i only learnt this morning thanks to Phil Schofield on ‘This Morning’, is that the Dandelion has a powerful effect on the bowels..

Apparently among other medical and beauty treatments (hooray for plant-orientated facials!), the Dandelion can be taken as a tea, used for a mild laxative effect to help our little toilet problems! Classed as a ‘herb’ in the medical sense it has diuretic actions on the kidneys, pretty much cleaning your system out of those nasty toxins. How refreshing! However, as with everything we are told is healthy, there are a few side effects. Eek!

Dandelion seems to increase the flow of bile, yuck, so we are warned it should not be eaten or drank by those with biliary ailments, also some have moaned about “superacid gastric complaints”. Which i suppose in layman’s terms is simply being super gassy! Something about latex then caught my eye and i was disturbed to find that Dandelion stems contain a liquid latex type substance that can be an irritant to those with sensitive skin! Interesting stuff i’m thinking, latex plants that can leave your bowels feeling soft and clean fairy liquid style.

I think i’ll stick to my Whittards for now..

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 pm and is filed under health/lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.