Botanical Information

Latin Name

Arctium lappa

Plant Family

Asteraceae

Part Used

Root and Seed

more to come…

Growing it

In the first year, in early spring a basal rosette of dark green leaves emerge and keep growing larger and larger that whole year until about October. The leaves begin to die back at that time and this is a good time to dig out the roots if you are doing that. If you don’t do that, then the next spring a large stalk will emerge and keep growing to form the bracts with flowers which then become the burrs filled with seeds. The roots can also be harvested in the spring of this second year before the bracts and flowers come out. While its hard to dig out the roots, if you do there is much to use them for, food and medicines. But everyone recommends not even trying to process seeds, that this is just super hard to do and better to just buy.

Buying it

Characteristics

Herbal actions for burdock include alterative, diuretic, diaphoretic, bitter tonic, prebiotic, mild demulcent, mild laxative, hepatoprotective and cholagogue, lymphagogue, nutritive tonic and antioxidant. Burdock is high in carbohydrate especially as inulin. Other nutrients include healthy oils and minerals such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and chromium.

Taste

Perhaps the most important energetic consideration is the quality of an herb’s taste: burdock root has a nut like flavor from fixed oils. It’s very mildly bitter, the bitterness is mostly in the skin if eating from raw but likely will be peeled if eating so much bitter is lost in cooking. Burdock root is actually more sweet because of its carbohydrate content especially in the form of inulin and there’s just a touch of warming pungency and mineral salt due to nutrients, It has a very earthy taste, sort of like a mushroom. Burdock seed is much more pungent, acrid, diffusive, which makes it not really palatable, you won’t eat the seed for food.

Energetics

Burdock root is cooling but at the lowest spectrum almost neutral. Burdock seed is warming also at lowest spectrum almost neutral. Burdock is well balanced for temperature and for moisture as well.
Its moderately drying as bitter and diuretic, but because of its oils also slightly moistening, which is unique because can work on dryness and dampness at the same time making it a more gentle alterative
The effect that a plant has on organs and tissues helps to define how it effects their function. Burdock root is mildly tonifying and also stimulating for activity and movement of fluids in the body.

Folklore

Culinary and Cooking

One of burdock’s most endearing qualities is its versatility as food. In Japan where it’s a popular vegetable, even cultivated for eating by growing in wooden boxes to make it easier to harvest the roots instead of digging out of soil. Fresh, young burdock root is called gobo. Its used in miso soup, shaved into thin slices for salads and in a mixed vegetable dish called Nimono where its simmered in dashi broth with different vegetable mixtures such as carrots, potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, sometimes even meats and then seasoned with a sauce thats a blend of soy sauce, mirin, sake.

Burdock root would be such a great addition to Western cuisines. It’s gentle, mild and affordable, available at many farmer’s markets and even some grocery stores. Burdock can be used like carrots or parsnips – in soups, broth, stews, steamed or roasted, in stir-fries, or grated for salads. Because burdock root isn’t as sweet as a carrot and has a more earthy mushroomy medicinal flavor, its better mixed into vegetable blends instead of eating plain, especially when roasted with potatoes and sweet potatoes drizzled with some olive oil and salt and pepper.

Burdock makes an especially nourishing broth that can then be used to cook with, like rice, quinoa, couscous, even noodles or used as you would any other broth. It can also be pickled, which is really good because you then get the prebiotic inulin and probiotic fermented benefits combined.

Experienced foragers also peel and eat the young second year flowering stalks. The young, spring leaves are also edible but very bitter.

Beneficial Qualities and Traditional Uses

Burdock is an herb that truly supports the metabolic processes of our body.
Metabolic process is a bit of a vague term but its really the purpose behind eating. Food travels through us, from mouth down esophagus to stomach then small intestine then large intestine. Along the way it encounters many enzymes, which through a series of chemical reactions break the food down to molecules that can be absorbed for nutrients and energy. During this process, there are also substances that are separated out, that our body does not need and that then need to be eliminated. Here’s where the liver chimes in and prepares these unwanted substances for elimination. There are different pathways for this elimination, if the substance is water soluble it will go to the kidneys and come out as urine. If fat soluble, then the gall bladder gets involved and these substances will end up on bowel movements. The skin and the lymphatic system also play a role. This is all metabolism and when it all works, it’s amazing. But there are also a lot of factors that can mess it up, there may just be too much for one of the players to handle and things get bogged down, congested, slow, overburdened. Burdock improves metabolism by supporting all of the steps.

Burdock opens pores and promotes secretion from internal organs and external organs like skin, kidneys, urinary tract, large intestine, liver, and lymphatics. It stimulates metabolism, cleanses toxins, and helps eliminate waste products. It’s nourishing and strengthening to tissues and organs especially those that are weak and tired.

Burdock see is most impactful on skin, even more so than burdock root. It’s better for more acute conditions because it works more quickly, especially for dry scaly itchy and crusty discomforts like eczema and psoriasis. Crusty is the key symptom here, anytime that is present, burdock seed is specifically indicated. In TCM, its an important medicine for cold and flus. The Chinese name is Niu Bang Zi. Its helps to relieve scratchy painful sore throats and irritating coughs. Its best used as a tincture because as a tea it doesn’t taste very good although it can be added to formulas with better tasting herbs. In TCM it may be stir-fried brown first and then decocted as a tea to help release some of its medicinal compounds.

Herbal Preparations

Decoction

Fresh or dried roots – 1 tablespoon for each 1 cup water, simmer 45 min to 1 hour, then steep for 45 minutes and strain.

Powder

Tincture

Use a 1:4 ratio, 1 part fresh or dried burdock root to 4 parts of 30% ETOH, you want lower alcohol percentage because then the water soluble constituents can also be extracted.