All about dandelion! Plus exciting announcements.

Links & resources from this episode

• Ukraine Herbal Solidarity Crowdfunder
• Prisoner’s Herbal Book
• La Herbolaria de lxs Presxs – Ediciones en Español

Find them all at solidarityapothecary.org/podcast/

Support the show

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by @amani_writes | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Welcome to the Frontline Herbalism podcast with your host Nicole Rose

from the Solidarity Apothecary.

This is your place for all things plants and liberation.

Let's get started.

Hey everyone, welcome back.

I'm sorry.

In the last episode I said I would be back next week, but it's been a

little bit longer than that, and I think it was because of recording that

podcast about Taylor dying and then being in a big grief hole basically.

I'm sure everyone listening to this has probably lost someone close to them that

they love and they'll know how painful and difficult it is and how it just

kind of like sucks the life out of you.

So anyway, I'm feeling a bit better now.

I've had a very, very busy week drove to Paris in France to drop off

a van load of supplies for Ukraine.

These are medicines made for the Ukraine Herbal Solidarity Project.

We've got, I made like a thousand immune tonics, which is like this

really delicious mix of echinacea and elderberry tinctures with turmeric,

ginger, and thyme glycerites.

And it's just like the perfect quality in terms of like being

very soothing and supporting.

So yeah, I was very happy to get those off as well as a bunch of other medicines.

And I got to do some, anarcho tourist things.

Visited the grave of Nestor Makhno, who was a Ukrainian anarchist.

Who, Yeah, I'm not.

I could totally do a whole episode about Nestor Makhno, but I'm not

gonna, I did a little Instagram post this morning so you can read a bit

more about him if you're interested.

So this is like the official podcast that I'm gonna kind of

launch with, if that makes sense.

But I strongly, strongly encourage you to go back to the beginning and

listen to the very first podcast where I kind of communicate some of

the aims and the goals of the show.

So just like a brief introduction, it's for people who love plants, who care about

liberation, who are working for animal human earth liberation in all different

ways across the world, who find their kind of strength in plants and plant medicines.

So there's gonna be like a real mix of content.

There will be interviews with people doing like amazing herbal projects and medical

projects and growing projects, and you know, organizing in different struggles.

And then there's also gonna be like practical content about

plants and everything in between.

So this episode to date, I'm gonna be talking about dandelion.

So Dandelion is one of my all time favorite plants and it is the first herb

featured in the prison's herbal book.

So, like I explain in the first episode, the kind of first run of

episodes of this show is just gonna be the kind of chapters from that book.

Because a lot of people have asked me for like an audio version of it

and it just kind of gives me a bit of a buffer to launch this, get it

out in the world, and then kind of schedule interviews in for next year.

And yeah, talking of the prisoners herbal last week we launched the

Spanish editions Spanish in air quotes.

Yes.

So I'm gonna put a link in the show notes so you can read all about it.

But basically two companerxs like translated the book into Spanish.

So we've got one for like the Spanish state you know, like

Catalyuna, the Basque country in Spain which was translated by Jorge.

And then we have one translated by Heather Anne, which is for people in Mexico

and across Central and South America.

We're calling that the Abya Yala Edition which is the name used by millions of

Indigenous peoples across the continents.

And yeah, I just like, I cannot say thank you enough for their, like, incredible

work on this book and how much energy they've invested in making it happen.

I'm really, really moved by it.

And yeah, I just totally cried when I saw the first picture of the books

coming out of the printers in Mexico.

So I'm gonna do like a whole other show, like specifically

about the book, why we've done it.

I'm gonna try and interview them.

Gonna talk about the prison system in Mexico and also the

ICE detention in the US as well as prisons in the Spanish state.

So, yeah.

Bare with me.

I know I keep promising episodes.

And I am gonna definitely do one about Ukraine soon.

But yeah, I will put the link in the show notes and on the page there's like,

it's all been translated into Spanish as well, the actual page about the book.

So there's like info there on how to request free copies for prisoners.

And where to order it, et cetera, et cetera.

Yeah.

And I will also put a link in the show notes about Ukraine herbal solidarity,

because of like my summer being quite knocked sideways with Taylor dying.

Like I haven't been kind of like on it, if that makes sense.

In terms of like fundraising.

And we're really like, we're pretty much out of funds.

I had to kind of go into debt to get this last bunch of medicines together

with the trust that support will come in.

So, yeah, I think, yeah, I just wanted to emphasize that like even though

the news channels have moved on and like, you know, different things are

like flavor of the week, right, of social issues that get attention.

But you know, the invasion is still raging on, there's huge amounts of violence.

There's, you know, thousands of people fleeing and yeah, we really want to

have like, a space where we can support people with medicines from their lands

and their herbal traditions, which is extremely vibrant in Ukraine and have

herbs for emotional stress and trauma and sleep support and immune support.

Obviously, lots of people are getting covid and chest infections in the winter.

So, yeah, it's just like an absolute horror show.

And I'm gonna yeah, try and do an episode on it soon with, you know, which will be

a bit more like in depth about the project and its role and the impact we've had,

like meeting people at the clinic and how the medicines have like supported them.

And yeah, so that's gonna come soon, but for now, I'm gonna leave it there

and I hope you enjoy hearing about Dandelion, cuz they're absolutely

amazing and definitely now is the time to be harvesting their roots.

Okay, Take care.

Thanks.

All right, Dandelion De.

One of my all time favorite plants and yes, you are right.

I will start every single section with that statement.

Okay, so Latin name Taraxacum officinale.

Plant family is the Daisy family, the as Asteraceae family.

In terms of identification, dandelions generally don't need an introduction.

Most folks will recognize the yellow flowers and toothed leaves.

However, dandelion can be easily mistaken for Cat's Ear

also known as False Dandelion.

You can tell the difference because Cat's Ear stems are solid, unlike

dandelions, and the leaves are more hairy and deeply loabed there are

more than 200 species of dandelion.

All are useful.

Other common species are, and I'm sorry, I'm gonna butcher these Latin names.

Taraxacum magellanicum, Taraxacum mongolicum, and Leontodon taraxacum.

Folk names in English include Lion’s tooth, Piss-in-bed, blow ball,

tell-time, clock flower, bitterwort, Irish daisy, puff ball, wild endive.

In Somerset, which is where I live, dandelion has also

been called a fluffy Puffy.

Taraxacum is derived from the Greek taraxos meaning disorder

and akos meaning remedy.

In French, dandelion is Dent de Lion, or teeth of a lion.

It's glorious yellow flowers, reminds us of the sun.

In terms of Astro herbology the herb can be associated with Leo

the Lion, Jupiter, and the sun.

In Chinese, the translated name reads as yellow flowered earth nail, which

I think is really beautiful and I'm sure there's 1,000,001 other folk

names for dandelion around the world.

Food and nutrition.

Dandelion has a bitter taste, but it's leaves are delicious and nutritious

and can be eaten year round, though it tastes nicer when young in spring.

Dandelion flowers can also be eaten year round.

The roots are also quite delicious.

Fried up the plant is high in iron, manganese, phosphorus, protein, sodium,

and vitamin A in the form of carotenes.

The roots are also an excellent source of inulin.

The roots can be stir fried, added to soup made into dips,

cooked with potatoes and more.

It's rich minerals are often extracted into vinegars, which can then be added

to foods such as salad dressings.

It's well known for dandelion coffee to be made from its roasted roots.

In the north of England, the traditional drink of dandelion

and burdock is still made.

Dandelion flowers have also been used to make beers and wines.

Ecological role.

Dandelion is an all season bee food, bumble bees, solitary bees, and honey

bees all visit dandelions for food, along with hover flies, beetles and butterflies.

They're usually eaten by many animals, especially rabbits In terms

of soil, dandelions can often indicate compaction, which their roots can be

often trying to address through creating more passageways for air and water.

Any herbal textbook will write down, will write how dandelions are said to originate

from Eurasia but have spread worldwide through human movement and colonization.

However, indigenous scholar, Valerie Goodness, who is of Tsalagi

and Ojibwe heritage, writes how stories about dandelions have been

told by native peoples of Turtle Island for thousands of years.

And I'm only sorry if I've pronounced her name wrong.

As part of decolonizing our Plant Knowledge, it's important to note

how certain stories about plants get reproduced because traditional

ecological knowledge is so unvalued in settler colonialism.

Chemical constituents.

Vitamin A, B, C and D, Sesquiterpene lactones, Triterpenes

Coumarins, Carotenoids, Minerals especially potassium, Flavonoids.

Bitter taraxacin Monohydric acids taraxasterol and homotaraxastero.

Does that sound erotic?

Sounds erotic to me.

Fatty acids, sugars and inulin.

Energetics taste, the leaf tastes bitter.

When you first eat wild plants, it might feel more of a shock,

but once you're seasoned to eating wild greens, you realize dandelions

actually taste quite mild.

You can also reduce the bitter taste by blanching.

The root is bitter and sweet.

The temperature is cold.

Moisture, so it's moist, and the tissue states indicated are hot

excitation and damp stagnation.

In terms of herbal actions, this will be fun for my dyslexia to read all of

these out, but I'm gonna do my best.

The leaf is alterative, anodyne, antiacid, antioxidant.

Aperient, astringent, bitter, decongestant, dipurative.

Digestive diuretic, febrifuge, galactogogue, hypertensive,

Immune stimulant, laxative, lithotriptic, nutritive, restorative.

Stomachic, tonic and vulnerary.

Phew!

And yeah, I will do another episode at some point soon about different

herbal actions so that some of these words make a bit more sense.

If anyone's got a copy of the Prisoner's Herbal you'll see there's

like a glossary in the back of the book explaining each of these words.

Okay.

Root Alterative, anodyne, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory.

Anti-rheumatic, aperient, astringent, bitter, cholagogue, decongestant,

deobsturient, depurative, digestive.

Diuretic, galactagogue, hepatic, hypnotic, immune stimulant, laxative

lithotriptic, nutritive, purgative, sedative, stomachic, tonic.

Woo!

And the flower is anodyne, cardiotonic, emollient, hepatic, vulnerary.

And the sap is anodyne, antifungal and discituient.

And again, sorry for my pronunciation, it's just how I roll . Reading is

actually quite difficult for me, like reading out loud, but I'm doing my best

and this confident, and this podcast is a great way to kind of build my confidence.

I'll probably look back and listen to episodes and just cringe anyway.

Health challenges supported by dandelion.

Supporting the digestive system.

Dandelion is known as a bitter.

Bitters are used in herbalism to aid digestion.

Herbalist Julie and Matthew Seale describe how the bitter taste stimulates the

secretion of digestive fluids, including some acid, bile and pancreatic juices.

Dandelion promotes the appetite and is useful for those who have been

ill or have lost their enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm for food in advanced age.

The dandelion can be taken before and after meals to aid digestion.

It's useful for constipation, gas, and indigestion.

Herbalist Mark Patterson describes how dandelion contains inland and

mucilage which soothes the digestive tract, absorbs toxins from ingested

food and regulates the colonies of intestinal bacteria, which produce

toxins intended to kill other bacteria.

That is, they help friendly flora and inhibit unfriendly bacteria.

Recent research has also shown dandelion to be potentially useful for diabetes.

Dandelion is a supreme ally for liver health.

Herbalist Kamy McBride describes dandelion's actions

on the liver really clearly.

It stimulates the flow of bile which breaks down cholesterol and fat.

Dandelion nurtures the liver in its assimilation and storage of vitamins,

minerals, and sugars, improves blood, blood filtration to remove old cells

and harmful bacteria, and helps maintain a healthy hormone balance.

Liver health also plays an important role in regulating blood sugar

and excreting accumulated waste.

We are endowed with a liver that performs a thousand functions.

It is just plain courteous to eat some herbs to reciprocate all

the liver does to make us happy.

That's a pretty nice analogy.

I think it's support for the liver can be really useful for people during and

in recovery from drug and alcohol use.

Herbalist Alexis J Cunningfolk folks says that dandelion is especially useful when

combined with other herbs that help clear environmental toxins such as yarrow.

This includes being useful for people during and in recovery from

cancer treatments as a diuretic.

Despite being associated with bedwetting, dandelion actually strengthens the

urinary system, and like many diuretics, any substance that promotes diuresis,

that increase production of urine, which contribute to a loss of potassium,

dandelion does not cause this imbalance because it is rich in potassium and can

therefore be more safely used long-term.

Its diuretic actions can support folks with swollen ankles, fluid

retention, and high blood pressure.

This action also supports the elderly with shortness of breath.

Supporting muscles and joints.

An infused oil of dandelion flowers can support muscle tension, as

well as cold and stiff joints when applied topically on the skin.

Dandelion also has the ability to aid the removal of uric acid

from the body, making it good for treating gout and joint disease.

It can therefore aid rheumatism, arthritis and other connective

tissue conditions when inflammatory substances need to be moved.

The bitter flavonoids in dandelion relieve muscle

spasms and reduce inflammation.

Supporting the skin.

Dandelion sap in accessible quantity from inside the stems can be applied

directly to warts, stings and blisters.

Please note some folks may react to the latex in the sap.

Premenstrual symptoms for folks who menstruate and who can

often feel those feelings of extreme frustration, anger upset.

Dandelion can really help you cool down.

It can also help with water retention and release pelvic congestion.

Eating a few dandelion flowers can also help relieve a headache.

How to practically use dandelion in prison.

Where you might find dandelion, dandelions are often found

pushing through the concrete.

Look for them next to the curbs or edges of paths and beds.

They can also be found anywhere there is bare soil.

They prefer the sun, so won't be hiding in damp corners the way that

plants like nettles will, however you really can find them everywhere and

often in the most unexpected places.

Leaves and flowers.

Nutrition, eat dandelion leaves and flowers as part of your meals

for their nutritional benefits.

You can add them to sandwiches and rolls or mix them in, in whatever.

In with, with whatever stew, curry or sludge you've been served.

Oh, I remember the prison sludge.

Okay.

Digestion, constipation, gas, et cetera.

You can also eat dandelion leaves separately before or after your

meals to help with digestion amongst other actions in your body.

They will stimulate the secretion of bile meaning you can digest your food more

easily and if you've been able to dry the leaves and making a leaf infusion with

the dried leaves and drinking half to two cups a day, about 125 to 500 ml per day

can really help with any digestive issues.

Even if you do not struggle with digestive issues in a prison context, just that

extra support for your liver in processing the chronic stress is really powerful.

Likewise, prison food can take its toll on the body with huge

amounts of oil use and so forth.

Headaches eat a few dandelion flowers or leaves to help relieve a headache.

Warts, stings and blisters, you can apply the sap directly

by opening the dandelion stem.

You'll see some nice gooey white stuff and applying it to wherever needed.

Note that some people can react to the latex in the stem skin irritation, such as

swollen and weepy rashes, eczema and acne.

Add the leaves and or flowers in hot water, for example, in a cup or a bowl.

Let them steep, release 10 minutes and then wash the irritated skin with

the water from the cup of the bowl.

Sprains and bruises.

Make a strong tea from fresh or dried dandelion leaves,

strain it and drink the liquid.

Then apply the plant material directly on the skin as a poultice.

You can also soak, makeshift bandages with dandelion tea and wrap around a sprained

area period pains eat dandelion flowers and leaves, or add them to hot water

as a tea to help relieve period pains.

For general skin care and beauty.

Steep the flower heads in water for an hour.

Keep the bowl or cup covered and then strain, but keep both

the water and the flowers.

Lie down and put the warm, wet flowers on your face for 10 minutes, remove

and rinse your face with the water.

You can also leave the water on overnight for strong results.

Natural toner!

Roots.

If you're able to access the roots.

Liver support, if you can dry them.

See my top tips on page 21, then half a cup to two and a half cups per day.

About 125 to 500 ml per day of dried dandelion root infusion

is a really powerful help for people with liver issues.

Dandelions can help people having conventional treatment for hepatitis,

jaundice, or those struggling with liver damage from excess drug or alcohol use.

It can also help people having chemotherapy or in recovery from it.

Dandelion is your friend.

It feeds your liver, choline, carotenes mineral salt, and other nutrients

it needs to aid in its restoration.

Otherwise, fresh dandelion juice is also superb.

Three to six table spoons per day.

Making juice is obviously pretty hard without a juicer.

However, in prison there are a couple of options.

If you know anyone who works in the prison kitchen, who can access sharp

knives or equipment, who can blend up the roots for you, this is ideal.

If not, you can try soaking the roots and tearing them apart, bashing them

against something, or chopping them up as much as you can with your cutlery

and squeezing the juice to a piece of fabric, like a cloth or clean underwear,

corner of a bedsheet or something.

And I know most prison cutlery is plastic, so this would be a nightmare.

But I definitely did it when I was inside.

Rheumatic and arthritic joints.

Try the juice above diluted in water.

Drink it one to two times a day for eight weeks.

Insomnia, a soothing, warm root infusion combined with a little bit of milk or soy

milk if you have some, can help you sleep.

Chronic chest pain, bronchitis, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.

Dandelion root infusions can help nourish, soothe, and heal the mucus

membranes in the lungs for people already having treatment for these conditions.

You know, I just wanna emphasize those are very serious conditions

that I wouldn't treat with dandelion.

But it's more kind of like in the recovery stage, which I probably

should have edited into the book.

Okay.

High blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels.

Dandelion root infusions can help to reduce these conditions.

If you can access oil, I know on the HMP p canteen list, in some prisons, people

are able to buy sunflower or olive oil.

If you do have access to oil, it's possible to infuse dandelion flowers

in the oil for two weeks or as long as you can before your cell gets searched.

To do this, make sure you have a very clean jar.

Fill as much as possible with the flowers.

If flowers have been dried out slightly, this is even better.

As it is super easy for oils to spoil because of too much water.

Leave the flowers in there and then strain.

After a week or two, you'll have a powerful infused oil that can

be rubbed on your muscles for back ache and should detention or any