Burdock (Arctium lappa) is a member of the thistle family with large, rough, cabbage-like leaves. Its familiar seed heads or burrs are known in Devon as Sticky Buttons, and hitch a lift on passing animals. 

Numerous very fine, irritating hairs hidden in the seed head cause the animal to scratch off the burr and deposit it somewhere new. 

Burdock is a deep rooting biennial that flowers, sets seed and dies in its second year of growth, and it is often one of the first plants to colonise bare ground. 

It grows pretty much anywhere - the one in the picture was found on the SW Coast path on Salcombe Hill as the path turns inland, towards the Norman Lockyer Observatory.

Burdock’s cooling quality means it is often used in prescriptions for hot skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis. 

Its reputation as a blood purifier, drawing out and eliminating cellular debris by supporting healthy liver and kidney function, also makes it useful in treating skin conditions as well as arthritis, rheumatism and gout. 

These days burdock will most often be taken internally in the form of a tincture (alcoholic extract), capsule or decoction (simmered in water for 20 minutes) but it’s interesting that traditionally Romany people would wear a bag of burdock seed around the neck to prevent rheumatism.  

The root and seed are the parts most commonly used today, however 17th century physician Nicholas Culpeper wrote in his Complete Herbal of applying burdock leaf to a woman’s abdomen to prevent miscarriage and to the head to prevent uterine prolapse. 

This may sound odd to us these days but there is a fascinating crossover here between Culpeper’s understanding of burdock and that of Traditional Chinese Medicine’s. In TCM burdock is a key herb for cases of Central Qi sinking e.g. a dragging pelvic sensation or uterine prolapse. 

A significant amount of research has been undertaken in recent years to establish the constituents of burdock and their potential therapeutic applications. 

The results are broad-ranging and impressive and include its potent anti-inflammatory activity, tumour inhibiting effects, ability to establish healthy cholesterol levels, a role in treating Type 2 diabetes thanks to its oligosaccharides and their blood glucose stabilising effects, improved gut health due to prebiotic inulin, and a suppressive effect on retinal damage in age-related macular degeneration. 

Taken as a whole, this body of research suggests that burdock has a role in treating conditions associated with metabolic syndrome, which is an increasing issue in Western society.

Burdock is a very safe food-as-medicine plant, and as it begins to put up its flowering stems you could do worse than try Liz Knight’s recipe for burdock fritters from her lovely book Forage. 

When winter arrives I’ll be adding burdock root to my kombucha (a fermented drink) to capture its sweet earthiness and gut-friendly prebiotic inulin. 

In the meantime, as the burdock in my allotment flowers, I’ll be working out a way of extracting the seed without covering myself in its itchy hairs. If I’m successful, I’ll make a tincture of seed and root combined, for use specifically in skin conditions. 

Canda Diacono is a qualified Medical Herbalist, registered with the National Institute of Medical Herbalists. To find out more about a herbal approach to attaining good health, visit www.candadiacono.com.

If you have any medical concerns please consult with a medical professional, and please be 100% sure of your plant identification if ingesting it or putting on the skin.