The small-flowered willowherb (Epilobium parviflorum schreb) is a perennial with oblong-lanceolate, finely toothed leaves that are grey-hairy on the underside and mostly opposite. It has a flower about 1 cm in diameter; it is small and stands upright, with pale pinkish-purple corolla petals. The fruit is a multi-seeded capsule with shiny ridges between which scattered hairs are distributed. It flowers from June to September. As a plant, it prefers partial shade to bright light, loose soils well supplied with minerals and humus. It grows quite abundantly in ditches, by streams, on wet meadows, at the edges of forests and roads.
The subject of collection is flowering tops, collected at the beginning of May. Later-collected herbs are no longer good; after blooming so-called "withering" occurs, they become entangled with a large amount of light-colored fluff containing seeds, thereby losing their effect. Therefore, in case of later harvesting from the herb, we remove the flower. In some areas, willowherb fluff was used as stuffing for pillows. Related species have similar or identical effects, such as mountain willowherb, narrow-leaved willowherb, or pink willowherb. Essentially, we can say that collection excludes only large-flowered willowherb and very tall woolly willowherb.
It is a flavonoid plant containing anthocyanins, tannins, mucilages, and other little-known substances.
Although the existence of willowherb has long been known, in therapy it is used mainly in recent years. Partly this is due to Austrian herbalist Maria Treben (1907-1991), who made the herb famous. However, its healing effects have been known for centuries.
It is primarily applied in cases of prostate inflammation, chronic prostatism, and elderly non-malignant enlargement of the prostate. It has a beneficial effect on inflammatory disorders of the kidneys and urinary tract. We can apply it to skin diseases and certain endocrine disturbances within so-called blood-cleansing teas.
In prostatic disorders, willowherb is administered alone or in mixtures with goldenrod, St. John's wort, nettle, heather, sorrel, or marsh-mallow. Otherwise, a combination of willowherb and elder is suitable, because for some people narrow-leaved elder helps more, for others small-flowered willowherb, and best of all their mutual combination.
In the 19th century, in Europe, narrow-leaved willowherb became famous as so-called Ivan's tea, i.e., tea from fermented leaves. In Russia it was called "drink of warriors". It has strong detoxifying abilities – concentrated decoction from fermented leaves cleanses intestines, stomach and liver. Russians therefore used it to treat alcohol or food poisoning.
Willowherb is a very suitable plant for homeopathy.
The article was published with the kind permission Sféra magazine
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