Burdock Root Health Article

Description

Great burdock (Arctium lappa) is a coarse biennial herb native to Europe and Asia, and naturalized throughout North America since its introduction by European settlers. This massive herb is thought of as a tenacious weed by many gardeners but it is valued by herbalists worldwide as a medicinal and culinary storehouse. Great burdock may grow as tall as 9 ft (3 m) in its second year. Common burdock (Articum minus) a smaller species, is abundant in North America, growing to 5 ft (1.5 m) tall. There are about 10 species of burdock.

Over the centuries, the hardy burdock has acquired many names, including beggar's buttons, bardana, burr seed, clot-bur, clothburr, cocklebur, cockle buttons, fox's clote, great burr, Gypsy rhubarb, happy major, hardock, hareburr, love leaves, personata, philanthropium, thorny burr, and turkey burrseed. In Japan the herb is known as gobo and is cultivated for its somewhat sweet-tasting root, an ingredient in numerous culinary dishes. Gobo has been grown in the United States as a vegetable for soups and salds since the 1980s. In Russia, a common name for the herb is lapuh. Most common folk names for this member of the Compositae family refer to the large and prickly seed covers that adhere securely to passersby.

Burdock has a deep primary root producing a large rosette of basal leaves in the first year that may grow as large as 1.5 ft (0.45 m) long and nearly as wide. In the second year of growth, burdock shoots upward with a stout, grooved, branching stem. Leaf stalks are longer than the leaves, and each has a purple hue at the base that extends up the stalk along the inner groove and into the leaf veins. Stalks are hollow in common burdock. Leaves resemble those of rhubarb in size and shape. They are dark green on top and a downy, pale green on the under-side. Flower heads are round and thistle-like, with numerous, small purple-hued, funnel-shaped blooms in mid-summer to early fall. Blossoms are surrounded by stiff, prickly, hook-tipped burrs that grasp and hold firmly to clothing and fur.