A little chat about Yellow Dock...

Yellow dock (Rumex crispus) is one of my favourite plants. I have many favourite plants, truth be told, but Rumex is a staple in my apothecary, and I find myself choosing it for many patients.

If you are naturally hot and sweat easily then this is the plant for you. It can work for any constitution if I balance the formula, but on its own, it's very good at cooling and drying out a hot and damp constitution.

Yesterday I harvested some roots from the garden and put some fresh slices straight into ethanol to make a fresh root tincture. The rest will be dried for future tinctures and to be powdered.

I turn to Yellow Dock for patients that show signs of liver stress, poor digestive function, a sluggish bowel, poor skin, fatigue and low iron.

As a source of iron, it couples well with Nettle leaf to get the iron levels up. Of course, we could investigate further as to why your iron levels are low in the first place, but Yellow Dock will help to get them there.

If you suffer from constipation, Yellow Dock is the first plant I think of. It gently stimulates the lower digestive system and gets things back on track. It's safe for infants too.

Yellow Dock is the liver's friend, activating it and helping with bile production and detoxification. If there's signs of toxicity in the body, such as boils, pasty skin, dull eyes, constipation and low energy then this herb will be in the formula.

Yellow Dock also represents resilience - digging deep to keep going and weather the storm.

I don't tend to give Yellow Dock as a "simple", ie on its own - it would quite often be with other detoxifying, blood cleansing herbs such as Burdock, Dandelion root and Barberry.

This plant is easily obtainable throughout New Zealand, growing on roadsides and wasteland but I prefer to grow it at home as it can draw up unwanted heavy metals from the soil and store them in its roots. My plants are all grown using organic methods, so I know mine is safe from any nasties.

I love this plant, and I hope that next time you walk past a plant with its tall red seed heads, that you'll think of the medicinal benefits this plant holds, rather than seeing it as a weed that needs to be eradicated.

A fresh root tincture in 70% ethanol