Yellow dock

Melissa Swartz

There is a lot of yellow dock in my area. I was cleaning out a bed and dug up some roots. Has anyone used this? What for?

merlin44

A favorite herb of mine, grows so extensively can almost always be found when needed. I tincture the root for psoriasis flare-ups my daughter experiences. A very bitter tasting herb, it's best tinctured. A few of its benefits are a liver detox, blood cleaner, mild laxative and chronic skin problems.

Melissa Swartz

Thanks merlin44. How fast does your daughter see results with her psoriasis after taking the yellow dock?

merlin44

Usually within 2 weeks. Outbreaks happen when she's stressed or careless with her diet, yellow dock detoxes her system and no side effects like pharmaceuticals.

april.chase

Yellow dock is also often used for other skin conditions including acne. It also helps raise iron levels and is often used in jaundice and anemia. For anyone who doesn't take tinctures due to alcohol content, it can be used as a tea as well but as @merlin44 mentioned, it is very, very bitter - not a tasty tea at all!

Melissa Swartz

Thanks merlin44 and april.chase. My daughter's room mate has eczema and I'm hoping this can help her.

sarah121

Yellow dock (rumex crispus) is chock full of iron as the plant pulls the mineral up from the soil and into the flowers and leaves. You can clearly see this in the rusty coloured tops when the plant begins to die off. I mainly use it for clearing stagnation from the bowel. It's a useful aid herb for constipation. Powder the plant and take it in capsules with fennel to prevent griping. This also avoids the horrible experience of the bitter taste!

sarah121

@Melissa Swartz for eczema try chinese violet as a tea and applying sausage tree cream (kigelia africana) topically. Every case is different but this is a good place to start to help temporarily relieve symptoms while you get to the root cause of what's going on.

Melissa Swartz

sarah121, thanks for the suggestions! What parts of the plant do you use for the powder? Roots only? And thanks for the eczema suggestions; both are remedies I'm not familiar with so time to learn more. I appreciate it!

sarah121

@Melissa Swartz You can make a decoction with the root (it's easier than drying and powdering) 1 - 2 teaspoons of root in a cup of water and simmered gently for 10 to 15 minutes should do the trick. Be sure to flavour it with honey though as the taste is not pleasant. In one of my old herbals, the author recommends sprinkling iron filings on the ground where the yellow dock grows as the roots have the ability to transmute the iron into a bio available form. It basically becomes "enriched" with the mineral, so is good for iron deficient anaemia. The plant is also a good source of sulphur which I think is another reason why it's so great for skin conditions.

circleoflifeunlimited

Great ideas for working with yellow dock.

Wonderful plant ally!

Susun Weed (well known herbalist and author) replaces burdock in the Essiac recipe with yellow dock with great results.

Yellow dock internally and externally should be very helpful, along with supporting herbs mentioned. I would use it for a long time.... many months.

Leslie Carl

Yellow dock and burdock are similar in another way... they both are universal antidotes. If you have poisons in your system (food poisoning, snake or spider bite, ingesting a poisonous chemical, etc.), these can clear them. I understand they even work against arsenic.

Melissa Swartz

Wow! This is great info. Thanks for sharing your wisdom, Leslie Carl and sarah121 and circleoflifeunlimited. Much appreciated!