White Dead Nettle Leaf
Also known as blind nettle, dumb nettle, deaf nettle, bee nettle.
Lamium album is a perennial which grows up to 50cm in height, with a
richly-branched, slender rhizome and erect, unbranched, hairy stems which are
often violet and swollen at the base. The leaves are opposite, the lower ones
long-stalked and the upper short-stalked. They are oval in shape, with either a
heart-shaped indentation or rounded at the stalk, pointed at the tip, and with
coarsely-toothed margins. White Dead Nettle is reputed to have astringent or
haemostatic properties (improves blood clotting). The tannins in Lamium are
responsible for its tranquillising, mildly astringent and haemostatic actions,
while the saponins are responsible for a mild expectorant action. Presentable
either sprinkled into food or made as a tea and offered once cool.
