Weeds & Seeds Swap

I remember as a young girl a large bush my mother had with small flowers that formed large and pretty round blue or white clusters of flowers called a Hydrangea bush.    The kind that you can cut and dry if you wish for a dried flower arrangement.

In this post, we’re referring to the wild variety that grows in the eastern states of the US, we have bushes in our yard down near our lake, the plant likes to be near water. The bark has many layers, of various colors, easy to peel so that you can view the layers.

The Cherokee Indians used this as a remedy for kidney stones, and early settlers were introduced to it for this use by the Indians. It is said to have diuretic properties, currently the most common uses as a medicinal herb are cystitis, urethritis, urinary calculi, prostatitis, and gravel in the kidneys.

It was right here in my state, New Jersey, that a physician, also an herbalist, Ellingwood, demonstrated to the medical community that hydrangea had the ability to remove gravel deposits. It also eased the pain associated with the process. Grieve’s “A Modern Herbal” states that Ellingwood said “I am convinced after a lifetime of experience that it is more specifically, more universally a sedative to pain and distress in the kidneys and urinary bladder than any other one remedy”. He suggested it for acute nephritis, kithaemia, and backache caused by urinary disturbances and irritation.

The Scientific Info:

Most of the medicinal properties of hydrangea are from hydrangenol, a cyanogenic glycoside. It exhibits anti-allergic properties by decreasing permeability of tissues and that result in inflammation, and releasing histamine.

Now here’s a mouthful…Dihydoisocoumarin properties found in hydrangea were found to have strong antimicrobial activity against bacteria in the mouth, and another property, rutin, seemed to inhibit tumor formation and help inhibit the spread of some mouth cancers.

If you would like a fact sheet about any of the items marked in red, please send me an email. Thanks!

Please contact me if you would like references for the things stated in this post, I have them, they are just too much to type in a blog post.