What Is Burdock Root, What Can You Do With it?

Rochelle Vassallo

Jul 22

3 min read

Have you contemplated growing Burdock? Maybe you’ve already ventured down the path of growing your own herbs and this is a familiar one. Either way, Burdock can be a wonderful plant to have in your world!

Burdock (Arctium lappa) has Greco-Roman history. There has been writing of an ancient land remedy ritual using this plant. It was believed to improve field crops and dispel any sorceries cast upon the land. Fascinating!

The part of this plant that is most widely used, is the root.

Now, I will tell you, this herb is BITTER! But, there is an excellent reason for this. In the Herbal Community, a family of Herbs to which this herb belongs, called “Bitters” has a long history of aiding the digestive system and promoting a gentle detox. With all of the environmental toxins around, we all know we can use more allies for this!

Burdock root itself has many nutrients such as Vitamin B6, Manganese, Potassium, Folate, Vitamin C, Phosphorus, Calcium, and Iron. Not to mention the antioxidants this herb boasts!

With all of this being said, I highly recommend you delve deeper into the many amazing attributes of this herb.

Try it for yourself with this great Burdock Root Tea Recipe!

Ingredients:

1 tsp Dried Burdock Root
1 cup of Spring or Filtered water

Instructions:

Step 1: First you’ll want to wash and scrub your roots, you can even use a toothbrush for this. Make sure to get every crevice squeaky clean! Then, peel with a potato peeler.

Step 2: Next you will chop the roots into small pieces. It’s a good idea to do this right after the washing and peeling as roots can be challenging to chop as they dry out.

Step 3: After this, you can now dehydrate the roots. This can be done in an actual dehydrator, or in the oven on the lowest temp. Once they have cooled you can then store them in a mason jar.

Step 4: Yay! We’ve now made it to the part where you make the tea! With this herb, you’ll make what is called a “Decoction” since it's a root. This is a method of extraction using boiling water. Place 1 tsp Burdock Root and 1 cup of water into a pot. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

Step 5: Voila! Now you can pour this into your favorite mug, add a sweetening agent, or not. Enjoy!

About the Author

Hello! My name is Rochelle. I am an Herbalist and lover of wild plants! Growing up with grandparents that worked with Herbs, I learned about them at a very young age, furthering my own studies as I got older and even interning at an Apothecary under a Master Herbalist. Recently, I started wild harvesting my own local herbs and it's been an amazing journey!

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3 comments

Chuck

Burdock, called gobo in Japanese is a mainstay vegetable on the Japanese table. It is farmed much as we farm turnips, potatoes and other in ground vegetables and you will find it in every green grocery store in Japan. The Japanese gobo is typically larger than the U.S. variety thus providing more “meat” for the table.

Lara

I’ve never hears of burdock before! I will keep my eye out… I love trying new things!

Monica Poston

I just recently purchased burdock root seeds. This just gave me the lil push I needed to actually do something with them. I had heard they were invasive. Any truth to that? Thank you so much!