News of May 2024!

Hello everyone 🌿

This month, we focused on burdock, it is a multifaceted plant. First of all, it is well known to kids who use it as a way to have fun, often at the expense of their classmates. The small hooks on burdock fruits make them a powerful projectile for hair and clothing.

It’s not just kids who have fun with burdock, adults do too. On the Scottish side, the Burry Man is a person completely covered in burdock balls, and when you say entirely, it means entirely. Dressed in this way, this person wanders the streets of the city to repel evil spirits and to collect money that will then be donated to charities.

In another register, the Swiss George de Mestral, by observing how burdock fruits clung to his dog’s hair, revolutionized the way we fasten our clothes with his invention of the velcro bear, better known as velcro.

On the therapeutic side, burdock is positioned quite well. Formerly called ringworm herb, it was used to treat ringworm on the scalp. It is also said that in the 16th century, Henry III would have found the cure for his illness (possibly syphilis) thanks to burdock root. More recently, burdock is a precious ally for our skin.

Once you’ve tried burdock, you’ll quickly become attached 😁

Added plants 👏

• Greater burdock (Arctium lappa)
• Lesser burdock (Arctium minus)
• Wooly burdock (Arctium tomentosum)
• Wood burdock (Arctium nemorosum)

Discover their traditional uses and terms of use on our platform.

Update 👏

This month it is Borage’s turn to be updated, we went from 21 to 30 sources. Almost all of them tell us that the use of borage is regulated in certain countries and that it is now strongly discouraged for internal use because of its pyrrolizidine alkaloid content, a liver toxin. So be careful!

Note that these restrictions do not apply to borage oil extracted from its seeds, which can be found commercially and which is used in cosmetics.

• Borage officinalis (Borago officinalis)

Re-discover its benefits and precautions for use on our platform.

New books 👏

And here are three new books this month in our library📚:

• Larousse des plantes médicinales: identification, préparation, soins written by Dr. Paul Iserin and colleagues and published by Larousse.
• Ma bible des plantes qui soignent, written by Sophie Lacoste and published by Leduc.
• Se soigner par les plantes: les remèdes naturels pour tous les maux du quotidien, written by Jacques Labescat and published by Ulmer.

Paul Iserin is head of the phytotherapy department at the Bobigny Faculty of Medicine. Sophie Lacoste, editor-in-chief of Rebelle-Santé magazine, has also run the health section of TV magazine for around twenty years. As for Jacques Labescat, he is a general practitioner, osteopath and homeopath.

Workshops and walks 👏

We are ready to meet you on the occasion of walks or workshops around medicinal plants. Next date to be announced on Saturday, June 15 🥰

Visit our pages walks and workshops for more information and to come in large numbers, we are waiting for 🎉 you

🌿 🌻 🌾

This was the news of our month of May, if you are interested in our search tool, more info on phyto-info.com.

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And if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us 🤗

Next newsletter in a month! Stay tuned!