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What is it?

The leaves of Wood Betony, a long lived herb that grows widely in temperate woods and thickets. Betony medicine has an intriguing taste, not especially strong or bitter but rather warm, lingering and multi-faceted.

How has it been used?

Wood Betony was once truly revered as a tonic in European herbal medicine. There is a saying in old Italian that ‘you should sell your coat and buy betony’. Of course it was only a figure of speech but given that most people would only have the one coat and that central heating and electricity weren’t in existence you get some idea of how valuable a tonic they considered it to be!

Not just singular in its effects either, there is another Spanish saying that goes ‘he has as many virtues as Betony’, this was understood to be a herb with widespread benefits. Betony was highly rated and frequently used for such diverse complaints as low spirits, poor liver function, urinary tract problems, headaches, circulation weakness, joint pains, and the list goes on…

So what happened? These days Wood Betony hardly gets a mention in modern herbal medicine and it has all but been forgotten by most contemporary herbalists. Were all those people from earlier times just deluding themselves? Was Betony over-rated?

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Personal experiences

It has taken me a long time to understand what Wood Betony is really about and I now think that Wood Betony simply fell out of favour because it does nothing in a hurry and its actions are mild and accumulative. We aren't too much into 'mild and accumulative' in our culture. We like things fast and strong.

People were more in tune with nature pre the industrial age and they lived at a slower pace than we do today but I do not think they were any less intelligent. Wood Betony was so highly rated because it provided such deep benefits to the people who used it.

Wood Betony is not a herb that fixes things, it is not a 'remedy'. Wood Betony is a tonic, which means it helps the body to fix itself, slowly. In the West we tend to apply an opposite order of priority; that which works the slowest is seen as the weakest. The Ancient Chinese and Indian systems of medicine never stopped placing their tonics at the forefront of all those plants that they considered healing.

I use Wood Betony as part of tonic prescriptions for people who are committed to improving their health over time. It combines perfectly with Panax Ginseng, Withania, Hawthorn and Licorice root for such purposes, invariably providing a deep and lasting benefit long after the treatment comes to an end.

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Historical notes on Wood Betony

Wood Betony was much used by both Native Americans and Europeans and was highly prized for it’s medicinal and aphrodisiac qualities. Some of the active constituents in the plant are thought to be betaine, betulinic-acid, caffeic-acid, chlorogenic-acid, harpagide, and rosmarinic-acid. Properties of Betony have been summarised as emmenagogue, anodyne, anti-tumor, aphrodisiac, blood tonic, cardiac, stomachic. It has been used as a blood tonic, as a cardiac for anemia and heart troubles and to treat stomach aches, ulcers, and bloody diarrhea. Other historical applications of Betony include as a medicinal poultice for swellings, sore muscles, varicose veins, and tumors. A medicinal infusion of the herb has been used to treat sore throats, tonsillitis, cough and bronchitis, also used to treat headaches, dizziness, urinary, bladder and kidney pain.

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