CHICKWEED
Stellaria media
COMMON NAMES: Stitchwort, scarwort, satin flower, adder’s mouth, starweed.
FEATURES: There are about twenty-five species native and naturalized on the American continent. The
Native Americans used native chickweed for many years but also adopted naturalized species. It is
common in Europe and America, growing in fields and around dwellings, in moist shady places. The stem
is weak and straggling, freely branched; there is a line of white hairs along one side only, changing
direction at each pair of leaves. The very small white flowers bloom from the beginning of spring until
autumn. Taste slightly salty. The seeds are eaten by poultry and birds.
SOLVENTS: Water, alcohol.
MEDICINAL PART: Whole herb.
BODILY INFLUENCE: Demulcent, emollient, pectoral, refrigerant.
USES: Many areas of internal inflammation are soothed and healed by this so-called troublesome garden
weed. The uses are many, from salad greens to preparations of poultices, fomentations, and salves from
fresh, dried, or powdered herb.
This herb is used for liver ailments (internally and externally), bronchitis, pleurisy, coughs, colds,
hoarseness, rheumatism, inflammation or weakness of the bowels and stomach, lungs, bronchial tubes,
scurvy, kidney trouble, to ease hemorrhoids; to release the small vessels that transmit blood from the liver
into the hepatic veins, making them more pliable. This so-called common plant could be included among
the all-purpose herbals.
DOSE: 1 ounce of chickweed to 1½ pints of water, simmered down to 1 pint. A wineglassful every 2–3
hours. Use externally as a poultice for inflamed surfaces, boils, and skin eruptions.
EXTERNALLY: Effective for all swellings, redness of face, weals, scabs, boils, burns, inflamed or sore
eyes (apply on cotton pads over closed eyes), erysipelas, tumors, hemorrhoids, cancer-swollen testes,
ulcerated throat and mouth. For broken or unbroken skin conditions, chickweed is an effective medicine.
HOMEOPATHIC CLINICAL: Gout, liver (inflammation of), rheumatism, psoriasis.