Yarrow

Achillea millefolium

PART USED: Leaf and Flower

PROPERTIES: Astringent, Diuretic, Hemostatic, Stimulant, Carminative, Antilithic, Alterative, Nutritive, Digestive, Antibacterial, Diaphoretic/Sudorific/Febrifuge, Emmenagogue, Pectoral, Vulnerary

SYSTEMS AFFECTED: Digestive, Urinary, Integumentary, Muscular, Immune, Endocrine/Glandular

POSSIBLE USES: so many and so varied—Yarrow is my favorite herb for so very many things!

INGREDIENT IN: ABF, CC, COLA, GI, IF, LC, MIN, PL, PRT, Yarrow/Usnea

Yarrow is one of my favorite herbs. Besides having so many healing properties and affecting so many body systems, Yarrow has some other unique characteristics that set it apart. For example, Yarrow contains all of the usual vitamins and minerals found in plants that are used medicinally, but it also contains vitamin F. Vitamin F is an essential fatty acid that is necessary for the good health and integrity of all of the membranes throughout the body, including those which surround the brain and within the brain itself.

The vitamin F also contributes to the unique way that Yarrow acts as an astringent on each body system individually. Yarrow contracts and tightens membranes, making the retention of gallstones or kidney stones impossible, and Yarrow is good for any condition in which too much secretion (whether mucus, blood, or pus) is a problem. Yarrow also stimulates the production of bile, making it a digestive/gallbladder tonic.

Vitamin F is also the basis for the production of the hormone-like prostaglandins produced in the cells and is partially responsible for Yarrow’s ability to seal and heal wounds. Yarrow’s hemostatic and wound healing properties work both inside and outside of the body. Yarrow will staunch bleeding from a wound and, if it is a deep, clean cut, will pull the edges together and knit them there. This feature is positively amazing and has to be seen to be believed. This ability is the same for crushed plant material placed against the wound as for the use of the essential oil.

Internally, Yarrow dries out the mucous membranes but also targets any area of internal bleeding. Yarrow shuts off the blood supply to growths such as fibroids, forcing them to either dissolve or pass from the body. I have used Yarrow for this purpose on myself and have seen others achieve similar results. A woman should always be prepared with remedies to stop uterine hemorrhage (Cayenne, Shepherd’s Purse, chlorophyll, Bioplasma homeopathic) should the breaking away of the fibroid create more bleeding than is wanted.

Yarrow is a circulatory tonic, focusing its strength on the integrity of veins and arteries. When given hot and in quantity, Yarrow will raise the heat of the body, stimulate circulation, and produce perspiration.

Yarrow opens the pores and regulates the function of the liver while toning the mucous membranes of the stomach and bowels, and aiding the glandular system. The effects on the liver are so strong that Yarrow is listed as a primary remedy in working with a fatty liver. (A fatty liver was known as cirrhosis of the liver by previous generations when it was mostly a disease of alcoholics. Our toxic lifestyles have changed those parameters entirely. I have seen toxic livers in prepubescent children.)

The effects on the liver and the other things discussed here are an impressive list of benefits for one herb to accomplish, but there is so much more that Yarrow is capable of. Yarrow is excellent for stomach and intestinal upsets. It is a drying herb and should be used for head colds and bronchitis to clear catarrh from the lungs and the nasal passages. Yarrow acts as a blood cleanser and opens the pores of the skin to aid in the elimination of toxins and the waste products of cells.

I have always been skeptical of herbs that someone claims does everything imaginable, but I have personally used Yarrow for something in every one of the categories listed as “properties” for this herb on the previous page, and I have also used Yarrow for something in every body system mentioned. This herb really works! Yarrow is one of the first things I reach for in so many situations.

One of the best features of Yarrow is that it is plentiful all around me. I can find some in my yard and nearly everywhere I may be if I am out in the woods for any reason. Yarrow contains vitamins A, C, E, F, and some vitamin K. It also contains manganese, copper, potassium, iodine, and iron.

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