Horsetail

Category: Medicines - plant based

Type

Voluntary

Introduction and description

Equisetum (horsetail, snake grass, puzzlegrass) is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds.  It is a "living fossil" as it is the only living genus of the entire class Equisetopsida, which for over one hundred million years was much more diverse and dominated the understory of late Paleozoic forests. Some Equisetopsida were large trees reaching to 30 meters tall.

A superficially similar but entirely unrelated flowering plant genus, mare's tail (Hippuris), is occasionally misidentified as "horsetail".  As mare’s tail is an absolute pest in vegetable gardens, it is somewhat sad that the two are unrelated.

Equisetum is used as both a food and a medicine, as such it was somewhat difficult to know where to put the plant.  It is apparently quite tasty, as such it could have gone under the heading of food.  But its medical uses are quite interesting so I have placed the plant here.

The scientific name Equisetum derives from the Latin equus ("horse") + seta ("bristle").

Background

Growing range

The genus Equisetum is near-cosmopolitan, being absent only from Antarctica, though they are not known to be native to Australia, New Zealand nor the islands of the Pacific. They are perennial plants, either herbaceous and dying back in winter as most temperate species, or evergreen as most tropical. They typically grow 0.2-1.5 m tall, though the "giant horsetails" are recorded to grow as high as 8 m or more (Mexican giant horsetail, E. myriochaetum).  What is a little ironic is that the field horsetail (E. arvense) is looked on as a nuisance weed, as it readily regrows from the rhizome after being pulled out. Members of the genus have even been declared noxious weeds in Australia and in the US state of Oregon.  And all the Equisetum are classed as "unwanted organisms" in New Zealand and are listed on the National Pest Plant Accord.

Medicinal uses

One of the intriguing things about horsetail is that it contains not only a rich supply of vitamins and minerals but it also contains Nicotine.  Now you may regard this as rather suspect, but Nicotine is actually a relaxant working in much the same way as Acetylcholine.  And because it acts on the same receptors, it also has the ability to produce pain relief without the addictive effects of such drugs as codeine.  It is, according to Dr Duke's database the only plant besides the tobacco family that contains Nicotine and you can't eat tobacco, but you can eat Horsetail.  The following table shows its exact constituents

Dr. Duke's  Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases  - Chemicals in: Equisetum arvense L. (Equisetaceae) -- Field Horsetail, Horsetail

3-METHOXY-PYRIDINE ACONITIC-ACID ALUMINUM Plant 378 ppm ARTICULATIN ASCORBIC-ACID Plant 208 - 7,937 ppm ASH Plant 7,000 - 242,000 ppm BETA-CAROTENE Plant 3 - 50 ppm BETA-SITOSTEROL CAFFEIC-ACID CALCIUM Plant 580 - 24,000 ppm CAMPESTEROL CARBOHYDRATES Plant 44,000 - 737,000 ppm CHOLESTEROL CHROMIUM Plant 22 ppm; COBALT Plant 53 ppm; DELTA-5,8,11,14-EICOSATETRAENIC-ACID DELTA-7,10,13-HEXADECATRIENIC-ACID DELTA-8,11,14-EICOSATRIENIC-ACID DELTA-9,12,15-OCTADECATRIENIC-ACID DIHYDROKAEMPFEROL DIHYDROQUERCETIN DIMETHYL-SULFONE EQUISETINE EQUISETONIN Plant 50,000 ppm; EQUISETRIN EQUISETROSIDE FAT Plant 2,000 - 32,000 ppm FERULIC-ACID FIBER Plant 71,000 - 235,000 ppm FLAVONOIDS Plant 2,700 - 5,100 ppm GALLIC-ACID GALUTEOLIN GOSSYPITRIN HERBACETRIN IRON Plant 698 - 1,230 ppm ISOFUCOSTEROL ISOQUERCITRIN

ISOQUERCITROSIDE Plant 600 - 2,000 ppm KAEMPFEROLKAEMPFEROL-7-DIGLUCOSIDE  KILOCALORIES Plant 200 - 3,170 /kg LUTEOLIN LUTEOLIN-5-GLUCOSIDE MAGNESIUM Plant 4,370 ppm; MALIC-ACID MANGANESE Plant 69 ppm; NARINGENIN NIACIN NICOTINE Plant 0.4 ppm; OXALIC-ACID P-COUMARIC-ACID P-HYDROXY-BENZOIC-ACID PALUSTRINE PALUSTRININE PHENOLIC-ACIDS Plant 5,000 - 8,000 ppm PHOSPHORUS Plant 930 - 14,762 ppm POTASIUM-CHLORIDE Plant 15,000 ppm; POTASSIUM Plant 13,000 - 18,000 ppm PROTEIN Plant 10,000 - 114,000 ppm RHODOXANTHIN RIBOFLAVIN Plant 0.7 - 1.9 ppm SELENIUM SILICA Plant 60,000 - 97,000 ppm SILICIC-ACID Plant 50,000 - 80,000 ppm SILICON Plant 386 ppm; SODIUM Plant 560 ppm; TANNIC-ACID THIAMIN THIAMINASE THYMINE TIN Plant 14 ppm; VANILLIC-ACID WATER Plant 786,000 - 937,000 ppm ZINC

 As you can see the plant has a role in helping combat mineral and vitamin deficiency, but the plants also have a high content of thiaminase, which may also help with oedema.  Horsetail is mentioned in the fifth edition of the national pharmacopoeia of Argentina and Equisetum giganteum is widely used in South America as a diuretic to reduce swelling caused by excess fluid retention and for urinary infections, bladder and kidney disorders.

Nicotine

The Nicotine, by acting as a relaxant also has diuretic effects because it acts on the Parasympathetic nervous system.

As long as you do not overdose by taking concentrated extracts instead of simply enjoying the plant as a food, the following effects may be obtained from the Nicotine content:

• Miosis – the pupil of the eye becomes constricted 
• Saliva – saliva production is stimulated 
• Perspiration – perspiration production may be stimulated 
• Lungs and bronchi – these become constricted. 
• Heart rate – slows 
• Stomach pancreas and intestines – are stimulated. Overall it promotes weeing and pooing 
• Penis – is stimulated, men get an erection, but they don’t get ejaculation because it takes an excitatory response to get the ejaculation, this is one reason men can have erections in the mornings after a night’s sleep – because they are very relaxed 
• Muscles – Generally the muscles tone up. In clinical use, they are administered to reverse the action of muscle relaxants 
• Bladder – there is the need to wee 
• Liver – glucose production can be reduced as the ‘flight’ response has been stilled and glucose is not needed 
• Adrenal gland – again on the whole, adrenaline and noradrenaline production is reduced because the parasympathetic system is being stimulated. This is one reason why the heart slows down

Silicon

Horsetail contains silicon and has been investigated as a help for those suffering from  bone disorders........

 and another very novel way in which Horsetail is being investigated is in the use of gells to apply on open wounds - in other words the silicon in the plant acts like a sort of temporary skin and there may be the added benefit of pain relief

 The ability of the plant to heal cells and bones appears to be coupled with an antibacterial action

Method

If eaten over a long enough period of time, some species of horsetail can be poisonous to grazing animals, including horses.

But people have regularly consumed horsetails.  You need to choose a plant that has not been growing in an area polluted with heavy metals or toxins as Horsetails are extraordinarily good at removing heavy metals and toxins from soil.  Most of the pollutants remain in the roots, but the risk of plant contamination is high.  Horsetails were once used to find gold as they could be analysed without the need for any prospecting - they are this good at absorption.  So beware.

The young plants are eaten cooked or raw, though they do need to be prepared properly. For example, the fertile stems bearing strobili of some species are cooked and eaten like asparagus, a dish called tsukushi in Japan. The people of ancient Rome would eat meadow horsetail in a similar manner, and they also used it to make tea. Indians of the North American Pacific Northwest eat the young shoots of this plant raw.

DO NOT TAKE EXTRACTS OR SUPPLEMENTS you could suffer all the effects of overdose. And use the plant as a medicine.  The following is a sad but cautionary warning

The following are not my recipes they come from a natural healer.

Remembering that the plant has a diuretic effect, the reason for the change of water then becomes clear, you change the water as often as you need to tone down the effect.  But loss of minerals and vitamins from water change is inevitable so try to maintain a balance.  And

and

Related observations

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