What was urtication?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

June 16, 2003

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The young and tender growth of nettles (Urtica species) was a potherb, cooked and eaten. The practice dates back to the Romans having been recorded by Dioscorides in the first century CE. Through the Middle Ages with most of the population living at subsistence level, wild nettles growing along the roadsides would have been a fresh vegetable available to anyone.

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"Being eaten, as Dioscorides saith, boyled with Perywinkles (Vinca), it maketh the body soluble, doing it by a kinde of cleansing qualitie: it also provoketh urine, and expelleth stones out of the kidneys: being boyled with barley creame it bringeth up tough humours that sticke in the chest, as it is thought." (The Herbal, John Gerard, 1633 edition)

Nettles were considered "counterpoysons" or remedies to poisoning by hemlock (Conium species), mushrooms, quicksilver (mercury), henbane (Hyoscyamus species), and serpents. As a counterpoison, Gerard reported that the sap or "...oyle of it takes away the stinging which the Nettle it selfe maketh."

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The burning pain brought on by the trichomes is a result of the injection of histamine, acetylcholine, and serotonin. Nettle is a rubefacient--the skin is reddened and warmed by the flush of blood to the injured area. Mrs. Grieve wrote that Roman soldiers introduced a nettle (Urtica pilulifera Linnaeus) from Italy to rub and chafe their skin to warm themselves in the cooler English climate. (A Modern Herbal, 1931, reprinted 1996, Barnes & Noble)

The practice of flogging the skin with nettles, called urtication, spread to people suffering from rheumatism (inflammation of the joints caused by gout, arthritis, or other diseases). Although, urticating oneself was painful, the flush of blood to the area brought temporary relief from the symptoms. The nettles had to be used soon after picking; allowed to wilt and dry they lose much of their power to sting.

Delaware Wildflowers has a great photograph of a stinging nettle (Urtica dioica Linnaeus) in bloom at White Clay Creek State Park. To view the photograph, click on the link:

http://www.delawarewildflowers.org/2058.html

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