Brooklime
Parts Usually Used
The plant
Description of Plant(s) and Culture
Brooklime is a succulent perennial plant; its round stem grows 1-1 1/2 feet high from a creeping jointed rootstock. The leaves are glabrous, ovate or broadly elliptical, and finely serrate. The small blue flowers grow in axillary spikes from May to August. Seeds appear the month after flowering.
Where Found
Found in wet places, as in streams and ditches, usually near watercress.
Medicinal Properties
Diuretic, emmenagogue, febrifuge
Uses
Historically, herbalists utilized the fresh juice of the plant as a mild diuretic and to promote urination. Older herbals recommended the herb for intestinal disorders, anemia, and scurvy, as well as considering it a blood purifier. Traditional practitioners also employed it in attempts to break up kidney stones and to encourage menstruation. In folk tradition, the herb was fried with butter and vinegar and applied warm to swellings and inflammations.
Bibliography
Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs , by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814) The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023