Want to learn how to make wood sorrel juice and how to use wood sorrel juice as medicine? Continue reading and find out.
Wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) is a medicinal plant that grows abundantly in shady forests, especially of fir, spruce, and beech, on acidic soils rich in humus, in areas with a temperate climate. Its leaves are soft, fine, and easy to digest, while its flowers are small, one on each stem, white with purple veins. Wood sorrel is often confused with clover, except that it has smaller leaves and a very pleasant sour taste. Before we show you how to make wood sorrel juice and its health uses, here are the key health benefits of wood sorrel.
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Health Benefits of Wood Sorrel
The main active ingredients in wood sorrel are oxalic acid, flavonoids, potassium oxalate, tannins, mucilages, pectins, enzymes, sulfur, mineral salts, and vitamin C. Wood sorrel is a diuretic, antidiarrheal, antiscorbutic, and a natural antidote for arsenic and mercury poisoning. It is used as a gastric comforter and digestive stimulant. Due to its rich content of Vitamin C, wood sorrel has vitaminizing and remineralizing properties. In phytotherapy, raw or dried wood sorrel leaves and roots are used, in salads, fresh juice, decoctions, or topical applications.
- Internal Wood Sorrel Uses: spring lethargy, avitaminosis, chronic liver conditions, diarrhea, difficult digestion, chest pain, fever, loss of appetite, heavy metal poisoning, multiple sclerosis, cancer – fresh leaves eaten as such or juiced, decoction made from fresh or dried plant, and root decoction.
- Topical Wood Sorrel Uses: abscesses, oral lesions (even ulcerated), wounds, scabies – crushed fresh leaves applied locally, dry leaves mixed with honey applied to the affected areas (have a strong healing effect for wounds), lanolin mixed with a paste made from fresh roots and leaves applied to the areas affected by scabies.
How to Make Wood Sorrel Juice
Wood sorrel leaves can be eaten as such, freshly picked from the forest, or as an addition to vegetable salads, to sour vegetable soups, or can be preserved in raw honey, and used as a vitaminizer and tonic. But the most powerful wood sorrel remedy is wood sorrel juice. This is how to make wood sorrel juice yourself.
- Take a handful of freshly picked leaves and wash them;
- Put the leaves in a mortar (non-metal) and add a quarter of a cup (50 ml) of water;
- Mashed well until the leaves are all broken down;
- Strain through cheesecloth and drink on an empty stomach or topically.
Fun Fact. Wood sorrel leaves fold up at night and in dry spells to stop it from drying out, and in heavy rain to reduce damage.
9 Amazing Wood Sorrel Juice Uses
- Avitaminosis and Scurvy – 50-100 ml of juice daily on an empty stomach, before meals.
- Spring Lethargy and Loss of Appetite – drinking sorrel juice daily and eating fresh salads with wood sorrel leaves have a special refreshing effect, as it has a gentle detoxification effect and improves digestion.
- Arsenic or Mercury Poisoning – 100-150 ml of wood sorrel juice at once, without consuming anything else. Then, take 1-2 tablespoons of juice every 15 minutes. Resume daily for at least several days.
- Cancer and Multiple Sclerosis – wood sorrel juice boosts digestion, flushes residues, increases appetite, and temporarily stops vomiting. The dosage is 50 ml (a quarter cup) of fresh juice shortly before the meal. This remedy combines very well with the Oshawa diet (gluten-free whole grains).
- Difficult Digestion – wood sorrel salad eaten before the meal speeds up digestion and stimulates the secretion of saliva and gastric juices. For best results, eat a fresh wood sorrel salad for a week.
- Chronic Liver Conditions – a combination of wood sorrel juice and dandelion juice (prepared from aerial parts and roots by the same method abovementioned) is an exceptional liver cleanser. Drink every morning a combination of 50 ml of wood sorrel juice and 50 ml of dandelion juice.
- Fever – the fever “softens” if we drink a few sips of wood sorrel juice or chew some fresh leaves. For very high fever a remedy is one teaspoon of finely ground willow bark. Keep the powder under the tongue for ten minutes, then swallow with 50 ml of wood sorrel juice.
- Mouth and Gums Inflammation – rinse your mouth with wood sorrel juice four to five times a day, first thing in the morning, before brushing your teeth. After rinsing, keep the juice (which should be a bit more concentrated) in your mouth for a few minutes before spitting it out.
- Skin Cancer – apply the juice (made with common comfrey root infusion instead of water) on the affected area, four to five times.
Did You Know? You can temporarily quench your thirst by chewing some freshly picked wood sorrel leaves (this is a good survival tool).
Wood Sorrel Safety & Contraindications
The daily intake of fresh wood sorrel leaves that can be consumed per day is 50-80 grams (adults), 25-40 grams (children between 12-18 years), and 12-20 grams (children between 4-12 years). In doses higher than 100 g of fresh leaves per day, wood sorrel can cause calcium deficiency, dizziness, and kidney damage. In case of intoxication with large amounts of this plant, gastric lavage, and a purgative is recommended, after which calcium is administered. Wood sorrel is NOT recommended for people suffering from kidney lithiasis (especially with oxalates), asthma, gastric sensitivity, gout, or acute arthritis.
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