WHITE DEADNETTLE
Lamium album L.
This article was translated by Angela Iancu!
Fr.:Lamier blanc;G.: Weisse Taubnessel; M.:Feher arvacsalan; R.:Iasnotka belaia.
Identification elements: the plant: herbaceous perennial species, growing to 20 – 50 (70) cm, with erect or ascending aerial stems; hypogeal part: horizontal elongated rhizomes that give way to hypogeal stools; aerial stem: it develops out of the stools, it has four angles and it is hairy, generally un-branched and empty on the inside; leaves: opposite arrangement, ovate – triangular blade long of 4-7 cm and half wide, serrated margin with coarse teeth, hairs on both sides; long petiole at the lower leaves (almost as long as the blade) and reduced at the upper leaves; flowers: produced in whorls positioned on the leaves axils, with 3-6 big white flowers, the corolla having up to 2 cm, with the upper lip shaped as a helmet and the lower lip shaped as a spoon; fruits: three angled nucules, brown, grouped in 4 in the persistent calyx.
Florescence: III – IX
Raw material: Flores Lamii albi – flowers without calyx, colored from white – yellowish up to brown – light white. The smell is characteristic and the taste is sweetish, mucilaginous.
Herba Lamii albi – the whole plant without the root, harvested from the first leaves upwards, during the florescence, with identification elements like in the plant description. The smell is characteristic and the taste is sweetish, mucilaginous
Ecology and distribution: shade plant, requires humid habitats and light soils rich in mineral salts. It is common on the fringes of the woods or in clearances, in the shade of the fences, in bushes, in the whole country (Romania), rare in the lowlands, more abundant in the hill side until the subalpine areas. Spread in Transylvania, Muntenia, Moldavia etc.
Harvesting: It is one of the plants with the longest harvesting period, from March to September, because the inflorescence appears at different intervals.
The flowers are gathered only on dry weather, after the dew had disappeared, by pinching them, without squeezing them too hard between the fingers; also, the flowers can be obtained by cutting the stems and taking the flowers later.
The aerial part is harvested by cutting it from under the last leaves and if the plant grows in large groups – by mowing.
Preparation of the product for conditioning: After the remaining calyx or the old, brown flowers are removed, the flowers are dried as soon as possible after harvesting, on frames in the sun. During the night or in bad weather they can be deposited in heated rooms or well ventilated attics. The white natural color is obtained only through a swift drying otherwise the product will be yellowish or even brownish.
The aerial part is dried only in the shade, in barns or in attics covered with metal plates. In the drying machine, both are dried at 35 - 40°C.
Drying efficiency – for flowers 6 - 7/1; - for the aerial part 4,5 – 5,5/1.
Technical conditions for receiving the flowers differentiate the product in two quality groups, depending on how the drying method went so as to maintain the white characteristic color.
As impurities are admitted – brownish flowers – max. 7% for first quality and max. 10% for second quality and calyx remaining – max. 1% for both quality groups, foreign mineral and organic elements – max. 0,5% for each of the quality groups and humidity – max. 13% for both qualities as well.
For the aerial part 5% impurities are admitted (brownish plants), foreign organic elements – max. 0,5% and mineral – max. 1%, humidity – max. 1%.
Chemical structure: mucilage, flavonoids, tanoides, saponozides, glycosides with an incomplete explained chemical structure, volatile oil, mineral salts etc.
Pharmaceutical actions – therapeutic uses: the pharmaceutical action of this species has not been studied thoroughly. The flowers are used empirical – as an emollient and expectorant or as an astringent. Because of the high tannin content (12 – 14%), the entire plant is used as an anti diarrheic. In folk medicine, the flowers are especially used in affections related to the genital-urinary apparatus (dysmenorrhea, leucorrhea etc.) and in inflammations of the prostate.
Confusions: Because of its popular name of “Deadnettle”, there have been cases of harvesting a more common Lamium species with red flowers (especially Lamium purpureum L., L. amplexicaule L., L. maculatum L.) or yellow flowers (Galeobdolon luteum Huds), which share the same popular name. That’s way it has to be made clear that the plant in question is “White Deadnettle” - or even better – to use only the scientific name.
After morphology it can be confused with other Labiates with similar appearance, such as:
- Balota nigra L. – a more vigorous plant (until 1 m), with smaller leaves (2 – 5 cm) and obviously smaller flowers (the corolla until 1 cm compared to 2 cm of L. album, rarely white, more often purple);
- Marrubium vulgare L. – it has white flowers as Lamium album but is immediately recognized by its hairiness which gives it a general white-grey color.
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