Chickweed or Stellaria media is a small herbaceous annual. Occasionally the plant can be found standing upright, but more often it is seen prostrated, rooting at stem nodes.
The newer leaves are normally stemless; mature leaves have petioles, are opposite and ovate in shape. Stellaria media is a common plant. Owing to its European origin, it can be found in lawns, gardens, fields and other moist and disturbed soils.
It can be mixed with a pot of stronger-flavored greens, adding the chickweed to the pot in the last minute or two of cooking.
Chickweed can be eaten raw in salads, served as cooked greens, juiced or infused as a tea. It has also been used as a mild laxative and diuretic substance. Chickweed contains moderate amounts of vitamin C and iron.
In traditional medicine, chickweed is used as a diuretic, cardioactvie, and anti-inflammatory agent and is applied externally to treat patients with wounds, rheumatism, arthritis, dermatitis and some other skin disease.
Chickweed essential oil has been found to contain several well-known contact allergens: borneol, menthol, linalool, 1,8-cineole, and other terpenes such as epoxy-dehydro-caryophyllene, monoterpene alcohol-ester and caryophyllene.
Chickweed
