Horsetail, The Dinner Of Dinosaurs Or A Supplement For Today.
How an ancient plant that fed the dinosaurs can have health benefits for us today!
When I moved into the home where I now live I was intrigued by a prolific plant that was growing in abundance around the pond. I wasn’t familiar with this particular plant so looked it up on a plant identifying app, PlantNet Plant Identification and discovered the name, horsetail or “Equisetum “ its Latin name. It reminded me of a horse’s tail or a green coloured bottle brush. I investigated this plant . It existed in the Jurassic era with the dinosaurs!
The botanical name Equisetum comes from ‘equus’ — horse and ‘seta’ — brittle. The strength of the silica makes the plant an excellent substitute for a Brillo pad, to scrub up your pots and pans when living wild. I’ve used it on a camping trip to clean a cast iron frying pan and it works amazingly well!
Wikipedia.com describes Equisetum as a:
“living fossil”, the only living genus of the entire subclass Equisetidae, which for over 100 million years was much more diverse and dominated the floor of late Paleozoic forests.
It’s hard to imagine looking at a little horsetail plant of about 10 inches tall at one time they were towering trees reaching close to 100 feet tall! They provided an abundance of food for the herbivorous dinosaurs who roamed the earth at that time as studies have shown silicate within Hadrosaur teeth. According to Wikipedia.com:
Equisetum, horsetail, snake grass, puzzlegrass) is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds.[2]
If you find the fruiting bodies of horsetail in the spring you will notice the cone on top is covered in pollen which freely blows in the wind when picked or even when you walk through a patch of them. The spores are carried in the breeze and reproduction occurs.
Horsetail As Medicine
Horsetail has great health benefits as listed by healthline.com:
- Anti-inflammatory activity. Test-tube studies show that horsetail extract may inhibit lymphocytes, the main type of defense cells involved in inflammatory immune diseases (20, 21). It also contains quercetin, which has been proven to have anti-inflammatory qualities.
- Antimicrobial activity. Horsetail essential oil seems to have potent activity against bacteria and fungi, including Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Aspergillus niger,and Candida albicans (3, 22).
- Antioxidant activity. Research shows that horsetail is rich in phenolic compounds, a group of powerful antioxidants that inhibit oxidative damage to cellular membranes (3, 23,24).
- Antidiabetic effect. Animal and test-tube studies suggest that horsetail extract may help lower blood sugar levels and regenerate damaged pancreatic tissue (25, 26).
Horsetail’s attributes are nothing short of amazing. According to wildfoodsandmedicines.com:
horsetail creates strong structure and foundation. Touch its leaves and you will feel the rocky texture of silica and other minerals. Horsetails’ has powerful deep reaching roots that can dig as deep as 150 feet into bedrock where they dissolve minerals and draw them into their cells. When we drink horsetail tea we are absorbing these minerals and utilizing them to build strong bones, hair, skin and nails. Horsetail also regenerates soil health through depositing minerals onto surface soil.
After reading this information I recalled a conversation with my daughter Lisa a few weeks previously about her fingernails. She complained that they had become thin, weak, and broke easily leaving nicely manicured hands a thing of the past. I wondered if horsetail tea would help her and so gathered and dried some. I have always suffered from very thin and fine hair along with thin fingernails similar to my daughter’s so I chose to be the guinea pig. I brewed a cup of horsetail tea every morning and discovered a few things. It is virtually tasteless so I added it to my favourite morning cup of Earl Grey. It is a powerful diuretic and I quickly learned to drink it early in the day or get up in the middle of the night for a bathroom run.
Within a month my fingernails and toenails were growing so fast and so strong that I had to cut them every week, not to mention more frequent trips to the hairdresser! I shared my discovery with my daughter and now we both reap the benefits of horsetail tea, including a cup with breakfast each day. The results show up in an astounding way in our nails and hair.! Lisa’s nails are picture perfect and her beautiful thick lustrous locks glisten in the sunlight!
My husband didn’t care much about his hair or nails but was interested in the possible anti-inflammatory effects I had read about. He has suffered from sore joints in his hands for some time and the doctor cited arthritis as the cause. His biggest complaint(besides the pain)was a rather childish one, he could no longer snap his fingers due to the pain in his thumbs, a feat he had enjoyed since childhood! After one month of drinking a cup of the green elixir a day he is now happily snapping his fingers and his hands are virtually pain free.
According to wildfoodsandmedicine.com horsetail also strengthens body tissues including lungs, sinuses, and kidneys. Horsetail tea mixed with mullein has been used successfully to clear mucous from the lungs and reduce inflammation. Horsetail has also been used for treating bronchitis and tuberculosis. The plant is highly regarded as a tonic to improve both the structure and function of the kidneys and the bladder. It has been used for treating urinary tract infections and is said to help with the pain and burning associated with this condition.
Horsetail As A Food
Horsetail shoots can be eaten raw. Remove the head and the dark ‘bracts’ and eat like celery or raw asparagus. It is crisp and mild tasting and full of goodness! The Japanese cook the fruiting body of the horsetail plant when it is about 8 inches tall. They create a dish called tsukushi and it’s considered a delicacy. The shoots are dipped in batter and deep fried. I created the dish and we enjoyed it although it was very mild tasting.
It’s wonderful to think that a plant that was around in the Jurassic era is still on earth today albeit in a different form, and holds so much value for us.
Enjoy a cup of horsetail tea regularly and see for yourself how quickly you reap its benefits! To your good health.
Cautions
Very large doses of horsetail Equisetum taken over a period of time could lead to vitamin B1 (thiamin) deficiency as it also contains an enzyme called thiaminase, which depletes thiamin (Fabre, Geay & Beaufils, 1993). It should not be taken during pregnancy as it contains selenium or during treatment for conditions where maintenance of vitamin B1 is essential. Horsetail also contains small amounts of nicotine and should not be used with nicotine patches if you are trying to give up smoking.
