ABSTRACT
The consumption of stinging nettle (common nettle) as a vegetable dates back to antique times. In ancient Greece, it was known as ‘apokalif’ and ‘knide’ and mentioned in works by Hippocrates (460-377 BCE) and Theophrastus (372-285 BCE). Its use as food is praised and advised in Materia Medica by Dioscorides and Naturalis Historia by Plinius, both works dating back to the first century CE. In Materia Medica, the remedial properties of the plant are also listed with special emphasis on its use for treatment of dog bites, gangrene, rheumatism, ulcers and tumours. In the middle ages, its popularity in folk medicine continued to increase. Recipes for medicinal preparations of the stinging nettle were given in Physica by Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), and Signatura Plantarum by Paracelsus (1493-1541) and advocated in Dyetary of Helth by Borde and Kreütterbuch by Hieronymus Boch, two well-known herbal medicinal books of the renaissance ages. In the present day, the stinging nettle still retains its importance as a medicinal plant. Its various uses in medicine are given in detail by Madaus (1938) and Keeser (1940) in German school books. Its traditional use in folk medicine is also reviewed by several other workers (Aksoy et al., 1977; Lutomski and Speichert, 1983; Atasu and Cihangir, 1984; Chaurasia, 1987).
