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Herb

Stinging Nettle

80/100
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A common wild green, dried for tea, traditionally used to calm seasonal sniffles and ease achy joints.

A bundle of dried nettle leaves rests beside a glass cup of pale green nettle tea.⤢
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🌱 What it is

Stinging nettle is a wild, leafy plant covered in tiny stinging hairs when fresh, which disappear once the leaves are dried or cooked.

✨ Why it's good for you

  • May help support calmer seasonal sniffles
  • May help support comfort in achy joints
  • May help support overall wellness as a mineral-rich tea

🥗 Nutrition

Per 1 cup cooked (89g) · about 37 calories

  • Calcium 428mg
  • Iron 1.5mg
  • Vitamin A 297mcg
  • Vitamin K 300mcg+

Source: USDA FoodData Central

🥄 How to use it

Steep 1–2 teaspoons of dried nettle leaf in hot water for 5–10 minutes and drink up to three cups a day. Cooking or drying removes the sting; young leaves can also be cooked like spinach.

How much: A common amount is 1–2 teaspoons of dried leaf per cup, up to three cups daily during allergy season. Capsules and freeze-dried forms follow the product label.

Show full details & how to prepare it

Stinging nettle is a humble wild plant that loses its sting once dried or cooked, leaving a mineralA natural building block your body needs in small amounts, like calcium or magnesium. More →-rich green that has been used for generations as a gentle spring tonic. People reach for it most in allergy season, where it acts like a mild natural antihistamine, and for the everyday aches of stiff joints.

The dried leaf makes a grassy, pleasant teaA warm drink made by steeping herbs in hot water. How to make a tea →; young leaves can also be steamed like any leafy green. Because it can gently increase urine flow and may nudge blood sugar and blood pressure, it's worth noting for anyone on water pills, blood thinners, or diabetes medication.

Ways to prepare it

Leaf tea: Steep 1–2 teaspoons dried nettle leaf in a cup of hot water for 5–10 minutes, strain, and sip up to three cups a day.
Cooked greens: Simmer young nettle leaves for a few minutes (which removes the sting) and use like spinach in soups or sautés.

🔬 Let's get technical

The scientific view, plainly reported. Hover a dotted word for its meaning.

What's in it

Stinging nettle leaf contains such as quercetin and kaempferol , acids, plant sterols including , and a notable amount of chlorophyll, calcium, and iron. The fresh plant's stinging hairs () contain , acetylcholine, and formic acid, which together account for the immediate skin reaction on contact, though the relative contribution of each is still debated, and which are inactivated by drying or cooking, so dried tea and cooked preparations do not retain this stinging effect.

Mechanism of action

Nettle leaf extracts have shown inhibitory activity against enzymes and receptors involved in allergic inflammation, including some evidence of reduced release from and modulation of synthesis, which is proposed as the basis for traditional use in seasonal nasal symptoms, though the human evidence for this mechanism translating into meaningful symptom relief is limited. For joint complaints, nettle leaf extract has shown reductions in inflammatory and pathway activity in laboratory studies, and one often-cited small trial found benefit when fresh nettle leaf was applied directly to a painful joint, an effect some researchers have proposed may involve counter-irritation from the plant's own stinging compounds rather than a purely biochemical mechanism. Nettle root, a botanically and chemically distinct preparation richer in and sterols, has separately been studied for through mechanisms similar to those proposed for pumpkin seed sterols, and is distinct from the leaf preparations used for allergy or joint complaints.

Current pharmacological applications

Clinical trials of nettle leaf for seasonal allergic symptoms are few, small, and dated, with mixed results and no large modern confirmatory trials. Joint-pain research includes a small number of trials, some using topical fresh-leaf application and others oral extract, generally reporting modest benefit but limited by small sample sizes. As with several traditional remedies in this category, nettle's mechanistic and evidence base is more developed than its clinical trial evidence, which remains thin by conventional pharmaceutical standards.

Every underlined word is collected on the technical glossary.

🧺 Other forms of Stinging Nettle

These used to be pages of their own. They are the same remedy in a different form — the differences worth knowing are below.

Stinging Nettle TeaHerb

A diuretic teaA warm drink made by steeping herbs in hot water. How to make a tea → traditionally used to support healthy urine flow and ease fluid retention.

How this form is used: Steep 1-2 teaspoons dried nettle leaf in hot water for 10 minutes and drink several cups daily.

Cautions for this form
  • Increased urination can affect medication timing — space from prescription diuretics or discuss with your doctor.
  • Does not dissolve existing kidney stones — see a doctor for stones causing severe pain, fever, or blood in urine.
  • Wear gloves when gathering fresh nettle.

Learn more: PFAF — Urtica dioica (Stinging Nettle) · Cleveland Clinic — Health Benefits of Nettle Tea

Natural Remedies Encyclopedia (7th ed.)

Shop organic nettle leaf tea on Amazon

Formerly its own page at /remedies/nettle-tea, now redirected here.

Stinging NettleHerb

A traditional herbA plant, or part of one, used for flavor, food, or gentle health support. More → some men use to ease urinary symptoms of an enlarged prostate.

How this form is used: Take 2-3 teaspoons of nettle root extract or tinctureA concentrated herbal extract made with alcohol. How to make a tincture → daily, or drink 1-2 cups of nettle root teaA warm drink made by steeping herbs in hot water. How to make a tea →. Many people pair it with saw palmetto. Give it several weeks to notice a difference.

Cautions for this form
  • May mildly affect blood sugar or blood-thinning medications — check with your doctor if on such drugs.
  • Any new urinary symptoms should be evaluated by a clinician to rule out other causes before self-treating.

Learn more: PFAF — Urtica dioica (Stinging Nettle)

Natural Remedies Encyclopedia (7th ed.)

Shop stinging nettle root extract on Amazon

Formerly its own page at /remedies/stinging-nettle, now redirected here.

⚠️ Cautions

  • May act as a mild diuretic — go easy if you take water pills or blood-pressure medication.
  • Can interact with blood thinners and diabetes or blood-pressure medicines.
  • Pick or buy from clean sources; avoid in pregnancy.

📚 Learn more

🩺 The conventional view

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📚 Resource confidence

Based on mentions in health references

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