Dandelion and Cleavers – A Terrific Team for Immune Support

The combination of dandelion and cleavers delivers strong support for the immune system by promoting healthy digestion and elimination, and delivering some great nutrients.

Both of these herbs are made into teas and eaten, raw or cooked, in cultures across the northern hemisphere. In England, cleavers (Galium aparine) were a welcome sign of spring and made into a “Lenten pottage” to help eliminate winter heaviness. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) has a long history in India, Russia and China for supporting healthy liver function.

Dandelion and cleavers have some very different characteristics, especially in appearance, despite sharing some similarity of function. Dandelions grow close to the ground in a rosette with toothy, deeply notched leaves. Cleavers has a long stalk that can grow up to 5 feet tall, but it is so thin that the plant depends upon the scratchy bristles on its stem and leaves to hold on to plants or structures around it for support.

Cleavers

Historically, this plant has been used for dyes – the herb for yellow and the roots for red – earning it the common name “maid’s hair” in Henry VII’s England. Known as a cooling herb, cleavers is also used in a topical wash or poultice to soothe and help promote healthy skin. The tiny fruits have been roasted and used as a coffee substance.

In addition to chlorophyll and starch, cleavers (singular) contains three acids: rubichloric, galitannic (tannins) and citric acid, with antioxidant qualities.

Cleavers promotes healthy liver function, which helps remove toxins from the body and cleanse the blood.

Dandelion

Found throughout northern temperate zones and known by many names, the name dandelion is believed to come from an English adaptation of the French dent-de-lion, for its toothed leaves. The tender leaves are lightly cooked, teas are made from the leaves, and the flowers can be made into wine and schnapps. The root, dried and roasted, is a coffee substitute.

Dandelion has a very complex assortment of constituents. The leaves deliver a high concentration of vitamin A, along with vitamins D and B complex and a host of minerals. They also contain a high level of choline, an important liver nutrient.

Dandelion promotes healthy digestion and liver function.

Teaming up to support the liver

The liver, the body’s largest solid organ, produces and releases bile, which helps us break down and digest fats.

Receiving blood nourished in the digestive system, the liver filters out and removes toxins from the bloodstream – it uses enzymes and oxidation to burn and transform toxins, making them more water soluble, so they can be secreted into bile and eliminated as waste. The liver also processes a variety of nutrients.

For your immune system to function efficiently, it must work continuously to remove unnecessary, unhelpful and unhealthy cells and organisms from our bodies. The liver plays a major role in this process, and our very lives depend upon its functioning properly.

Dandelion and cleavers are included in our Immune Advanced™ formula, to help support healthy liver function and a return to balance and health.