Help to improve hair, skin and nails
Horsetail (Equisetum arvense, Shavegrass or Pewterwort) is a perennial herb member of the family Equisitaceae, native to northern temperate regions, growing up to one metre in light, sandy soil in hedgerows and wasteland. The plant is non-flowering with black rhizomes bearing two hollow stems each with up to 19 grooves. In the spring the plant bears a cone of sporangia and resembles an elongated asparagus, there are no leaves but instead the stems have sheaths that spread in whorls along the length of the plant. Having no flower, the horsetail cannot produce seed but reproduces itself in the same way as ferns, by shedding spores. Huge horsetails were present during the carboniferous period and may be found in the fossils Calamites.
The name of the plant is derived from the Latin for horse – equus – and bristle – seta. Horsetail was very popular with the ancients: Dioscorides claimed that… ‘if the stem be stamped on, it doth perfectly cure wounds’. Galenus stated… ‘it cureth even be the sinew cut asunder’. Gerard claimed that ‘it is of so great a virtue in healing wounds as that it is thought and reported for truth, to cure wounds of the bladder and other bowels, and helpeth ruptures and burstings’.
Horsetail contains silicic acid, the alkloids nicotine and equisitine; flavanoids, saponins, sterols and the minerals selenium and zinc. This renders the plant haemostatic for bleeding of the genitor-urinary organs, styptic, diuretic, astringent, anti-rheumatic, immune enhancer and a white cell stimulator. The plant is used by herbalists to treat prostatis, blood in the urine, dropsy, incontinence in the elderly, urethritis with bleeding, bladder pains, foetid discharges originating from sexually transmitted diseases and arteriosclerosis.
The herb contains silica, which preserves the elasticity in the connective tissue and controls absorption of calcium necessary for sustaining nails, hair, teeth and the skeleton; it will also remove urates, uric acid and cellulites from the system. Horsetail has been employed to repair lung tissue damaged by tuberculosis; there have been reports that the plant has been used to cure carcinoma of the womb. Horsetail features in a wide number of cosmetics designed to improve skin, hair and nails and it also possesses the remarkable ability to absorb gold that has been dissolved in water. In China the spore cone is cooked and served with chicken dishes.
The local names indicate the popularity of the plant as a brass, copper and pewter cleaner. In old England, milk maids used horsetail to scour their milk pails.
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