Red Clover: The Benefits of This Backyard “Weed”
We let our vegetable garden lay fallow this year, and as a result, there’s been a ton of red clover that’s grown there. For some reason, this plant never seems to get a lot of attention in the herbal world, but I absolutely love it. Some of my affection may stem from the fact that bees love it, and I am in a constant (losing) battle to keep my bees alive and happy. It turns out that this is a strangely controversial season to love it, because if you look online, there are a lot of people claiming that honeybees can’t harvest nectar from red clover. The shape of the flower makes it impossible for them to reach it. My bees would beg to differ. (Actually, they wouldn’t, because they’re too busy flying around my red clover.) I found an interesting blog where someone measured the length of the flowers, estimated the location within the bloom where the nectar would be, then compared it to the average honeybee’s anatomy, and the results were that there is no reason a honeybee can’t use the red clover for food. (If you want to nerd out on in, the site is here: Summer flower 11: Red clover – Bee the Best! (msu.edu) )
Regardless of whether honeybees can harvest from red clover, there are a ton of other pollinators that can, and they have spent the summer flitting from one bloom to another. we all know by now how important it is to grow things that will support healthy pollinator populations, so it would be worth having a patch just for this reason. But it’s not just the pollinators that can use this amazing plant as a food source. It’s packed with calcium, chromium, magnesium, niacin, phosphorus, potassium, thiamine, and vitamin C, making it an excellent forage material for livestock and humans alike. Its nutritional complexity makes it an ideal tea for convalescence, providing lots of vitamins and minerals that are important when you’re recovering from an illness. It has traditionally been used as an immune booster and liver support, because all those lovely nutrients just make our bodies work better. This is especially useful given how devoid of nutrition a lot of the food we eat is now.
Beyond simple nutrients, red clover has a long history of use as an herbal remedy. The big one that it’s most known for is its use in easing menopausal symptoms. Red clover is packed with isoflavones that produce estrogen-like effects that have been used to address things like hot flashes, night sweats, anxiety, depression, and bone loss in menopausal women. It has also been reported to reduce menstrual irregularity and PMS in estrogen deficient women. If you would like to learn more about herbs and women’s health, then speak with Jillian about her Holistic Hormone Coaching Programs.
These effects are marvelous, and I know that when I’m a little older I’ll be all over red clover for them, but what I’m most excited about right now is the results people are claiming about its effect on collagen production in skin. As some of you may know, collagen is a hugely important component of your tissues, providing support all over the body. Through things like age, trauma, and poor nutrition, our production of collagen can be slowed or altered in ways that result in a loss of stability. In skin, this change produces the wrinkles, thinning, and sagging that we all experience to varying degrees as we age. Red clover is said to improve the skin’s production of collagen, slowing the signs of aging in the largest organ in our body and improving its ability to protect us from pathogens and injury.
Additionally, this amazing herb has been used to treat skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, and rashes. As a massage therapist, I love herbs that can be used on the skin, because that means that I can offer them to my clients through oil extractions. These are made by allowing a “wilt” period to remove some of the water from the harvested plant, then packing them into an air-tight jar and covering them with the same oil blend that I typically use for my massage oil. Over the course of several weeks, the volatile oils—which are the essential oils—in the herb will diffuse into the carrier oil, creating an extraction that holds the dynamic properties of the clover. Once the plant matter has been strained out, these can be used to make soaps, ointments, moisturizers, or—in my case—massage oil.
If you would like to try out red clover in your oils at your next massage, just click here to schedule your next massage with me. I’ll be happy to use the clover extract instead of the regular oils during your next appointment! And stay in touch to find out what my weird little herbalist heart will extract next!
Until next time,
Jo Moyes, LMT
P.S
If you are ready to book a massage and experience the wonderful red clover massage oil, then click here to book with me!