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One of the world's most common liver and kidney detox remedies

Dandelion

Taraxacum officinale Asteraceae

Dandelion is an entry-level digestive, liver and kidney support that can effectively reduce skin inflammation and arthritis and improve liver, bile and kidney functions.

Sustainability status

Not currently on risk lists but complete data may be missing on the status of the species. Commonly cultivated though may be sourced from the wild. Only source cultivated supplies or from certified sustainable wild collection. Read more about our sustainability guide.

Sustainability Status
Key benefits
  • Dyspepsia
  • Intolerance to fats
  • Fluid retention
  • Urinary problems
  • Eczema and skin problems
  • Arthritis
  • How does it feel?

    Dandelion is a bitter remedy, although also a gentle one. If you taste a leaf there is an instant bitter hit, settling into an earthy bitter quality, a slight acridity and a subtle sweetness. In the case of the root the bitterness is even more modified by a more mucilaginous sweetness, which varies depending on the time of year it is collected: a spring root will have used up more of its carbohydrate (inulin) stores over winter and will be more bitter. Even then, the presence of inulin can linger on the tongue long after the bitterness has faded.

    Dandelion’s bitterness is due to sesquiterpene lactones, unique to this plant, but the contribution of the inulin in the root reminds us that this is above all a gentle bitter, an ideal stepping stone if this approach seems worth trying.

  • What can I use it for?

    Dandelion leaf and root have been used around the world for skin conditions and joint problems. These respond best however when there are underlying liver, bile and urinary factors.

    The root particularly is one of the safest and surest ways to improve biliary elimination (choleresis) and relieve an overworked liver. Use it whenever there is intolerance to fats and alcohol, associated digestive congestion or dyspepsia, and even to relieve the symptoms of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD – sometimes associated with metabolic syndrome and build up of belly fat). In many cases the increased bile flow will translate as looser stools, sometimes tinged with yellow or green, and here dandelion can relieve stubborn constipation.

    The choleretic effect of dandelion means that it is one of the standard remedies for gallbladder problems, such as gallstones and cholecystitis. It is certainly a standby gentle remedy if there is a tendency to these problems, and with due care can be used even during a crisis. It combines well with artichoke leaf in this work.

    Many skin conditions are linked with poor liver detoxification and here dandelion can be transformative.

    Dandelion leaf is more often associated with diuretic properties: it is a frequent component of blends to reduce fluid retention, oedema and to help flush the urinary tract where there are stones and infections. Its application to arthritis (particularly osteoarthritis and gout) relates to ancient associations of these conditions with the build up of acid wastes in the body. A classic combination in these problems is with celery seed.

    Dandelion is a bitter, the basis of its benefits for the liver, and as such is also a gentle but effective bitter digestive remedy, a component in any blend to improve appetite and digestive functions, and as an aid to convalescence.

  • Into the heart of Dandelion

    Dandelion is one of the cornerstones of herbal treatment in many cultural traditions, certainly seen as such by herbal practitioners in the UK. Many have seen modern life bearing down hard on the liver, as it has to detoxify increasing quantities of ingested industrial pollutants, and for some late 20th century practitioners dandelion became almost a constant feature in a prescription, a general detox component, both gentle and effective.

    This reverence is not new. The great herbal archivist of the 17th century, John Parkinson, sums up dandelion’s effect in his first line of description: “by the bitternesse doth more open and clense, and is therefore very effectuall for the obstructions of the liver, gall and spleene, and the diseases that arise from them, as the jaundise and the hypochondriacall passion...”.  He moves straight on from extolling these hepatic virtues of dandelion to say: “it wonderfully openeth the uritorie parts, casing abundance of urine, not onely in children 
  without restraint or keeping it backe they water their beds, but in those of old age also upon the stopping or yeelding small quantitie of urine; 
it also powerfully clenseth apostumes and inward ulcers in the uritorie passages, and by the drying and temperate qualitie doth afterwards heale them“.

    It is interesting to note too that various species of dandelion have been used around the world, and consistently for skin, liver, digestive and urinary problems.

  • Traditional uses

    The genus name Taraxacum is derived from the Greek words taraxis = inflammation and akeomai = curative.

    Arabian physicians of the 10th and 11th centuries referred to dandelion to treat liver and spleen ailments. The German physician and botanist Leonhard Fuchs (1543) described its use, among others, to medicate gout, diarrhoea, spleen and liver complaints. In native North American medicine, infusions and decoctions of the root and herb were applied to remedy kidney disease, dyspepsia and heartburn. Furthermore, the drug is considered to be a “blood purifier” and is employed as a mild laxative, for treating arthritic and rheumatic complaints as well as eczema and other skin conditions in popular medicine. Traditional Chinese Medicine knows dandelion, sometimes in combination with other herbs, to treat hepatitis, to enhance immune response to upper respiratory tract infections, bronchitis or pneumonia.

    In Chinese medicine a dandelion is also used, Taraxacum mongolicum Hand.-Mazz. (as well as other species), called pu gong ying. The character of the plant is similar to European dandelion and many of the popular usages are similar. In Chinese terms the plant is seen as having cooling and cleansing effects and it is much used in toxic, inflamed and chronically infected conditions, those classified as Damp Heat problems in particular. This accords with the qualities adduced to dandelion above, given the detoxifying roles of liver and kidney (and Parkinson’s assertion of it “clensing the malignant humours”), and the cooling and drying properties of all bitters. There is a tradition for using pu gong ying  as a stimulant to lactation that is not recorded in Europe.

  • Traditional actions

  • Traditional Energetic actions

    Herbal energetics are the descriptions Herbalists have given to plants, mushrooms, lichens, foods, and some minerals based on the direct experience of how they taste, feel, and work in the body. All traditional health systems use these principles to explain how the environment we live in and absorb, impacts our health. Find out more about traditional energetic actions in our article “An introduction to herbal energetics“.

  • What practitioners say

    Briefly, dandelion can be seen as gently improving both liver and kidney functions. Although there is a tendency to use respectively the root and leaf for these purposes, there is enough overlap to recommend both plant parts. In the case of the liver and digestion it combines well with and overlaps the activity of artichoke leaf.

    With its role in diluting both the bile and urine, thus reducing the propensity for crystal and stone deposition in each, it is easy to appreciate that dandelion’s reputation for treating stones.

    Digestion: as a gentle bitter digestive dandelion root is a standard first step in exploring this approach, perhaps as a test run for stronger bitters like andrographis, gentian root, and wormwood. Bitters were traditionally described around the world as cooling (and drying), suggesting they could be suitable in poor appetite linked to fever and inflammatory conditions, where heat or humidity is exacerbatory, and traditionally where there is a yellow tongue coating. They are also particularly used where there is a liver-bile element, marked perhaps by intolerance to rich food, fats and alcohol, and in managing more overt problems like jaundice linked to hepatitis, gallbladder conditions and inflammatory gut diseases. Artichoke and chicory are of comparable strength and are often combined in traditional bitter digestive blends.

    Metabolic and inflammatory: dandelion’s bitter quality also lends it to being a common ingredient in herbal regimes for managing chronic inflammatory problems around the body, notably skin conditions like eczema. Again it is useful to check whether the symptoms are linked to any of the background factors outlined above, looking especially for signs of liver strain and sluggish bowel as clues.

    Musculoskeletal: there is a persistent extension of the inflammatory modulating role of dandelion  in its use in osteoarthritis and gout. This is linked to its further reputation on the urinary functions below, and to the impression that it helps the kidneys to excrete acid metabolites. There is a strong naturopathic tradition that some arthritic problems are linked with inadequate elimination of acid wastes produced by cell metabolism. Much of this is expired as carbon dioxide from the lungs, with the rest removed in the bowel, sweat and urine. The aim in these traditions is to consume higher proportions of foods that leave alkaline residues after digestion (plant foods) and reduce acid-forming (animal) foods, in other words a more vegetarian diet. (There is a rationale to this approach: digestion is an enzymatically controlled combustion leaving the same mineral ‘ash’ residues – for example, burning a lemon will leave an alkaline ash, a steak acidic ash). Dandelion is one of a number of familiar remedies that were seen to improve the elimination of acidic metabolites (eg phosphates and urates) by the kidneys, along with common folk remedies celery seed, nettles, and birch.

    Urinary and fluid retention: all parts of the dandelion, especially the leaf, have demonstrated diuretic effects. This is a variable property, not affecting everyone, but sometimes the response is very noticeable.  This has led dandelion to be used in fluid retention, oedema and even to reduce high blood pressure. It is worth noting that one needs to take relatively high doses to see this.

  • Research

    In spite of its widespread use around the world clinical evidence for the effects of dandelion are minimal, with most of the research being laboratory studies (3). These point to diuretic, choleretic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects that are at least consistent with traditional uses (4,5).

    In one pilot human study involving 17 subjects, administration of dandelion leaf extract led to a significant increase in the frequency of urination in the 5-hour period after the first dose. There was also a significant increase in the excretion ratio in the 5-hour period after the second dose of extract. The third dose failed to change any of the measured parameters (6).

  • Did you know?

    ‘Dandelion’ comes from the French ‘dent de lion’ (lion’s tooth) and refers to the characteristic shape of the leaf. Once seen never forgotten: you will be able to spot dandelion in any sward even without flowers or the seedheads. Its common French name ‘pisenlit’ derives from its diuretic properties and contains the implicit instructions not to take dandelion too close to bedtime!

    For most purposes the root should be picked in early spring rather than autumn because of the improved bitterness at that time (due to the plant using up the slightly sweet and starchy inulin during the winter months). The leaves are picked in the spring or early summer preferably before flowering.

Additional information

  • Botanical description

    A very well-known plant that is however confused with a number of similar plants such as the hawkweeds, hawkbits and cat’s-ears. The dandelion arises as a rosette of leaves in a variety of shapes, from almost entire lanceolate, to deeply pinnatifid with 3-6 often backward-pointing triangular lobes likened to lion’s teeth (dent de lion).

    From the centre of the rosette arises a single hollow stem, yielding white sap on cutting, and terminating in a yellow capitulate flowerhead made up of 200 or more yellow ligulate bisexual florets each giving way in turn to the familiar floating pappus with seed: it is the globular mass of these pappi that comprise the ‘fairy clock’ so beloved of children. The long taproot issues from a short rhizome: all the underground parts are covered by a dark-brown bark, but are almost white inside, and like the stem, produce a bitter-tasting white milky sap.

  • Common names

    • Fairy clock
    • Lion’s tooth
    • Löwenzahn (Ger)
    • Pisenlit (Fr)
    • Dente di leone (Ital)
    • Diente de leĂłn (Sp)
  • Safety

    A very safe remedy. Occasional allergic reactions have been reported.

    It may be prudent not to use this remedy in severe biliary conditions in case of exacerbation.

  • Dosage

    Traditional adult doses are 12–30 g/day of dried leaf or 6–24 g/day of dried root, prepared by infusion (leaf) or decoction (root).

  • Constituents

    There are some differences between the constituents of root and leaf though much overlap

    • sesquiterpene lactones (eg taraxacin, mongolicumin B, and taraxinic acid derivatives)
    • triterpenoids (eg taraxasterol, taraxerol)
    • phenolics such as chlorogenic, chicoric, and caffeoyltartaric acids, coumarins (aesculin and cichoriin), lignans (eg mongolicumin A), and taraxacosides
    • taraxalisin: a serine proteinase in the fresh latex (particularly in spring).
    • taraxinic acid 1â€Č-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (an allergen)
    • inulin (in the root)

    For details of dandelion constituents and their pharmacological properties see this table (1).

    The bitter sesquiterpene lactones, mostly of the eudesmanolide and germacranolide types, are quite distinctive compared with those of other plants.

    Dandelion has been described as an unusually high source of potassium in herbal texts, with the implication that this could be a useful complement to its diuretic action. However analyses have shown that although levels are relatively high they do not compete with those in tea and coffee (2).

  • Recipe

    I love my liver tea

    Our liver takes the brunt of the grunt work for metabolising wastes, so use this tea when you feel sluggish, your digestion is poor or you feel that you need a detox.

    Ingredients:

    • Dandelion root 4g
    • Schisandra berries 3g
    • Dandelion leaf 2g
    • Fennel seed 2g
    • Turmeric root powder 1g
    • Rosemary leaf 1g
    • Licorice root 1g

    This will serve 2–3 cups of liver-loving tea.

    Method:

    • Put all of the ingredients in a pot. Add 500ml/18fl oz freshly boiled filtered water.
    • Leave to steep for 10–15 minutes, then strain.

    Let me glow tea

    This delicious recipe is a healing blend of chlorophyll-rich herbs that purify the blood, soothe the liver and cleanse the skin, helping you glow from the inside out. Good for anyone with pimples, acne or other skin blemishes.

    Ingredients:

    • Nettle leaf 3g
    • Fennel seed 2g
    • Peppermint leaf 2g
    • Dandelion root 2g
    • Burdock root 2g
    • Red clover 2g
    • Turmeric root powder 1g
    • Licorice root 1g
    • Lemon juice a twist per cup

    This will serve 2 cups of beautifying tea.

    Method:

    • Put all of the ingredients in a pot (except the lemon). Add 500ml (18fl oz) freshly boiled filtered water.
    • Leave to steep for 10–15 minutes, then strain and add the lemon.

    Good move tea

    There are only a few ways to move toxins out of the body – so if you’re keen to cleanse, it’s essential to make sure your bowels are working properly. Our ‘Good move’ tea is one of the strongest of the lot, so proceed with caution. It will help you have a relaxed and cleansing bowel motion every day.

    Ingredients:

    • Yellow dock root 4g
    • Dandelion root 3g
    • Marshmallow root 2g
    • Senna leaf 2g
    • Orange peel 2g
    • Fennel seed 1g
    • Licorice root 1g

    This will serve 2–3 cups of bowel moving tea.

    Method:

    • Put all of the ingredients in a pot. Add 500ml (18fl oz) freshly boiled filtered water.
    • Leave to steep for 10–15 minutes, then strain.
    • Just have 1 cup a day or you will find yourself trotting off to the loo too frequently. Don’t use it for more than two weeks in a row as senna can cause some dependency. Make sure you keep properly re-hydrated throughout the day.

    Recipes from Cleanse, Nurture, Restore by Sebastian Pole

  • References

    1. Wirngo FE, Lambert MN, Jeppesen PB. (2016). The Physiological Effects of Dandelion (Taraxacum Officinale) in Type 2 Diabetes. The review of diabetic studies : RDS, 13(2-3), 113–131. doi: 10.1900/RDS.2016.13.113
    2. Gallaher RN, Gallaher K, Marshall AJ, Marshall AC. (2006) Mineral analysis of ten types of commercially available tea. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis. 19: S53-S57, doi: 10.1016/j.jfca.2006.02.006.
    3. Sweeney B, Vora M, Ulbricht C, Basch E. (2005) Evidence-based systematic review of dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) by natural standard research collaboration. J Herb Pharmacother. 5(1): 79-93. PMID: 16093238
    4. SchĂŒtz K, Carle R, Schieber A. (2006) Taraxacum–a review on its phytochemical and pharmacological profile. J Ethnopharmacol. 107(3): 313-23. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2006.07.021.
    5. GonzĂĄlez-CastejĂłn M, Visioli F, Rodriguez-Casado A. (2012) Diverse biological activities of dandelion. Nutr Rev. 70(9): 534-47. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-4887.2012.00509.
    6. Clare BA, Conroy RS, Spelman K. The diuretic effect in human subjects of an extract of Taraxacum officinale folium over a single day. J Altern Complement Med. 2009 Aug;15(8):929-34. doi: 10.1089/acm.2008.0152
Aromatic
An ‘aromatic’ remedy, high in volatile essential oils, was most often associated with calming and sometimes ‘warming’ the digestion. Most kitchen spices and herbs have this quality: they were used both as flavouring and to ease the digestion of sometimes challenging pre-industrial foods. Many aromatics are classed as ‘carminatives’ and are used to reduce colic, bloating and agitated digestion. They also often feature in respiratory remedies for colds, chest and other airway infections. They are also classic calming inhalants and massage oils, and are the basis of aromatherapy for their mental benefits.
Astringent taste
The puckering taste you get with many plants (the most familiar is black tea after being stewed too long, or some red wines) is produced by complex polyphenols such as tannins. Tannins are used in concentrated form (eg from oak bark) to make leather from animal skins. The process of ‘tanning’ involves the coagulation of relatively fluid proteins in living tissues into tight clotted fibres (similar to the process of boiling an egg). Tannins in effect turn exposed surfaces on the body into leather. In the case of the lining of mouth and upper digestive tract this is only temporary as new mucosa are replenished, but in the meantime can calm inflamed or irritated surfaces. In the case of open wounds tannins can be a life-saver – when strong (as in the bark of broadleaved trees) they can seal a damaged surface. One group of tannins, the reddish-brown ‘condensed tannins’ are procyanidins, which can reduce inflammation and oxidative damage.
Bitter
Bitters are a very complex group of phytochemicals that stimulate the bitter receptors in the mouth. They were some of the most valuable remedies in ancient medicine. They were experienced as stimulating appetite and switching on a wide range of key digestive functions, including increasing bile clearance from the liver (as bile is a key factor in bowel health this can be translated into improving bowel functions and the microbiome). Many of these reputations are being supported by new research on the role of bitter receptors in the mouth and elsewhere round the body. Bitters were also seen as ‘cooling’ reducing the intensity of some fevers and inflammatory diseases.
Blue-purple colouring
Any fruits with a blue-purple colouring contain high levels of the polyphenols known as anthocyanins. These work 1) on the walls of small blood vessels, helping to maintain capillary structure to reduce a key stage in inflammation, and improving the microcirculation to the tissues; 2) to improve retinal function and vision; 3) to support connective tissue repair around the body.
Cooling
Traditional ‘cold’ or cooling’ remedies often contain bitter phytonutrients such a iridoids (gentian), sesiquterpenes (chamomile), anthraquinones (rhubarb root), mucilages (marshmallow), some alkaloids and flavonoids. They tend to influence the digestive system, liver and kidneys. Cooling herbs do just that; they diffuse, drain and clear heat from areas of inflammation, redness and irritation. Sweet, bitter and astringent herbs tend to be cooling.
Hot
Traditional ‘hot’ or ‘heating’ remedies, often containing spice ingredients like capsaicin, the gingerols (ginger), piperine (black or long pepper), curcumin (turmeric) or the sulfurous isothiocyanates from mustard, horseradich or wasabi, generate warmth when taken. In modern times this might translate as thermogenic and circulatory stimulant effects. There is evidence of improved tissue blood flow with such remedies: this would lead to a reduction in build-up of metabolites and tissue damage. Heating remedies were used to counter the impact of cold, reducing any symptoms made worse in the cold. .
Mucilaginous
Mucilages are complex carbohydrate based plant constituents with a slimy or ‘unctuous’ feel especially when chewed or macerated in water. Their effect is due simply to their physical coating exposed surfaces. From prehistory they were most often used as wound remedies for their soothing and healing effects on damaged tissues. Nowadays they are used more for these effects on the digestive lining, from the throat to the stomach, where they can relieve irritation and inflammation such as pharyngitis and gastritis. Some of the prominent mucilaginous remedies like slippery elm, aloe vera and the seaweeds can be used as physical buffers to reduce the harm and pain caused by reflux of excess stomach acid. Mucilages are also widely used to reduce dry coughing. Here the effect seems to be by reflex through embryonic nerve connections: reduced signals from the upper digestive wall appear to translate as reduced activity of airway muscles and increased activity of airway mucus cells. Some seed mucilages, such as in psyllium seed, flaxseed (linseed) or guar bean survive digestion to provide bulking laxative effects in the bowel. These can also reduce rate of absorption of sugar and cholesterol. .
New-mown hay aroma
The familiar country odour of haymaking, of drying grass and other plants, is largely produced by coumarins (originally isolated from tonka beans – in French coumarou) and widely used in perfumery. They are chemically categorised as benzopyrone lactones and are important phytochemicals, with strong antioxidant activity in the laboratory and likely effects in modulating inflammation. They were most often associated with the calming effect linked to their use in stuffing mattresses and pillows and plants, high In coumarins were commonly used for these properties.
Resinous
Resins are most familiar as tacky discharges from pine trees (and as the substance in amber, and rosin for violin bows). They were most valued however as the basis of ancient commodities like frankincense and myrrh (two of the three gifts of the Three Wise Men to the baby Jesus) and getting access to their source was one benefit to Solomon for marrying the Queen of Sheba (now Ethiopia). Resins were the original antiseptic remedies, ground and applied as powders or pastes to wounds or inflamed tissues, and were also used for mummification. With alcohol distillation it was found that they could be dissolved in 90% alcohol and in this form they remain a most powerful mouthwash and gargle, for infected sore throats and gum disease. They never attracted much early research interest because they permanently coat expensive glassware! For use in the mouth, gums and throat hey are best combined with concentrated licorice extracts to keep the resins in suspension and add extra soothing properties. It appears that they work both as local antiseptics and by stimulating white blood cell activity under the mucosal surface. They feel extremely effective!
Salty
The salty flavour is immediately distinctive. A grain dropped onto the tongue is instantly moistening and a sprinkle on food enkindles digestion. This easily recognisable flavour has its receptors right at the front of the tongue. The salty flavor creates moisture and heat, a sinking and heavy effect which is very grounding for the nervous system and encourages stability. People who are solid and reliable become known as ‘the salt of the earth'.
Sharpness
The sharp taste of some fruits, and almost all unripe fruits, as well as vinegar and fermented foods, is produced by weak acids (the taste is generated by H+ ions from acids stimulating the sour taste buds). Sour taste buds are hard-wired to generate immediate reflex responses elsewhere in the body. Anyone who likes the refreshing taste of lemon or other citrus in the morning will know that one reflex effect is increased saliva production. Other effects are subjective rather than confirmed by research but there is a consistent view that they include increased digestive activity and contraction of the gallbladder.
Sweet
In the days when most people never tasted sugar, ‘sweetness’ was associated with the taste of basic foods: that of cooked vegetables, cereals and meat. In other words sweet was the quality of nourishment, and ‘tonic’ remedies. Describing a remedy as sweet generally led to that remedy being used in convalescence or recovery from illness. Interestingly, the plant constituents most often found in classic tonics like licorice, ginseng are plant steroids including saponins, which also have a sweet taste.

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