How does it feel?
Wild oat is a plant native to most of Europe. It is a tall plant, reaching heights of up to 1-1.5 metres with grass-like stems and leaves. Its characteristic seeds hang down from thin but tough stems that emerge from the top of the plant. These plants can be found most commonly in field margins of arable crops and in hedgerows and meadows. Oats have been cultivated for hundreds of years and there are now about 25 commercial varieties. The parts of the plant used medicinally are the grains, immature seeds (milky oats), leaf & stem (oatstraw).


All around the world the actions of traditional medicines were understood by their immediate sensory impacts. Click on each of wild oats’ key qualities below to learn more:
What can I use it for?
Wild oats are a nervous system trophorestorative and nervine. Wild oats are a nutritive restorative to the nervous system, whilst also being able to relax and calm frazzled nerves. They will essentially ‘feed’ the nerve cells, building up their strength, improving their resistance to stress. At the same time, they will act as an effective nervine, calming over-stimulated nerve cells, allowing time for them to recover from chronic long-term stimulation. Wild oats also have an excellent nutritive profile, containing a wide range of essential vitamins and minerals.
The oat seed produces a milky, mucilaginous substance that acts as an emollient for the skin. It is particularly effective for the treatment of hot, dry, irritated and inflamed skin conditions.
Into the heart of wild oats
Wild oats have a sweet taste, indicating its nourishing and restorative actions throughout the body, with a specific ability to replenish deficient conditions; it is a primary trophorestorative. It will promote a sense of solidarity, growth and vitality within the body. Wild oats have an excellent nutritional profile and this in combination with its trophorestorative effects, make this herb an excellent whole body tonic that will restore a depleted and exhausted body, particularly effective during periods of convalescence.
Its primary activity is concentrated within the nervous system, when it restores damaged and overwrought nerve cells. However, wild oats will also regulate the endocrine system, helping to balance whole body metabolism and regulate hormone production within the pancreas, thyroid and gonads.
Wild oat also soothes the external body as well as the internal. Its seeds are packed full of a sweet mucilage that soothes and calm hot, dry and irritated skin conditions by acting as an effective emollient.
Nervous: Wild oat is indicated in nervous exhaustion and weakness, depression, anxiety, insomnia, chronic fatigue, ME, cerebral deficiency such as memory and concentration loss and also in drug withdrawal. Wild oats are a nervous system trophorestorative, restoring, rejuvenating and strengthening nerve cells.
Endocrine: Wild oat nourishes the endocrine glands, with a specific action upon the thyroid, pancreas and gonads promoting the release of oestrogen and thyroxine whilst also regulating pancreatic functioning including blood sugar balance. It is indicated in metabolic weakness, endocrine deficiencies (thyroid, pancreas, adrenal, gonad) and hormonal imbalances.
Urinary, Kidney & Reproductive: Wild oats are indicated in both urinary and reproductive weaknesses, such as bladder weakness, impotence, loss of libido and premature ejaculation. Wild oats nourish the reproductive and urinary tract, strengthening and toning the organs.
Skin: Wild oat is indicated in hot, dry, irritated an inflamed conditions of the skin such as eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis, where it can be applied externally as an emollient.
Did you know?
When the oat seeds have ripened, the seed will ‘pop’ open and produced a milky juice when it is squeezed between the fingers, which is an excellent emollient for the skin.
Additional information
Safety
Seeds may decrease absorption of some drugs eg. Lovastatin due to their mucilaginous quality.
Traditional actions
Traditional Ayurvedic characteristics are
- Rasa (taste) Sweet.
- Virya (action) Cooling.
- Vipaka (post-digestive effect) Sweet.
- Guna (quality) Cooling, heavy, smooth.
- Dosha effect: VP– K+.
- Dhatu (tissue) Plasma, blood, muscle, nerve, reproductive, bone.
- Srotas (channels) Nervous, circulatory, digestive.
Dosage
Tincture: 3-5ml daily (1:5, 25%).
Dried: 1 cup of boiling water to 1-3 teaspoons of dried straw.
External: Soak shredded oat straw in boiling water for unto 1 hour and strain the liquid into a bath or external soak.