CHENOPODIUM ALBUM

Plant Name: CHENOPODIUM ALBUM

English Name: Fat Hen

Local Name:

Dungweed
Goosefoot,
Fat hen,
Lamb's quarters,
White goosefoot,

Family: Chenopodiaceae

Uses:
It may be eaten as a vegetable, either steamed in its entirety, or the leaves are cooked like spinach as a leaf vegetable. Each plant produces tens of thousands of black seeds. These are high in protein, vitamin A, calcium, phosphorus, and potassium. Fat hen is not employed in herbal medicine, though it does have some gentle medicinal properties and is a very nutritious and healthy addition to the diet. The leaves are anthelmintic, antiphlogistic, antirheumatic, mildly laxative, odontalgic. An infusion is taken in the treatment of rheumatism. The leaves are applied as a wash or poultice to bug bites, sunstroke, rheumatic joints and swollen feet, whilst a decoction is used for carious teeth. The seeds are chewed in the treatment of urinary problems and are considered useful for relieving the discharge of semen through the urine. The juice of the stems is applied to freckles and sunburn. The juice of the root is used in the treatment of bloody dysentery. Food that comprises 25.5% of the powdered herb may suppress the oestrus cycle.