Sweet Clover
Parts Usually Used
The flowering plant
Description of Plant(s) and Culture
Yellow melilot is a biennial plant; the slender, branched, hollow stems, from 1 1/2 to 5 feet high, bear pinnate leaves (clover-like) with 3 obovate or oblanceolate leaflets, which are finely toothed and blunt-tipped. Blooming from June to November, the fragrant, light golden-yellow pea-like flowers grow in axillary racemes. Later, long crooked pods appear, they contain flat brown seeds.
The plant is fragrant when crushed. Another variety: White melilot (M. alba), a similar but taller, white-flowered species, has the same medicinal uses. Biennial, grows 1-9 feet tall, leaves clover-like; leaflets elongate, slightly toothed. Small white, pea-like flowers in long, tapering spikes, blooms April to October. Like yellow melilot, it is a very common plant in fields and waste places over most of North America and in Europe and Asia.
Where Found
Grows along roadsides and in waste places in Eurasia and throughout North America, except in the far north.
Medicinal Properties
Antispasmodic, diuretic, emollient, expectorant, vulnerary
Biochemical Information
Coumarins in both of these clovers may decrease blood clotting.
Legends, Myths and Stories
The name melilot is derived from the words mel, or honey, and lotus; meaning honey lotus. Yellow melilot repels moths. Europeans sew the dried plant into an herb pillow. This herb is abundant in the Yangtse region of China. The Chinese use yellow melilot medicinally, use it in cosmetics, and burn it as an incense. Moldy hay causes uncontrollable bleeding in cattle due to coumarins.
Science has developed compounds like warfarin from such coumarins to prevent blood clotting in rodents.
Uses
Historically, herbalists prepared this plant as an external salve or poultice for swellings, boils, skin complaints, sores, wounds, milk knots, arthritis, and rheumatism. A decoction was traditionally utilized as an eyewash or applied as a wash for wounds, aching muscles, convulsions, varicose veins, and inflammation. Internally, traditional practitioners administered it for colic, stomach ailments, gas, diarrhea, painful menstruation, headaches, and impotence, while the dried herb was sometimes smoked for asthma and chronic bronchitis.
Practitioners also prepared it as a tea for reproductive weakness, and historical medical texts noted the use of concentrated preparations intended to act as anticoagulants or to lower blood pressure.
Warning
Do not use with warfarin or other blood-thinning drugs, or with any blood-clotting problem. See the doctor. Coumarins in both of these clovers may decrease blood clotting. Large doses can cause vomiting and other symptoms of poisoning. Do not use without medical supervision.
Bibliography
The Complete Medicinal Herbal , by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993 Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs , by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814) The Herbalist Almanac , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994 Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A.
, Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. , West Nyack, NY, 1987. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023