About 400 million years ago, stands of giant horsetail plants, as tall as trees, grew in the lush primeval forests where dinosaurs walked. Today, horsetails are much smaller, but are otherwise very much like their prehistoric ancestors. Related to ferns, horsetail plants thrive in moist, boggy areas throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
Description
Horsetails look like little trees. They grow from rhizomes, a type of rootstock, and like ferns and mushrooms, they reproduce by spores. They have two types of stems. The hollow, reed-like, jointed green stems with bright green bristles are nonfertile. The fertile shoots lack bristles, and each has a brown cone at the top, which contains the spores.
Medicinal preparations come from the nonfertile stems and bristles. Peace Health says horsetail contains silicon, an important mineral, as well as 15 different flavonoids, plant compounds that act as antioxidants, limiting damage to body tissues and reducing inflammation.
History
Common horsetail, Equisetum arvense, is a "living fossil" dating back to the Paleozoic era, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Galen, a second century Roman physician, was the first to recommend horsetail to treat urinary and kidney problems, and it continues to be a popular folk remedy, especially in Europe. Because the silicon in the stems is very abrasive, horsetail also makes an excellent pot scrubber.
Benefits
Horsetail acts as a diuretic and is a traditional European remedy for edema, or fluid retention. Medline Plus gave it a "B" rating, stating that preliminary studies do show that horsetail may increase urine output, but more research is needed.
The silicon in horsetail may help treat osteoporosis, loss of bone mass, by improving bone density. Silicon is one of the minerals necessary for bone health. In Italy, physicians use the supplement Osteosil to treat fractures and osteoporosis. Osteosil contains a combination of horsetail and calcium and did increase bone density in one study, but the University of Maryland Medical Center notes that the research was not well designed and that more studies are needed.
How To Take It
Horsetail comes in capsules and as a tincture or liquid extract. A tea can be made by steeping the dried herb in hot water. Medline Plus notes the lack of available human studies, but says usual doses include 300 mg capsules three times a day, up to 6 cups of tea, or 1 to 4 milliliters of tincture three times daily. The University of Maryland Medical Center recommends drinking plenty of fluids while taking horsetail.
Warning
Children should not take horsetail, as it contains nicotine. It may destroy thiamine, a B vitamin, and heavy drinkers should avoid it because alcohol also depletes thiamine. The University of Maryland Medical Center recommends taking B complex or a good multivitamin if you're taking horsetail.
Horsetail can interact with many different medications, so ask your doctor before taking it or any other herbal preparation.
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