Yellow sweet clover Benefits, Usage, Medicinal Properties, Nutrition, Dosage, Preparations, safety, science backed and traditional view

Yellow sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis Lam) also used White sweet clover (Melilotus alba Medik.) also know as King`s clover, Melilot, Sweetclover, Heartwort, Nostrzyk zloty, Hart`s clover, Nostrzyk Bialy

 

The Melilots are perennial herbs, 2 to 4 feet high, found in dry fields and along roadsides, in waste places and chalky banks, especially along railway banks and near lime kilns. The smooth, erect stems are much branched, the leaves placed on alternate sides of the stems are smooth and trifoliate, the leaflets oval. The plants bear long racemes of small, sweet-scented, yellow or white, papilionaceous flowers in the yellow species, the keel of the flower much shorter than the other parts and containing much honey. They are succeeded by broad, black, one-seeded pods, transversely wrinkled.

All species of Melilot, when in flower, have a peculiar, sweet odour, which by drying becomes stronger and more agreeable, somewhat like that of the Tonka bean, this similarity being accounted for by the fact that they both contain the same chemical principle, Coumarin, which is also present in new-mown hay and woodruff, which have the identical fragrance. Melilotus can fix Nitrogen.

The name of this genus comes from the words Mel (honey) and lotus (meaning honeylotus), the plants being great favourites of the bees.

 

Part used: whole herb

 

 

Constituents: orthho and hydrocoumaric acid, mucilage, flavonoids (incl coumarin and melitoside), essential oil (incl melitolic lactone), tanins, trace minerals, coffeic acid

 

Flavour/Temps: Sweet, somewhat Bitter, Dry, Cold

Calming, Diluting, Relaxing, Decongesting

 

Tropism: Liver, Heart, Intestines, Veins, Nervous system

 

Meridians: Liver, Large intestine, Lungs, Heart, du meridians

Air, Warmth, Fluid bodies

 

Key actions in western medicine: Stress related conditions, Antidiabetic, Anti-inflammatory, Antioxidant, Immunomodulators, Vasodilators, Anticoagulant, Hypotensive, Anticonvulsant,  Sedative and Antispasmodic

Note: Anticoagulant effect is only for di-coumarol (fermented melilotus, properly dried melilotus do not have anticoagulant properties) coumarin has 1000 times less anticoagulant effect which is negligible.

 

Indications in western medicine: chronic stress related conditions (incl. menopause); mental/nervous tension; relentlessness, anxiety, insomnia (esp. elderly, convalescents and children); asthma; eye inflammations (all types); enteritis, colitis, dysentery; contusions, ulcers, injuries, skin cancers and ulcers; hypertension, neurocardiac syndrome; pain conditions (incl. ear pains, tension headache, ovarian pain, neuralgia, neuritis incl. sciatica); thrombosis, blood hyperviscosity; venous deficiency, haemorrhoids, phlebitis; lymphadenitis; congestive dysmenorrhea; IBS, digestive colic; swelling and inflammations (incl. mastitis, erysipelas, injuries, sore or hard breast during nursing); sympathetic nervous hyperfunctioning.

 

Key actions in eastern medicine: Calms the mind, relaxes constraint and relieve anxiety, sinks the Yang and clears heat: Adrenal/ Kidney Qi constraint, Heart Fire, Floating yang;

Clears Damp-heat and reduce swelling, inflammations and contusions; draws pus and soften boils: Heat toxins, intestines damp-heat.

Regulates Qi and relieve wheezing and pain; Balances Circulation and harmonizes digestion: Intestines and lungs Qi constrain, heart Qi constraint (rising Liver Yang)

Vitalise lymph and blood, Moderate menses, removes congestions; Thins the blood and restore veins: uterus blood congestions and venous blood stagnations

 

 

Indications in eastern medicine: muscle tension, head congestions, sleep loss, irritability, headache, mental, nervous tension, unrest and pains, palpitations, anxiety, poor sleep, hot spells, agitation; injuries, skin ulcers and tumors; pounding headache, dizziness, ringing ears; unrest, loose and burning stool;  tight painful chest, wheezing ; fever, boils, furuncles, abscesses; fatigue, leg cramps at night, varicosities, heavy or aching legs; abdominal pain, stress, worry, abdominal flatulence, irregular stool; dull pelvic pressure or pain before onset, early and copious menses.

 

Ground: Choleric and Sanguine krases

Sulphuric and Hematogenic constitutions

 

Preparations: Infusion, Tincture, Steam inhalations, Infused oil

Note: Steam inhalation traditionally has been used to relieve middle ear and sinus pain

 

Dosage: Infusion 4-10g

Tincture 0.5-3ml (average 1.5 ml) 1:3, 50% ethanol

Tincture 0.8-5ml (average 2.5ml) 1:5, 50% ethanol

 

Note: always use properly dried herb from supplier who follows GMP practice, as there is increased liver toxicity and bleeding effect connected to incorrect drying process of Melilotus when coumarins transform to dicoumarol under fermentation process.

Note: Tincture 1:3 should be split in 5-6 doses and taken with regular intervals during the day, daily dose should not exceed 10ml, this is safe dosage for long term use.

Note: washes, compresses, plasters and so on has been used as great remedy for first aid and topical use, especially for those involving swelling and pain (e.g. boils, abdominal pain, rheumatic pain, conjunctivitis)

 

 

Synergy examples:  Combined with hawthorn, lime flowers, motherwort and horse chestnut for cardiovascular problems.

 

Cautions: Caution is advised prescribing melilotus with aspirin or warfarin. Watch for potential hepatotoxicity.

Contrary to popular writings properly dried Melilotus do not have anti-coagulant effect. Double-blind clinical trial with 41 patients, suffering from chronic venous insufficiency found that coumarin/troxerutin taken orally did not cause any anticoagulant effect, was no changes in clotting factors, fibrinolysis or coagulation during treatment period.

 

Contradictions: elevated liver enzymes or impaired liver functions.

 

Interactions with drugs: theoretically may interact with aspirin and warfarin or other anticoagulants, but properly dried Melilotus do not have anti-coagulant effect, that why always get your herbs from supplier who follows GMP practice.

 

Side effects: There is no data about Melilotus.

In phase 1 clinical trial, using isolated coumarin within doses 400-7000mg a day combined with cimetidine for treatment of cancer caused some side effects: dizziness, vomiting, nausea, insomnia, diarrhoea, those side effects spontaneously abated during treatment, no significant renal or haematological toxicity occurred.

 

History/Folklore:

 

In one Continental Pharmacopoeia of recent date an emollient application is directed to be made of Melilot, resin, wax, and olive oil.

Gerard says that:

'Melilote boiled in sweet wine untile it be soft, if you adde thereto the yolke of a rosted egge, the meale of Linseed, the roots of Marsh Mallowes and hogs greeace stamped together, and used as a pultis or cataplasma, plaisterwise, doth asswge and soften all manner of swellings.'

It was also believed that the juice of the plant 'dropped into the eies cleereth the sight.'

Water distilled from the flowers was said to improve the flavour of other ingredients.

A new kind of Sweet Clover, an annual variety of M. alba, has been discovered in the United States. To distinguish it from the other Sweet Clovers, it is called Hubam, after Professor Hughes, its discoverer, and Alabama, its native state. Some five or six years ago, small samples were distributed by Professor Hughes among various experimental stations, with the result that the superiority of the plant has been generally recognized and its spread has been rapid, over 5,000 acres now being cultivated. The plant has specially valuable characteristics - great resistance to drought, adaptability to a wide variety of soils and climates, abundant seed production, richness in nectar and great fertilizing value to the soil, and has been grown successfully in the United States, Canada, Australia, Italy, and many other countries. The quantity of forage produced from a given acre is second to no other forage plant, and the quality, if properly handled, is excellent. It is of very quick growth and blooms in three to four months after sowing, producing an unusual wealth of honey-making blooms. The flowers remain in bloom for a longer period than almost any other honey-bearing plant, and in the matter of nectar production the quantity is surprising, equal to that of any other honey produced in the United States, and the quality compares favourably with the best honey produced either there or in Great Britain. It is considered that this annual Sweet Clover will one day stand at the head of the list of honey plants of the world, if the present rate of spreading continues.

Culpepper tells us that the head is to be washed with the distilled herb for loss of senses and apoplexy, and that boiled in wine, it is good for inflammation of the eye or other parts of the body.

The following recipe is from the Fairfax Still-room book (published 1651):

'To make a bath for Melancholy. Take Mallowes, pellitory of the wall, of each three handfulls; Camomell Flowers, Mellilot flowers, of each one handfull, senerick seed one ounce, and boil them in nine gallons of Water untill they come to three, then put in a quart of new milke and go into it bloud warme or something warmer.'

Applied as a plaster, or in ointment, or as a fomentation, it is an old-fashioned country remedy for the relief of abdominal and rheumatic pains.

It relieves flatulence and in modern herbal practice is taken internally for this purpose.

The flowers, besides being very useful and attractive to bees, have supplied a perfume, and a water distilled from them has been used for flavouring.

The dried plant has been employed to scent snuff and smoking tobacco and may be laid among linen for the same purpose as lavender. When packed with furs, Melilot is said to act like camphor and preserve them from moths, besides imparting a pleasant fragrance.

'In Switzerland, Melilot abounds in the pastures and is an ingredient in the green Swiss cheese called Schabzieger. The Schabzieger cheese is made by the curd being pressed in boxes with holes to let the whey run out; and when a considerable quantity has been collected and putrefaction begins, it is worked into a paste with a large proportion of the dried herb Melilotus, reduced to a powder. The herb is called in the country dialect "Zieger kraut," curd herb. The paste thus produced is pressed into moulds of the shape of a common flowerpot and the putrefaction being stopped by the aromatic herb, it dries into a solid mass and keeps unchanged for any length of time. When used, it is rasped or grated and the powder mixed with fresh butter is spread upon bread. ' (Syme and Sowerby, English Botany.)

In an in vitro study, sweet clover extract demonstrated antidiabetic effects through potent inhibition of alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase activity

In an in vitro study, sweet clover extract demonstrated anti-inflammatory effects through potent inhibition of hyaluronidase activity and moderate inhibition of lipoxygenase activity. In an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS), sweet clover extract reduced the gene expression of some pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-6, IL-17, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), and increased the gene expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-5. Coumarin isolated from sweet clover reduces experimentally-induced inflammation in animal models. Coumarin also reduces osmotic pressure resulting in tissue drainage.

In an in vitro study, sweet clover extract demonstrated minimal antioxidant effects through weak inhibition of a radical scavenging assay. But in an animal model of MS, sweet clover extract increased the expression of catalase and glutathione peroxidase genes and increased glutathione peroxidase activity.

There is some evidence to suggest that locally perfused sweet clover extract might eliminate adrenaline-induced vasoconstriction. This would indicate peripheral vasodilation.

The coumarin in sweet clover is metabolized to coumarin 3,4-epoxide which is metabolized to very small amounts of the hepatotoxic agent o-hydroxyphenylacetaldehyde (o-HPA).

Theoretically, sweet clover might exacerbate liver disease. Large amounts of sweet clover have been reported to cause transient liver injury in susceptible individuals, possibly due to coumarin content. Avoid use in patients with liver disease. Try to avoid combine with other hepatoxic remedies, or if combined monitor liver health.

Many trials been conducted with Sweet clover extract and rutin. Uncontrolled trail with 385 patients suffering for venous insufficiency oral administration over 45 days brings 90% improvement, also reduction of oedema in both legs was noticed.  25 pregnant women received orally melilotus extract and rutin, symptoms such as heavy legs completely disappeared in 68% of cases.

 

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