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Herbs: Hops flowers - whole

Common Name: Hops
Latin Name: Humulus lupulus

Excerpts from The How to Herb Book

• Best known as a relaxing nerve tonic. Problems of insomnia (sleeplessness) have been helped by hops when nothing else has.

• Promotes sleep; making a soothing sleep formula when combined with Valerian and skullcap.

• Relaxes the liver and gall ducts.

• Increases the flow of bile and urine, and bowel function.

• Increases capillary circulation and heart action.

• Decreases desire for alcohol.

• Reduces high fevers.

• Reduces pain and inflammation.

Has been used in the following:

Excerpts from Practical Herbalism

Culpeper wrote:
“…to open obstructions of the liver and spleen, to cleanse the blood, to loosen the belly, to cleanse the reins from gravel, and provoke urine. The decoction of the tops of Hops, as well of the tame as the wild, works the same effects. In cleansing the blood they help to cure the French diseases, and all manner of scabs, itch, and other breakings-out of the body; as also all tetters, ringworms, and spreading sores, the morphew and all discolouring of the skin. The decoction of the flowers and hops, do help to expel poison that anyone hath drank. A syrup made of the juice and sugar, cures the yellow jaundice, eases the head-ache that comes of heat, and tempers the heat of the liver and stomach, and is profitably given in long and hot agues that rise in choler and blood. Both the wild and the manured are of one property, and alike effectual in all the aforesaid diseases.”

The sedating aspect of the herb on the nervous system was not lost on early practitioners, either. Though hops were at first thought to engender melancholy, Ellingwood considered it specific for marked cases of nerve irritation and wakefulness where anxiety and worry are the cause. He recommended it for the following pathologies: hysteria, insomnia, acute local inflammations, facial neuralgia, delirium tremens, and sexual excitement. King’s went on to add: “They are principally used for their sedative or hypnotic action – producing sleep, removing restlessness, and abating pain, but which they often fail to accomplish. A pillow stuffed with hops has long been a popular remedy for procuring sleep. Hops, as well as lupulin, are useful in delirium tremens to allay the morbid excitement and vigilance, while at the same time it exerts its stomachic effects. It is extremely efficient in dyspepsia where restlessness and a brooding disposition are prominent features. Fermentative dyspepsia, with consequent eructations, often yields to hops or lupulin. Externally, in the form of a fomentation alone, or combined with boneset or other bitter herbs, hops have proved beneficial in pneumonia, pleurisy, gastritis, enteritis; also as an application to painful swellings or tumors.”

Hops has and is being used in China primarily as a disinfectant to treat various forms of leprosy, tuberculosis, bacterial dysentery, and, most recently, antibiotic resistant staph infections.

Indicated Usages - Internal:

Indicated Usages - External:

Excerpts from Nutritional Herbology

Hops has been used as a calmative, nervine, stomachic, sedative and hypnotic. It has been considered especially useful in alleviating nervous stomach conditions and in helping produce sleep. It is also a diuretic and vermifuge. One of the most popular folk uses is in a “hops filled pillow” which, when used to replace a standard pillow, is said to produce non-narcotic sleep.

Hops has an overriding bitter taste due to the antibiotic bitter acids, humulone and lupulone. These irritating bitter acids, together with volatile oils, stimulate (primarily through irritation) the urinary tract and the lungs to purge themselves of toxins. This results in diuretic and expectorant effects. The oils also trigger the production of digestive fluids, aiding efficient digestion.

The sedative and antispasmodic properties of hops are apparently due to the various flavonoids present in the flowers of the plant.

Contain bitter compounds that have a sedative effect and relieve smooth muscle spasms, increase the flow of urine and are antiseptic. Hops is an excellent herbal source of niacin. It has been used to treat insomnia, painful urination, urinary tract infections, spastic colons and anxiety.

From Our Reading and/or Experience...

• We use Hops in tincture combinations pertaining to problems sleeping, stress, anxiety, and stomach and liver problems. Of course, it can be used in many other types of remedies. For instance, it can easily be made into powder and used in capsules. Because of its bitter taste, we don't normally use it in tea combinations.
• Hops can be used to benefit anyone: men, women (including before, during or after pregnancy, and nursing), children and animals.
• It can be used as often as you would like, and in any way you choose.
• As is the case with most herbs, Hops should be stored in a dark, dry, and cool place.

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