Burdock is a weed found in waste places and roadsides. Burdock grows from a fleshy taproot and produces large, heart-shaped, hairy leaves and red-violet flower heads surrounded by numerous hooked bracts that form a bur-like cup. Burdock is an herb with potential medicinal value.

Burdock Research

Essiac for cancer?
Treatmentupdate 1998.
An analysis of a mixture of herbs in Essiac, an alternative-medicine anti-cancer therapy, has shown it contains a variety of compounds which have antioxidant activity as well as the ability to block cell growth. The Essiac mixture contains burdock root, Indian rhubarb, sheep sorrel, inner bark of slippery elm, watercress, blessed thistle, red clover, and kelp. A review of patients taking Essiac shows that there was no obvious toxicity. Clinical trials are recommended to determine Essiac's efficacy. For more info on Essiac.

Anaphylaxis due to burdock.
Int J Dermatol. 2003. Division of Dermatology, Yamagata City Hospital Saiseikan, Yamagata, Japan

Hepatoprotective effects of Arctium lappa on liver injuries induced by chronic ethanol consumption and potentiated by carbon tetrachloride.
J Biomed Sci. 2002.
Arctium lappa Linne ( burdock ) is a perennial herb which is popularly cultivated as a vegetable. In order to evaluate its hepatoprotective effects, a group of rats (n = 10) was fed a liquid ethanol diet (4 g of absolute ethanol/ 80 ml of liquid basal diet) for 28 days and another group (n = 10) received a single intraperitoneal injection of 0.5 ml/kg carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4)) in order to potentiate the liver damage on the 21st day (1 day before the beginning of burdock treatment). Control group rats were given a liquid basal diet which did not contain absolute ethanol. When 300 mg/kg burdock was administered orally 3 times per day in both the 1-day and 7-day treatment groups, some biochemical and histopathological parameters were significantly altered, both in the ethanol group and the groups receiving ethanol supplemented with CCl(4). burdock significantly improved various pathological and biochemical parameters which were worsened by ethanol plus CCl(4)-induced liver damage, such as the ethanol plus CCl(4)-induced decreases in total cytochrome P-450 content and NADPH-cytochrome c reductase activity, increases in serum triglyceride levels and lipid peroxidation (the deleterious peroxidative and toxic malondialdehyde metabolite may be produced in quantity) and elevation of serum transaminase levels. It could even restore the glutathione content and affect the histopathological lesions. These results tended to imply that the hepatotoxicity induced by ethanol and potentiated by CCl(4) could be alleviated with 1 and 7 days of burdock treatment. The hepatoprotective mechanism of burdock could be attributed, at least in part, to its antioxidative activity, which decreases the oxidative stress of hepatocytes, or to other unknown protective mechanism(s).

Sexual benefit
BMC Complement Altern Med. 2012. Effect of aqueous extract of Arctium lappa (burdock) roots on the sexual behavior of male rats. The results of this study demonstrate that aqueous extract of Arctium lappa roots enhances sexual behavior in male rats. The aphrodisiac effects of the plant extract may be related to the presence of flavonoids, saponins, lignans and alkaloids, acting via a multitude of central and peripheral mechanisms. These results thus support the traditional use of burdock root extract for treating impotence and sterility.

Burdock seed compounds
A new butyrolactone sesquilignan, isolappaol C, together with four known lignans, lappaol C, lappaol D, lappaol F, and diarctigenin, have been isolated from the methanolic extract of the seeds from the Arctium lappa plant.