What Are the Benefits of Lycopodium?

Known by its common names of Club Moss, Wolf's Claw, Fox Tail, Running Pine, and Lamb's Tail and native to both North America and Europe, Lycopodium is an evergreen plant that has been given as a homeopathic remedy for gout, digestive orders, kidney stones, and water retention since the Middle Ages.

Indications

• Alternative medicines can be an option for relieving certain symptoms without the side effects.

  Lycopodium can be used to treat digestive problems like constipation, bloating, nausea, heartburn, and bleeding hemorrhoids. It can also be used to treat an enlarged prostrate and blood in the urine. Skin irritations like psoriasis and nettle rash can also be treated with Lycopodium.

Cancer Treatment

• Lycopodium is believed to help with some forms of anxiety.

  A study appearing in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention in 2007 showed that Lycopodium inhibited the formation of lung tumor nodules in mice. Researchers believe that some homeopathic remedies, including Lycopodium, either activate or deactivate certain genes at the molecular level.

Anxiety

• Lycopodium may help persons suffering from performance anxiety and could help children suffering from anxiety accompanied by bedwetting.

Preparation

• The spores are harvested during the summer by cutting the spikes of the evergreen plant and shaking them. They are then soaked in alcohol for a week, or longer, before being filtered to obtain the tincture.

Other Uses

• Lycopodium has also been used in fireworks because of its flammability and as an outer coating for pills due to the water resistance of its spores.