Parsley

Scanty urine with dependent edema and a bloated, sluggish digestive feeling

Delayed or scanty menses with a full, congested sensation in the low pelvis

Overview. Parsley is a familiar biennial herb of the carrot family, cultivated worldwide as a culinary green and long valued in Western herbal practice as a mild diuretic and digestive remedy. The leaf, root, and seed have each been used, though the seed's concentrated oil, once distilled for its apiol content, has fallen out of use owing to its toxicity. In nineteenth century eclectic practice the root and seed infusions were reached for as a gentle diuretic and emmenagogue, a use that persists in modern Western herbalism at much more conservative doses.

Clinical Notes. Inhibits Na/K pump in kidney Seed=stronger action , more diuretic than leaf, anti-spasmodic, carminative, emmenagogue Leaf=nutritive, diuretic (mild) Leaves can be chewed as breath freshener

Clinical Notes. In practice parsley leaf and root are used as a food-strength diuretic, well suited to mild fluid retention, premenstrual bloating, and sluggish digestion where a gentle rather than forceful action is wanted.

Action and Therapy. Decoction of parsley root is an active diuretic, as is also the oil (three or four drops). Both relieve urinary irritation, and have been extensively employed to relieve dropsical effusions when the kidneys are in a condition to respond, especially when the edema follows scarlet fever.