Linden Uses and Plant Monograph
Several years ago, I spent a month in France visiting my husband’s family. Like most herbalists on vacation, I viewed this trip as a great opportunity to see lots of new and different plants. We travelled all over France, staying with friends and family, and everyone very generously took us to medieval herb gardens and other botanical sanctuaries.
One “herb” we didn’t have to go searching for was the linden tree. These beautiful and aromatic trees are everywhere in France. They line the streets of Paris, drape across the boardwalks at lakes in the Alps, and shade the castles in the south.
Walking through the villages of France, I quickly learned that you can often smell the sweet scent of a linden tree before you find it with your eyes. More than once, my nose caught the perfume of linden and we were off to find the culprit.
Linden is a plant that offers many gifts. It’s delicious, it is gentle enough for children and the elderly, yet it also has been employed for a number of serious acute problems.
“Lime [linden] is one of the ingredients of my own special ‘tea of happiness’ that will bring you peaceful nights, joyful awakenings and happy days, if you will take it regularly.”
- Maurice Mességué
Health Secrets of Plants and Herbs, 1975
Linden Uses and Plant Profile Summary
- Botanical Name: Tilia cordata, T. americana, T. x europaea, and several other species
- Other Common Names: basswood, lime tree, lime bush
- Family: Malvaceae
- Parts Used: mainly flowers (including bracts), buds, and leaves; bark and sap are also used
- Energetics: cooling, moistening
- Taste: sweet
- Plant Properties: antioxidant, antispasmodic, astringent, demulcent, diuretic (mild), hypotensive, modulates immune system, modulates inflammation, relaxing diaphoretic, relaxing nervine
- Plant Uses: anxiety, cough, fever, support heart health, promote sleep, relieve tension
- Plant Preparations: bath herb,nourishing infusion, food, tea, tincture
Energetics
Linden’s cooling, relaxing, and moistening qualities are a soothing relief for a variety of symptoms associated with heat, excess stimulation, and dryness. Linden’s gifts are often appreciated by those who are feeling overly stressed, tense, and hot. A red face, sweaty palms, reactive high blood pressure, and/or anxiety associated with nervousness are all indications for linden.
Heart
Linden has long been used to nourish and support the heart, especially for people with hypertension. As a relaxing nervine, linden can release tense musculature and relieve acute stress. We know how it feels to walk around with our shoulders tense to our ears, feeling jumpy and on edge. That alone can raise blood pressure! Linden is ideally suited to relieving this tense condition.
Linden is regularly paired with hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) leaves, flowers, and berries. This is a combination that is nourishing and supportive to general heart health, but also specifically indicated for hypertension and inflammation of the cardiovascular system.
Nervous System
As a relaxing nervine, linden soothes and calms the nervous system. It can be specific for anxiety that is accompanied by tension: tense shoulders, muscle cramping, tension headaches, painful menstrual cramps, etc. I also think of linden for people who have difficulty sleeping due to excessive tension.
Do you have a restless child who isn’t interested in bedtime? Take herbalist David Hoffman’s advice for a bedtime bath ritual that includes linden and red clover (Trifolium pratense).
Dryness
Linden is both demulcent and astringent, making it a perfect remedy for excessive dryness. The demulcent qualities add moisture to the body, while the astringent qualities tighten and tone tissues, helping to keep moisture in the tissues. Linden excels in protecting mucus membrane health in dry and hot weather or in people who tend to be dry and hot.
Think of linden for dry and irritated rashes. Besides taking it internally as a tea, it can also be applied externally as a poultice or used as a bath herb. Mességué, who practiced a tradition of herbal bathing, recommends it for any type of skin inflammation such as burns, boils, or abscesses.1
Linden is a favorite summertime drink. It is cooling and moistening, quenching thirst while also having a sweet, aromatic taste.
Digestion
As an aromatic herb that is also antispasmodic, linden can be used for indigestion or even stagnant digestion. It is especially useful for high-strung, type A people – with a red face, hot skin, and a boisterous demeanor – who have trouble digesting foods due to excitement or stress/tension.
Linden also is an often-overlooked herb for diarrhea. As a mild astringent, it tightens and tones lax tissues (which accompany excessive diarrhea), while its mucilaginous qualities soothe and coat inflamed mucous membranes and its antispasmodic qualities relieve cramping.
Linden bark is commonly used in France to stimulate the liver and gallbladder to promote bile and help better digest fats.2
Colds and Flu
Linden is a helpful herb for many symptoms of respiratory illness. As a relaxing nervine and vasodilator, it both releases tension in the musculature and aids circulation to the skin, helping to move heat out of the body. It’s specific when someone feels hot and is also experiencing tension and restlessness.
Linden’s polysaccharides have been shown to modulate immune system function, which is often helpful at the beginning of a cold or flu. One study reported that the polysaccharide content of linden “could be useful for support of a compromised immune system.”3
Linden is also used as a pectoral herb in catarrhal symptoms (with excess mucous) such as bronchitis, coughing, congestion, etc. Think of its soothing mucilaginous textures for sore and irritated throats, especially as an infused honey.
Dr. Sharol Tilgner reports its use has been shown to shorten the duration of infectious viral conditions such as cold sores and other herpes virus outbreaks.4
Nourishing Food
Linden leaves and flowers can be pounded into a flour that can be mixed with other flours (such as wheat) to make baked goods. This was commonly done in Europe during World War II when food was scarce. The leaves are especially high in protein.
The young leaves can be eaten fresh and make a great addition to salad greens and sandwich fillings, as well as being a favorite cooked green of foragers around the world. The inner bark is also edible and the sap can be boiled down into a syrup.
Botanically Speaking
There are many trees in the Tilia genus and many are used similarly. Tilia americana and T. cordata are commonly found in North America. T. cordata and T. x europaea are often found in Europe. Herbalist Christophe Bernard says T. x europaea is one of the rare times a hybrid is commonly used as medicine because its flowers are especially aromatic and sweet.
Plant Preparations
Linden makes a wonderfully refreshing tea, which can be made in a variety of ways.
A simple tea: You can simply steep one teaspoon of the flowers and bracts in a mug for 15 minutes. Be sure to cover it while steeping. This is a pleasant and slightly mucilaginous tea.
A nourishing infusion: You can also make it into a nourishing herbal infusion by steeping one ounce of the flowers and bracts in a quart of water for four hours or overnight. This will have a stronger therapeutic action than the tea.
Linden also makes a refreshing cold water infusion.
Linden can be a comforting warm cup of tea during illness or to support after-dinner digestion. It also makes a delicious and refreshing iced tea during warm months.
Linden bark can be made into a decoction by simmering it for 20 minutes.
Both the young leaves and flowers are edible and can be added to salads or used in any way you enjoy raw greens.
The flowers can be infused into honey for a tasty and soothing treat.
For external purposes, you can make a poultice or fermentation from the leaves and flowers. You can also infuse it into oil to use in salves or creams, or even try it as a bath herb. To use it in a bath, make a strong tea from the flowers and bracts, then strain and use the water in the bath.
When you purchase dried linden for making tea, you will get both the flowers and the bracts in the material.
Linden can also be made into an alcohol extract (tincture) with 10% glycerin added to keep the tannins in the solution.
Dosage Suggestions:
- Tea (flowers and bracts): 15-30 grams per day
- Tincture (dry flowers and bracts): 1:5, 50%; 3-5 mL, 3-5 times a day
- Decoction (bark): 30 grams per day
Special Considerations
- Linden is considered generally safe for most people. Occasionally some people are stimulated by linden instead of relaxed. There have also been rare cases of contact dermatitis.
- Linden trees are often found growing in urban centers. One study in Paris, France, found that linden trees do not significantly uptake pollutants found in the soil.5 While you always want to take soil health into consideration, this study shows that linden harvest from urban areas may be safe.
Footnotes
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