You’ve probably experienced the delightful scents of freshly cut grass and hay. There’s truly nothing quite like the fragrance of blooming meadows. This aromatic gift comes from a common plant known as sweet clover, which releases the fragrant compound coumarin as it wilts.
Sweet clover is a well-known plant, though it goes by various names in different regions: yellow sweet clover, rabbit’s foot, sticky clover, and others. The medicinal sweet clover and its close relative, large sweet clover, are biennial plants from the legume family, characterized by their upright and fairly branched stems. The leaves are trifoliate, with the central leaflet on a petiole and the side leaflets nearly sessile. The small yellow flowers are grouped in multi-flowered axillary racemes and bloom from June to September.
For the average person, there’s not much difference between these species, except that large sweet clover can grow up to five feet tall. It’s a rare sight, mostly found around Vinnytsia, Kharkiv, and Kamianets-Podilskyi.
Medicinal sweet clover thrives on slopes, in weedy areas, along field edges, and among grain crops. Its forage and honey-producing qualities have been valued for centuries. Additionally, it’s frost-resistant and drought-tolerant.
People have long utilized sweet clover as a medicinal herb. Besides the aforementioned types, other varieties like serrate sweet clover, white sweet clover, and Crimean sweet clover are also used. External applications of sweet clover are more common than internal uses. A well-known green extract plaster is made from sweet clover, which is applied to hard swellings, boils, abscesses, wounds, and in cases of osteomyelitis. This plaster can be made at home by melting 12 grams of yellow wax with 22 grams of rosin and one tablespoon of animal fat, then adding a teaspoon of powdered sweet clover herb. The mixture is heated on low for five minutes, strained into a cup, and applied to the affected areas. There are other methods for preparing sweet clover plaster as well. Steamed sweet clover flowers can also be used for similar purposes, particularly for treating dental abscesses, middle ear inflammation, mastitis, and more. Often, sweet clover is combined in equal parts with chamomile flowers and marshmallow leaves. The mixture should be steamed in boiling water. This poultice helps heal wounds and alleviates pain in swollen joints caused by rheumatism.
Internally, a tea made from medicinal sweet clover is consumed for coughs, fevers, migraines, menopause, insomnia, hypertension, and as a galactagogue for nursing mothers. To prepare it, one tablespoon of sweet clover is steeped in a cup of boiling water for ten to fifteen minutes.
It’s crucial not to exceed the recommended doses for internal use, as high amounts of sweet clover can lead to nausea, vomiting, headaches, paralysis of smooth muscles, blood in urine, skin hemorrhages, and general malaise.
A tea made from equal parts sweet clover, linden flowers, and chamomile (two teaspoons of the mixture steeped in a cup of boiling water for 15 minutes) is considered an effective choleretic remedy.
Sweet clover is also used as a fragrance fixative in perfumery, as well as for flavoring pipe tobacco and cheese production.
The herb of medicinal sweet clover protects woolen items from moths.
As you can see, sweet clover is a valuable herb with a wide range of applications, deserving of respect from people.