Nettle, the mineral powerhouse

Herbalist Sajah Popham's spring tonic for the blood, the kidneys, the skin and hay fever — checked against the food tables, the chemistry of the sting, the one allergy trial and the EU's herbal monograph.

15 October 2026 10 min read ▶ 11-min video 12 sources · 6 peer-reviewed

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Bar chart of the calcium, potassium and iron in a cup of cooked nettles beside a cup of raw dandelion greens, as shares of the Daily Value

In brief

In Sajah Popham's spring tonics lesson, nettle leaf is the “mineral powerhouse”: a food to cook, a gentle diuretic, a tonic for the blood and a remedy for hay fever. The calcium is real — a cup of cooked nettles gives a third of a day's needs — but the iron is not: nettles have about half the iron of dandelion greens, which the same lesson calls “not super rich in iron”. One small trial supports nettle for hay fever; the urinary, joint and skin uses are traditional, recognised by the EU; anaemia, gout and bones are untested.

33% of a day's calcium in one cup of cooked nettles — 428 mg The strongest of its “minerals”.

1.6 mg of iron in 100 g of cooked nettles — about half of dandelion greens' 3.1 mg A cup gives 8% of a day's iron.

58% of hay-fever sufferers rated nettle moderately or highly effective, against 37% on placebo One week, 69 people finished; the daily diaries differed only slightly.

3 groups of chemicals in the stinging hairs: histamine and acetylcholine, serotonin, and two acids that make the pain last

Learn from the source

Sajah Popham

Herbalist and host of The Plant Path; founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism.

He teaches herbal medicine through the energetics of plants and people, and herbal astrology alongside it.

evolutionaryherbalism.com ↗ Every summary of Sajah Popham’s work →

What a cup of nettles holds

The mineral powerhouse

The lesson opens with nettle as one of our most nutrient-rich plants, a food herb with a salty, green taste like chard or kale, to be braised, stir-fried or put into soups and stews. The food tables bear out the calcium: 100 g of cooked nettles holds 481 mg, so a cup (89 g) gives 428 mg — a third of the Daily Value of 1,300 mg. Potassium is moderate, 297 mg a cup, about 6% of a day's needs.

Bar chart: a cup of cooked nettles gives 33% of the Daily Value of calcium, 6% of potassium and 8% of iron; a cup of raw dandelion greens 8%, 5% and 9% — What's in a cup of nettles. Calcium, potassium and iron in a cup of cooked nettles beside a cup of raw dandelion greens, as shares of the Daily Value.

For members

Read the whole summary

5 sections, 4 diagrams, the video with its chapters, 10 claims checked against the research, 12 sources with the names of the people who did the work and links to it — and downloads in PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

🔒 Why you cook it
🔒 Nettle for hay fever
🔒 The kidneys, the joints and the skin
🔒 Nettle in the sky

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Nettle, the mineral powerhouse

In brief

Learn from the source

The mineral powerhouse

Read the whole summary

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