Youngia japonica

Another weed that we have been eating recently is Youngia - it grows on the southside of our house(southern hemisphere - cool) in the autumn to spring months.


Binomial name : Youngia japonica (was Crepis japonica)

Common name : Oriental False Hawksbeard or Native Hawksbeard

Native to South East Asia and Australia but now cosmopolitan

Identification: a basal rosette resembles a young sowthistle but the leaves are slightly hairy to touch. The plant leaves are a maximum of 140mm long x 400mm wide on my property with some of them developing an irregular pigmented patch along the edge. Each plant develops one hollow stem up to about 0.7 m with multiple tiny dandelion type flowers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ilk3VWHbCw

Nutrition - I have been unable to find any information on the nutritional content of this weed but it no doubt contains carotenoids , probably Vit C and E and of course minerals.
I cannot advise on oxalate levels as this was also not available.

A pubmed search found a few interesting abstracts as follows:

1. It apparently has been used in folk medicine as a treatment for atopy (allergies - eczema,hayfever,asthma) and this abstract found that a guaiane type sesquiterpene compound in Youngia indeed did show strong anti-allergy and anti-oxidant activity.

2 Another study showed an extract had strong antiviral activity against RSV but not Flu A and HSV1. There was also some antibacterial activity against vibrio cholerae -the bacteria that causes cholera.

3. This abstract demonstrated that an extract of Youngia showed inhibition of cell proliferation against 3 cancer cell lines with no adverse effect on normal cells.

Seems like a good weed to be eating for health.

Taste - no bitterness, delicate and suitable for salads and as a pot herb (lightly boiled)