Village Herbalist Heather Níc An Fhleisdeir

The Linden Conference registration is open!

This online conference is in-depth on just Linden! Many esteemed and inspirational presenters, including me will offer our knowledge and insight 💚 There will also be a live Zoom talk with me on Monday May 5th, where you can ask your specific questions 💚

Soothing Linden Conference We ended the fear with The Comfrey Conference. We put a dent in the nonsense at the Hypericum Conference. We finally made sense of phytoestrogens at the Red Clover Conference. Now, let's flow and soothe, lubricate and protect, like mucus, the unsung hero of health, at the Linden Conference.

Almost there! Registration for The Linden Conference is open. An online conference one herb at a time, in depth, many esteemed and inspirational presenters, including me! This year is the linden tree 💚 There will also be a live Zoom talk with me on Monday May 5th, where you can ask your specific questions 💚

Soothing Linden Conference We ended the fear with The Comfrey Conference. We put a dent in the nonsense at the Hypericum Conference. We finally made sense of phytoestrogens at the Red Clover Conference. Now, let's flow and soothe, lubricate and protect, like mucus, the unsung hero of health, at the Linden Conference.

I'll be presenting online in this upcoming conference with a group of clever and inspired herbalists 💚 Discount on right now!

🍃 Flash Sale! 🍃
Soothing Linden Conference.
May 3 - 10 2025
🌿
Let's flow and soothe, lubricate and protect, like mucus, the unsung hero of health, at the Linden Conference.

Take advantage of this flash sale before we go Live!
20% off for 2 days only!
Use coupon code: LINDENCON20
Sale ends 4/26.
🌿

Register Now!
https://www.wisewomanschool.com/p/soothing-linden-conference
🌿

Herbs, like us, are made of chemistry! Learn allot right here on polyphenols.

You know how MDs once advocated for drinking wine to get the polyphenols? Yeah, that! Herbs and foods have that beat for polyphenol content, variety and deliciousness too!

Flavonoids

What do I know about polyphenols?
Flavonoids?
Flavanols?
Flavonols?
Flavonones?
Isoflavones/isoflavonals?
Anthocyanidins?

Polyphenols are beneficial compounds found in many plants.
The predominant polyphenols in the human diet are flavonoids.
Plant flavonoids are categorized as: flavonols, isoflavonols, flavones, flavanones, flavanols (catechins), and anthocyanidins

Flavonoids are important nutrients for cognition and memory.

Flavonoids are anti-inflammatory.
Hint. All plants are anti-inflammatory.
Flavonoids are anti-oxidant.
Note. All plants are antioxidant.

Folks who eat more flavonoid-rich foods are less likely to get dementia, or be diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
That's worth remembering.

Flavonoid-rich foods have bright colors.
I aim for a plate with a cooked green component (so many choices), a cooked deep orange portion (usually winter squash, sweet potato or carrot), and a purple or red part too (cranberry sauce, applesauce, tomato, red lettuce, black beans).

"Eat a rainbow."
Every day.
For a better brain.

The most common flavonoids found in food are quercetin, kaempferol, isorhamnetin, and myricetin.

• Nettle leaves contain many flavonoids, including quercetin, rutin, and kaempferol.
• Comfrey leaves contain flavonoids, including quercetin, luteolin, and apigenin.
• Red clover contains flavonoids including quercetin, formononetin and biochanin A
• Linden flowers contain 13 flavonoids, including quercetin, kaempferol, rutin, and astragalin.
• Oatstraw contains an abundance of flavonoids including avenanthramides and many other flavonols and flavones.

Flavonoids are found in, and close to the outer portion, of plants.
That's why I make apple sauce with the skins.
That's why I save my onion peels and add them when making bone broth.
That's why I put orange peel in my cranberry sauce.
That's why I eat those squash skins, potato peels, and any skin I can chew.

Cooking concentrates and magnifies flavonoids.
Processing can destroy them.
Elderberry syrup. Flavonoids. Yee haw.
Elderberry gummies. None. Nada. Zilch.

A recent study (in "Neurology") which followed 77,000 middle-aged men and women for 20 years found — after accounting for factors that could have affected cognition (age, weight, physical activity, alcohol intake, depression, and intake of other nutrients) — that those with the highest daily flavonoid intake were 19% less likely to have memory concerns compared with those with the lowest daily flavonoid intakes.
• The fruits and vegetables most strongly associated with beneficial cognitive effects in this study were: strawberries, blueberries, peppers, celery, apples, bananas, oranges, and grapefruit.

Flavonoids improve memory by
• increasing brain-derived neurotrophic factors
• preventing endothelial dysfunction
• facilitating synaptic strength
Great! I'll have another serving.

Another study, this one in the "Journal of Nutrition," found
". . . Flavonoids may exert particularly powerful actions on mammalian cognition and may reverse age-related declines in memory and learning."
> "In particular, foods rich in flavanols, anthocyanins and/or flavanones, have the greatest potential to improve cognitive processes."
> "Flavonoids protect vulnerable neurons and enhance the function of existing neuronal structures, two processes known to underpin neuro-cognitive function."
> "Flavonoids selectively interact with protein kinase and lipid kinase signalling cascades, which regulate transcription factors and gene expression involved in both synaptic plasticity and cerebrovascular blood flow."

Flavanol sources: Cocoa, berries, grapes, tea, nourishing infusions

Anthocyanin sources: Elderberries, aronia berries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, black currants, strawberries, cherries, black and red grapes and pomegranates

Flavonone sources: flavanones are aromatic, colorless ketones derived from flavone that often occur in plants as glycosides. Plants rich in glycosides may be poisonous.

"The production of cyanogenic glycosides is an evolutionarily conserved function, appearing in species as old as ferns. These compounds are made by around 3,000 species. They are found in about 11% of cultivated plants but only 5% of plants overall; humans seem to have selected for them."

Or helpful.
Flavonoid glycosides are a large group of extremely powerful antioxidants.
They have been shown to strengthen capillaries.
Examples include: Hesperidin, Naringin, Rutin, and Quercitrin.

Hesperidin is found in citrus peel, comfrey leaves, mints, green and black tea.
Naringin is found in citrus, red clover, cocoa, sweet potato, and oregano.
Rutin is in apples, buckwheat, asparagus, cherries, grapes, linden, nettle, hawthorn, ginkgo, and red clover.
Quercitin is in apples, onion skins, oak bark, green tea, grapes, nettle, comfrey, red clover, and linden.

Plants produce a huge variety of secondary metabolites that can be decorated with sugars, i.e., glycosylated.

"Upon glycosylation, hydrophobic metabolites become more water-soluble which improves their bio-distribution and metabolism. Increased solubility and amphiphilicity of glycosylated metabolites may assist their transport across cell membranes. The attachment of sugars to small metabolites raises their molecular weight and melting point. This allows synthesis and storage of precursors of volatile compounds that can be released on demand after hydrolysis."

Other articles on this theme:
> "Flavonoids as modulators of memory and learning." Proc Nutr Soc. 2012 May
> "Flavonoids and cognition: molecular mechanisms." Arch Biochem Biophys. 2009
> "Beyond antioxidants: the cellular and molecular interactions of flavonoids and how these underpin their actions on the brain." Proc Nutr Soc. 2010 May
> "Recent advances in berry supplementation and age-related cognitive decline."Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2009 Jan

Now I know more about flavonoids.
Now I understand more about how nourishing herbal infusions do what they do.
How about you?

It is in beauty.
It is a giveaway of breath with the plants.
It is one with the earth's heartbeat.
Surrounded by green blessings
Full of flavonoids
Gratitude
Joy