Pharmacist – Formulator Phytotherapy expert
#Tilia tomentosa
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Linden
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Who’s this?
Magnificent and long-lived, fragrant and in love, with his thousand hearts in his leaves, Linden (Tilia tomentosa e Tilia platyphyllos) may have watched you on your daily walks, hoping you might get to know him. He is quite a sensitive Phyto Superhero, but this doesn’t mean he’s without powers.
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Superpowers
Linden’s strength is concentrated in his inflorescences and his sapwood, the outermost youngest bark. However, these are not weapons used for fighting. Linden differentiates himself from his Phyto Superhero colleagues since his powers are not used with strength, elimination or expulsion in mind.
Instead, his active principles have sedative and antispasmodic properties. Their actions are required when the dog is so troubled and in pain that he could manifest aggression, for instance, in the event of otitis media or otitis interna. Linden works on the central nervous system and calms the dog. The vasodilating action that the plant possesses, causes a hypnotic effect. For these reasons he is also useful in case of migraines, although we cannot determine with certainty when it does indeed affect dogs; while popular medicine considered it effective in cases of epilepsy.
The phytocomplex mainly consists in flavonoids, particularly rutin (rutoside), other polyphenols and tannins.
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Where to find him
Considering his capabilities, Linden does excellent teamwork in the ear, alongside melaleuca (tea tree), rose hips and garlic, calming down the dog and allowing his brothers to act. That’s why you’ll find it in Forza10 Oto Active.
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Feats
Fascinating, mysterious and almost ethereal, this herb and his powers have left several captivating traces in history. Greek language traces his name to the term ptilon, i.e. “wing”, due to the flower’s stalk having a papery bract resembling a wing. If we looked back to the Latins we would end up considering the term telum, which brings us to the javelin, a weapon manufactured with the wood of the linden tree.
In the past, his green leaves were dried and combined with barley flour or buckwheat, creating “green flour”. But there have also been those who tried to make chocolate by roasting his seeds, adding sugar and other ingredients.
Mario Rigoni Stern talked about this Phyto Superhero in his work “Arboreto Selvatico”, recalling not only how humans beings and dogs have tried the effects, but how “sometimes even bees taking nectar from lindens doze off and relax on the grass, under the shade of the trees”.