The potential of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) as a crop with multiple uses

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2014.08.012Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We collected updated information on potential uses of stinging nettle.

  • We fixed main cultivation inputs and the still undefined practices.

  • In medicine and cosmetic industry stinking nettle demonstrated several added value potential application.

  • High valuable fibre crop with high cellulose content of approx. 86%.

  • High nutritive value, source of carotenoids, vitamins, minerals and protein.

Abstract

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) is a well-known plant species that is considered a weed in intensive agriculture. This crop has gained the interest both scientifically and commercially because it is the source of many added-value natural products by exploiting all the plant parts (stem, leaves, roots and seeds). The main objective of this article is to describe-along with unpublished data-information that is spread in different sources, giving an updated and comprehensive overview of the potential end-products, covering aspects related to the whole plant production chain, and at the same time, providing unpublished data collected under different projects.

The effects of nettle cultivation on the environment are potentially favourable, it being a perennial low-requirement crop (it can reach about 3–12 Mg ha−1 dry stalk yield with low inputs). Stinging nettle has a long history as a textile fibre; its fibre quality has been demonstrated (e.g. cellulose content around 86%) and is highly depending on the extraction method. Furthermore, several studies confirmed the presence of numerous active compounds, especially in nettle leaves (e.g. caffeic acid derivative compounds, ceramides, nine forms of carotenoids, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, phytosterols, glycosides and proteins), with most promising application in the food/feed, medicinal and cosmetic sectors. Although with high market potentials, the products made from nettle are currently more a result of curiosity rather than large-scale industrial production, mostly due to lack in crop and post-harvest management. The definition of a production chain able to exploit the plant biomass as much as possible is a prerequisite to increase income and boost farmers’ adoption, and to attract investors.

Introduction

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the Urticaceae family. It is a well-known and common species, spread in temperate and tropical zones of Europe, Asia and America, adapted to a variety of climatic conditions. Stinging nettle is a perennial, monoecious plant, flowering and fruiting in summertime. Its stems and leaves are covered by stinging trichomes containing a fluid which causes blistering when entering the skin (Bisht et al., 2012). This species is considered a weed in intensive agriculture as its fast vegetative growth and high densities enable increased spread and soil coverage (Klimešová, 1995), but it is potentially able to act as a biomass source for several added-value products by exploiting all the parts of the plant (stem, leaves, roots and seeds). There are economic and ecological reasons to cultivate stinging nettle. According to Dreyer and Müssing (2000), stinging nettle is a perennial crop with satisfying yields for 10–15 years, has low input requirements, can improve soils overfertilized with nitrogen and phosphate, can promote the biodiversity of local flora and fauna, and can be used to produce new high-quality agricultural raw materials for dyeing, textile and energy sectors. The first attempt to consider nettle as an industrial crop was during the 1940s, when 150–200 ha were cultivated for fibre production in Germany (Bredemann and Garber, 1959), and when a cross breeding programme of wild plants for fibre production was established at the Institute of Applied Botany in Hamburg, which released several clones with high fibre content, still maintained in German and Austrian research institutions (Dreyer and Müssing, 2000, Vogl and Hartl, 2003). Recently, the scientific community showed a renewed interest in stinging nettle and several research projects have been carried out in Austria, Germany, Finland, the United Kingdom and Lithuania mainly to produce natural fibres, as well as to extract active herbal compounds (Table 1). In 2001, the Austrian Institute for Agrobiotechnology in Tulln tried to continue the successful introductory steps to establish fibre-nettle production in Austria (1999–2001 EU programme FAIR-CT98-9615: NETTLE-reintroduction of stinging nettle cultivation as a sustainable raw material for the production of fibre and cellulose) by collecting clones improved for fibre content and spinning quality. Most of the projects aimed to use stinging nettle as an alternative herbaceous fibre and for related-cellulose applications. The phytotherapeutic use of stinging nettle extracts from both roots and aerial biomass, its dyeing potential, the food-non-food attitude of the plant, propagation and field establishment, organic and non-organic farming, fibre extraction and quality assessment, and the environmental impact of stinging nettle cultivation have also been investigated (Table 1). Almost all projects mentioned in Table 1 had only academic partners on board. Not all projects produced a real market for nettle in Europe, only some short-term pioneer examples, mainly on the use of nettle fibre in blends with cotton or silk (see e.g. the STING project, and From Nettle to Textile I + II project in Table 1).

Stinging nettle has gained both commercial and scientific interest due to its multipurpose character. The main objective of this article is to introduce an updated and comprehensive overview of the studies spread in different sources, as well as to present new data, with particular attention to end-products, with the aim of providing base support for the implementation of new projects and activities for the introduction of this plant into the traditional rotation farming system.

Section snippets

Field establishment

Stinging nettle is highly variable in morphological characteristics and there are probably several subspecies (Bassett et al., 1974, Hegi, 1981, Tutin et al., 2010). Dreyer et al. (1996) evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively 30 clones of fibre nettles and the most used in more recent experimental fields is the clone 13, for its high fibre content (Bacci et al., 2011, Dreyer and Müssing, 2000). Stinging nettle can be propagated both by seed or vegetatively (Luna, 2001). Its seeds are very

Environmental effects of cultivating stinging nettle

Besides the interest related to potential products and uses, the cultivation of stinging nettle can also result in important environmental benefits. Stinging nettle can easily be propagated and cultivated with organic farming techniques while maintaining sustainable yields (Di Virgilio et al., 2008, Gatti et al., 2008, Vogl and Hartl, 2003). Stinging nettle, as a perennial crop requires lower inputs in terms of tillage, which maintains soil fertility and structure. Its cultivation was found to

Products from stinging nettle

The added value of stinging nettle cultivation is related to several products and applications obtainable from its biomass (Table 3). Stinging nettle has been used in medicine and the cosmetic industry (Szewczuk et al., 2002). Hippocrates (460–377 BC) reported 61 remedies using stinging nettle (Upton, 2013). His statement “Let food be your medicine” has been incorporated into the traditional concept of food, and stinging nettle is a representative example. Since it has been used for several

Critical aspects and barriers to scaling-up stinging nettle production

As shown in the previous section, stinging nettle is a species able to provide several products, but is still of marginal importance today, in particular on the industrial side. Even currently, when interest in manmade and other natural fibres are increasing, the products made from stinging nettle fibres are marketable mainly due to curiosity rather than being a large-scale industrial brand. There is a great demand by the Italian textile industry, but no raw material for the spinning industry

Conclusion

Stinging nettle could represent a valuable biomass source for several natural products, with most promising application in the food/feed, medicinal, cosmetic and fibre sectors. The presence of several active compounds in stinging nettle has been demonstrated, giving scientific justification to traditional folk uses of the plant. If technical problems related to harvest mechanization, optimal crop nutrient and water requirements, and post-processing (e.g. extraction, spinning and weaving for

Acknowledgements

Several data were the result of work carried out in the frameworks of the LRCAF programme “Biopotential and Quality of Plants for Multifunctional Use”.

The authors dedicate this article to their colleague Dr. Laura Bacci (CNR-IBIMET), who gave much of her professional efforts and passion to stinging nettle research, and for which all of us are grateful to her.

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      Citation Excerpt :

      Of the NUS that could potentially be further developed as a future multi-purpose crop, Urtica dioica L. (Family Urticaceae), more commonly referred to as stinging nettle (nettle or common nettle), is a promising candidate. This species is native to temperate regions of Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America (Kregiel et al., 2018; Di Virgilio et al., 2015). Stinging nettle, described as an ordinary plant with “extraordinary properties” (Kregiel et al., 2018; Upton, 2013), is a herbaceous perennial, weedy, multipurpose crop with promising applications in the food/feed, medicinal, cosmetic and textile sectors.

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