Subject: Re: Stinging Nettles
From: [email-masked] ()
Date: 12 May 94 14:39:55 GMT
Newsgroups: bionet.plants

The book i read some time ago said that it was simply formic acid that is
in the nettle hairs. The little hairs (tricomes) break after penetrating
the skin.

 BTW (this from my Boy Scout days) nettle makes a fairly good potherb, the 
 formic acid being destroyed/removed by boiling.  

Allen

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