View photos of the medicinal plant Xanthium strumarium (Cocklebur), profiled in Medicinal Plants of the American Southwest.

Passages from Medicinal Plants of the American Southwest:

Cocklebur is primarily a plant affecting the urinary tract. As a soothing astringent diuretic, it is particularly useful in painful urination with corresponding mucus and blood tinged urine.

It should not be used continuously over 2 weeks. Large doses can irritate the kidneys and liver. Do not use it during pregnancy or while nursing.

Warning: Do not eat Cocklebur seeds! They contain high amounts of the toxic glycoside, carboxyatractyloside. Poisonings are not uncommon when livestock ingests the seeds (and young plant). Unfortunately, Cocklebur seeds are listed as an edible item in Mr. Slattery’s book – Southwest Foraging. To write of a medicinal plant (with a number of well-known toxic side-effects, if used in excess) as an edible plant, is a significant oversight.

One of the main differences between edible and medicinal plant application is quantity. Medicinal utilization often employs poisonous plants…in small amounts…due to the stimulating/ suppressive nature of the plant’s compounds…again…when used in micro quantities. When eating a plant for its caloric and nutritional aspects an individual is exposed to ounces…not micrograms. Edible and medicinal plants (or parts) are mutuality exclusive. What makes a plant medicinal, is precisely why it’s not edible.