Native to the warm Mediterranean regions, oats have been cultivated for thousands of years as a source of food and folk remedies. Today, the oat plant (Avena sativa) is most famous for the nutritious cereal grain that it provides think morning oatmeal.
Health Benefits
In traditional medicine, oat straw is used in various forms (liquid extracts, tinctures, and teas being the most popular) to treat a number of ailments, including arthritis and rheumatism; it's also taken as a diuretic tea to combat fluid retention. It is a concentrated source of silica (silicon dioxide), which among dozens of other functions is key to the development of healthy skin, hair, nails, and bones.
Some sources also recommend oat straw for treating shingles, herpes infections, and addictions. In Europe today, herbalists and alternative health practitioners prescribe oat straw extracts and tinctures as nerve tonics for weakened constitutions, for example. Many regard it as an excellent tonic for the whole body, and valuable for bolstering physical and emotional fatigue, from mild insomnia to anxiety. While the herb has been popular for these uses, there have been no clinical studies to verify these effects. Oat straw soundest reputation by far is as a topical remedy for irritated and inflamed dry skin
Specifically, oat straw may help to:
Soothe itchy skin. Oat straw has rich emollient qualities due to its high gluten and mucilage content. Tinctures, liquid extracts, creams (available in Great Britain), and cooled oat straw tea compresses can be applied topically to sooth dry, itchy, irritated skin. A fine powder milled from the dried oat straw is also popular as a bath additive. The German government has officially approved of oat straw products for these purposes. A related product made from the same plant, called colloidal oatmeal, is widely used in the United States for rashes and itchy skin conditions such as sunburn and shingles.
Promote nail health. As a concentrated source of silica, oat straw supplements and herbal tea (as well as oatmeal) may help to strengthen nails that are cracking or splitting. Silica is a key ingredient in nails.
Help smokers quit. Several small studies in the 1970s suggested that oat straw liquid extract might help tobacco users kick the habit by easing withdrawal from nicotine. One study even reported success in using oat straw to treat opium addiction. Well-designed follow-up trials have failed to reproduce these successful results, however. In other words, its effectiveness for tobacco withdrawal purposes remains unclear.
