It’s one of the first and most colourful bursts of colour in Spring and I couldn’t help but go digging around to see if it has medicinal or culinary uses. And YES! She most certainly does!
Long been used in traditional Chinese medicine but also used in modern medicine, Forsythia possesses a variety of pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammation, antioxidation, anti-virus, and anti-bacterial. (source)
Used in the treatment of cancer with anti-tumour effects and Dementia by reversing nerve damage and memory dysfunction. It appears that the most potent part of the plant is the “fruit”, which is most often used in Chinese and Japanese medicines. However, most Forsythia in Western Climates doesn’t have fruit! The good news is that the leaves have been shown to possess much of the same goodies as the fruits. It also appears that Forsythia leaf extracts can be a useful aid to treating Obesity and helping weight loss (source).
The flowers can be eaten raw as a salad topper, the leaves and flowers can be made into syrup or used in tea/decoction or made into a salve.
At this time of year we only see the flowers on the Forsythia so I’ve taken a few and dried them for adding to a tea blend later.