Hops (Humulus lupulus)

by Rosalee de la Forêt

Botanical Name: Humulus lupulus

Family: Cannabaceae

Parts Used: strobiles (cones)

Energetics: cooling, drying

Taste: bitter, pungent

Plant Properties: relaxing nervine, phytoestrogenic, antispasmodic, anaphrodisiac, aromatic, diuretic, digestive

Plant Uses: stress, anxiety, insomnia, menopause, menstrual cramps, stagnant digestion, eczema, metabolic syndrome

Plant Preparations: tea, tincture, fermentation

Long used as a key ingredient in making beer, hops have become even more popular in recent years with the rise of artisan breweries and beers. Breweries throughout the Pacific Northwest that specialize in bitter India Pale Ales often offer a range of IPAs with detailed descriptions highlighting the citrus and fruity undertones lent by various varieties of hops, not unlike the descriptions of fine wines. There is an entire subculture obsessed with hops in the fermented state! 

Before trendy bars started highlighting their hoppy brews, the hop plant was used as a traditional herbal medicine. With their aromatic and pungent scent, hops strobiles have been prized for their ability to help people relax. This use dates back thousands of years, at least since the ninth century. 

Brief History of Hops (and Beer)

Native to Western Asia, Europe, and North America, hops have many traditional uses. The fiber in the vines was used to make a rope or cordage, and the leaves and strobiles were used as a dye plant. Hops strobiles were used topically to heal wounds and for a variety of medicinal uses. 

The first recorded use of hops for beer come from a monastery in northern France in 822 CE. Some surmise that hops were a desired ingredient in monastery beer because of their ability to inhibit sexual desire. 

Several hundred years later, hops were being actively cultivated in Germany for beer. Years later in Europe, it was declared that hops were a required ingredient in beer. This may have been for reasons of taxation, but  in addition to adding flavor, hops also stabilize beer, giving it a much longer shelf life. 

Bitter Relaxing Nervine

Hops are a bitter relaxing nervine and are both cooling and drying. They are used for many types of nervous tension, especially when associated with digestive distress, pain, spasms, or sexual overstimulation. They are specifically used for muscle tension, including intestinal cramping and menstrual cramps. Herbalist Matthew Wood says that hops are suited to people with intense personalities and strong emotions that result in nervous exhaustion, insomnia, and worry.

As a relaxing nervine, hops has been shown to decrease stress during stressful situations. In a 2018 double-blind, placebo-controlled study, researchers gave healthy volunteers a stressful test. Those drinking an extract of hops had fewer markers of stress than those taking a placebo. Another study showed that when taken over a four-week period, an extract of hops has been shown to decrease depression, anxiety, and stress in young adults.

The relaxing and mild sedative properties of hops are often useful for people with difficulty sleeping. Peter Holmes, author of The Energetics of Western Herbs, says hops fits the profile of “hot-type” insomnia. In other words, people who struggle with sleep and who also feel hot and restless can benefit from hops’ cooling abilities. 

One study looked at the sedative qualities of non-alcohol beer made with hops in a population of people who have a lot of work stress: nurses. The researchers found that the nurses drinking the hops-infused non-alcoholic beer demonstrated improved nighttime sleep quality.

Bitter Digestive 

Hops’ bitter and pungent taste make them an excellent aromatic digestive herb. They are commonly used for upper gastric digestive disorders, including loss of appetite, stagnant digestion, weak digestion, gas, and bloating. It’s likely that hops stimulate bile production and release, thus helping people to better digest fats. Think of hops specifically when there is indigestion associated with nervous tension. 

Hops were historically used to get rid of worms in the digestive tract. They can also relax intestinal cramping with their antispasmodic effects. 

Metabolic Effects

Metabolic syndromes, which include insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes, affect as many as 30 percent of the population in the United States. Metabolic syndromes often negatively affect heart health as well. While the causes (and therefore approaches) for these diseases are complex, numerous studies have shown that hops have many beneficial effects for people with metabolic syndromes. For example, about 1,000 polyphenolic substances have been found in hop strobiles. Many of those polyphenols have been shown to have a beneficial effect on cholesterol, reduce inflammation, and support heart health. 

Other examples of hops’ beneficial effects include two studies that have shown an extract of hops helpful in reducing body fat in healthy adults. An extract of hops also was shown to benefit acute endothelial function (the performance of the membranes lining the heart and blood vessels) in both smokers and non-smokers. 

Skin

Hops are considered a mild alterative herb and a mild diuretic. They are used to help clear heat and damp from the body, in the sense of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Herbalist Peter Holmes uses hops to clear damp heat from the skin, especially when there is concurrent inflammation such as in eczema and acne. 

Phytoestrogenic

Hops affect hormones in a variety of ways. For example, they have some phytoestrogenic qualities that have been shown to benefit women with menopausal symptoms. In one study, 120 women in early stages of menopause were given either a hops extract or a placebo for 12 weeks. Those taking the hops extract had significantly fewer hot flashes than those taking the placebo. 

Clinical herbalists will often attest that it is rarely that “one thing” or “one herb” that makes all the difference in a treatment plan – often it’s the combination of many different things. For example, in one interesting study, researchers looked at post-menopausal women with metabolic syndrome. Every woman was instructed to consume a modified Mediterranean-style, low-glycemic-load diet and to engage in aerobic exercise. Half the women were given a hops extract, 100 mg berberine sulfate trihydrate, 500 IU vitamin D₃, and 500 μg vitamin K₁ twice daily. Those taking the herbs and nutrients “produced a more favorable bone biomarker profile indicative of healthy bone metabolism” compared to those who did not. 

Botanically Speaking

Hands down, hops wins the prize for the coolest botanical name. If you haven’t said it aloud yet, go ahead and try it: Humulus lupulus. Now say it three times fast! Humulus comes from the Latin word humus, meaning earth. Lupulus comes from lupus, or wolf.

The hop plant is native to Europe, Western Asia, and North America. It is a dioecious plant, meaning there are both female and male flowers and they are on separate plants. In herbal medicine we use the cone-like flowers, or strobiles, from the female plant. 

This vivacious perennial vine (more correctly called a bine) can quickly wind up trellises and walls. In cultivation, it is grown on wire trellises that are often up to 25 feet tall. It has coarse hairs along its stems, which help it to hold onto structures as it wraps itself around them. It excels in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 3-8 and requires minimal maintenance. 

Leaves are palmate with three to five serrated lobes. 

The female plants produce bright green cone-like fruits or strobiles that are covered in a sticky resinous yellow substance called lupulin. These papery-light aromatic fruits are what is used both to make beer and herbal medicine. 

Plant Preparations

Have I mentioned hops are bitter? Depending on your tolerance for bitter, hops have a variety of different preparation methods. 

They can be made into a tea (infusion), but due to the overt bitterness, tea is often hard to consume on a long-term basis. 

Many herbalists prefer to use hops as a tincture, to minimize the amount of bitter liquid that needs to be consumed. 

Many of the studies cited in this article were using standardized hops extracts. Although I generally prefer whole plant medicine, capsules are certainly one way to take bitter medicine. 

Hops have an intriguing pungent and aromatic scent. Dried strobiles can be added to pillows or sachets and smelled at bedtime to promote sleep and relaxation. 

Hops can be used in a bath before going to bed to reduce insomnia. This is especially good for people who can’t stand the smell of hops in a pillow.

Hops can be used as a fomentation (hot infusion on a cloth) or poultice on boils, irritated skin, muscle spasms, and pain of the lower back.

For many, hops are often served as beer or as a flavoring in kombucha or other fermented beverages. 

Dosage Suggestions

• Tea: 1-2 grams, 3 times daily (best prepared as a long infusion, 30 minutes minimum steeping time)

• Tincture (dried strobiles): 1:5, 60% alcohol, 1.5-3mL, 3 times daily

Special Considerations

• Avoid therapeutic dosages of hops with people taking pharmaceutical sedatives, hypnotics, or anti-depressants. 

• Caution during pregnancy. 

• Caution in someone with depression.

• Use strobiles within six months of drying (for tea or tincture). 

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Rosalee de la Forêt, RH, is passionate about helping people discover the world of herbalism and natural health. She is a Registered Herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild and the Education Director at LearningHerbs. She is also the author of the online courses, The Taste of Herbs and Herbal Cold Care. She is the creator of the Taste of Herbs as well as the author of the book Alchemy of Herbs. When she is not immersed in herbs, you can find her taking photos of nature, kayaking with her husband, or curled up in a hammock with a good book.

REFERENCES:

i Kazuaki Ohara et al., “β-Eudesmol, an Oxygenized Sesquiterpene, Reduces the Increase in Saliva 3-Methoxy-4-Hydroxyphenylglycol After the ‘Trier Social Stress Test’ in Healthy Humans: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Cross-Over Study,” Nutrients 11, no. 1 (December 20, 2018): 9, https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11010009.

ii Ioannis Kyrou et al., “Effects of a Hops (Humulus lupulus L.) Dry Extract Supplement on Self-Reported Depression, Anxiety and Stress Levels in Apparently Healthy Young Adults: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind, Crossover Pilot Study,” Hormones 16, no. 2 (2017): 171–80, https://doi.org/10.14310/horm.2002.1738.

iii Peter Holmes, The Energetics of Western Herbs: Treatment Strategies Integrating Western and Oriental Herbal Medicine, rev. 4th ed., vol. 2. (Boulder: Snow Lotus Press, 2006), 578-80.

iv Lourdes Franco at al., “The Sedative Effect of Non-Alcoholic Beer in Healthy Female Nurses,” PLoS ONE 7, 7 (July 18, 2012), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037290.

v Pavel Dostálek, Marcel Karabín, and Lukáš Jelínek, “Hop Phytochemicals and Their Potential Role in Metabolic Syndrome Prevention and Therapy,” Molecules : A Journal of Synthetic Chemistry and Natural Product Chemistry 22, no. 10 (October 19, 2017), https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules22101761.

vi Yumie Morimoto-Kobayashi et al., “Matured Hop Extract Reduces Body Fat in Healthy Overweight Humans: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Parallel Group Study,” Nutrition Journal 15 (March 9, 2016): 25, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-016-0144-2.

vii Shigeo Suzuki et al., “The Relationship between the Effect of Matured Hop Extract and Physical Activity on Reducing Body Fat: Re-Analysis of Data from a Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Parallel Group Study,” Nutrition Journal 17 (October 30, 2018): 98. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-018-0405-3.

viii Junko Tomita et al., “Acute Improvement of Endothelial Functions after Oral Ingestion of Isohumulones, Bitter Components of Beer,” Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 484, no. 4 (March 18, 2017): 740–45, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2017.01.133.

ix Peter Holmes, The Energetics of Western Herbs, 578-80.

x Vida Aghamiri et al., “The Effect of Hop (Humulus lupulus L.) on Early Menopausal Symptoms and Hot Flashes: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial,” Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 23 (May 2016): 130–35, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2015.05.001.

xi Joseph J. Lamb et al., “Nutritional Supplementation of Hop Rho Iso-Alpha Acids, Berberine, Vitamin D₃, and Vitamin K₁ Produces a Favorable Bone Biomarker Profile Supporting Healthy Bone Metabolism in Postmenopausal Women with Metabolic Syndrome,” Nutrition Research 31, no. 5 (May 2011): 347–55, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nutres.2011.03.016.

xii Brigitte Mars, The Desktop Guide to Herbal Medicine: The Ultimate Multidisciplinary Reference to the Amazing Realm of Healing Plants, in a Quick-Study, One-Stop Guide (Laguna Beach: Basic Health Pub, 2007).

xiii Merrily A. Kuhn and David Winston, Winston & Kuhn's Herbal Therapy & Supplements: A Scientific & Traditional Approach (Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008).