Lamb's quarters / fat-hen
Chenopodium album
Other names: Lamb's quarters / fat-hen, Lamb's quarters / Fat hen
Edible plantPhoto credit: Rasbak (Wikimedia Commons)
Safety information
Safety information
Toxicity: None known as a cooked green in normal amounts. Contains oxalates and saponins; large raw intake not advised, and the plant can accumulate nitrates from rich/fertilised soil — cook and avoid contaminated ground. | Contains soluble oxalates and nitrates (especially from fertilised/disturbed soil) — cook and avoid large raw quantities; saponins in seed require rinsing.
Contraindications: Kidney stones (oxalate); avoid large raw quantities; infants (nitrate caution from rich soils). | History of calcium-oxalate kidney stones (limit high-oxalate greens); infants (nitrate caution).
Interactions: Oxalate may bind minerals; none clinically significant at cooked-food amounts. | None well established at food doses.
Evidence level
Supported by laboratory or animal studies; not yet confirmed in humans.
Preparations
cooked · young leaf/shoot
Part used: young leaf/shoot
Traditional use: boiled/sautéed like spinach to reduce oxalates(Folk and historical sources have not been validated by clinical research.)
Proposed mechanism: cooking reduces oxalate
cooked · seed
Part used: seed
Traditional use: pseudocereal grain (rinsed to remove saponins)(Folk and historical sources have not been validated by clinical research.)
cooked · young leaf/shoot
Part used: young leaf/shoot
Traditional use: classic Georgian wild pkhali/soup green, fillings(Folk and historical sources have not been validated by clinical research.)
Dosage note (descriptive only): cook; eat young
Edibility
Edible parts: young leaves/shoots cooked (mealy-white underside is characteristic) | Young leaves/shoots, cooked (oxalate/nitrate reduction); seeds rinsed and cooked.
Toxic lookalike warning
Chenopodium album is fairly distinctive (mealy/farinose coating on young leaves, diamond/goosefoot leaf shape), but confirm species and do not confuse with toxic look-alikes such as black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) seedlings or other roadside weeds; cook and avoid unknown goosefoot-type plants from contaminated soil. | Chenopodium seedlings resemble black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) seedlings and, more dangerously, young Atriplex and Mexican tea / wormseed (Dysphania ambrosioides) which contains toxic essential-oil ascaridole; the mealy white-grey underside of C. album leaves is the key feature.
Nutritional notes
Very nutrient-dense leafy green — high provitamin-A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese and protein; comparable to or exceeding spinach in several micronutrients. | Very high in vitamin A (carotenoids), vitamin C, calcium, iron, protein, fibre — outperforms cultivated spinach on several nutrients; oxalate is the limiting antinutrient.
Healing traditions
Sources (4)
- Bussmann et al., A comparative ethnobotany ... Republic of Georgia, J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 2016;12:43
- Bussmann et al., Unity in diversity — food plants of Sakartvelo, 2021
- USDA FoodData Central (lambsquarters, cooked)
- food-composition reviews of Chenopodium album