I, Steven Horne, currently live in Cedar City, Utah, but it should really be called Juniper City, Utah. The same goes for Cedar Breaks National Monument just east of here. That’s because the early pioneers called the juniper trees growing in this area cedars. It just goes to show why you can’t trust common names for botanical purposes.

All the trees in the Juniperus genus, including the local species (Juniperus monosperma) misnamed as cedars, produce small flesh cones, mislabeled as berries. These berries are one of our best-known and widely used diuretic herbs. They stimulate urinary function to relieve edema. Their flavor is strongly aromatic and slightly astringent, giving them warming and drying properties. They’re a very fast-acting and effective diuretic as I observed firsthand when my wife was laboring to give birth to birth to our oldest daughter. She started to retain water and have difficulty peeing and the midwife made her some juniper berry tea, which promptly relieved the problem.

So, if you need a good diuretic, juniper berries are a good choice as long as there is no acute inflammation in the urinary system. Therefore, don’t use them if there is acute nephritis. In cases of cystitis or urethritis where there is water retention, you could use a small amount if you combine juniper with other, more soothing, diuretics like cornsilk, marshmallow, cleavers, and goldenrod. Juniper is somewhat disinfectant so it can also be used for urinary tract infections, but again works better in combination with other herbs like uva ursi, coptis, goldenseal, and pipsissewa.