Plantain

Herbal medicine is a big interest of mine and we use quite a lot of it. Today I wanted to do a little blip on plantain. It's a very common 'lawn weed' and a very useful one, although we don't exploit it to it's full potential. We use it the most for small wounds and punctures. You know the ones that get sore, red and inflamed? We've also had good results using it for stings and stinging bug bites. Doesn't seem to help much with itchy bites, though. For bites, we usually just chew or mash up a bit and tape it on for a bit. For inflammations, you can do the same, but we prefer to dip a leaf briefly in hot water, then apply to the area with a bit of gauze and tape or a band aid, depending how big the area is. The heat is soothing and seems to speed up the anti inflammatory action a bit. I wouldn't hesitate to use on larger wounds but, fortunately, haven't had the need as yet.

I used this almost constantly when oldest child was a toddler. At that time, we lived in a place with lots of Russian Olive trees (Elaeagnus angustifolia) in the yard, and everywhere else. Those things have some nasty thorns on them! She was always getting pieces stuck in her feet since we went barefoot everywhere. Still do actually. Anyway, I wouldn't always find out til the area where the thorn was happened to be all swollen and inflamed. A couple applications of this herb over the course of 4-5 hours would almost completely do away with the swelling so I could actually find the thorn to remove it. After the removal I'd put another leaf poultice on the puncture for a few hours and never had an infection problem. 

I've used it for animal bites as well. So far only on other animals, but it's one of the first I'd think of for bites on people also. Unfortunately, my experience has been that only the fresh really works well for this application. I've read that dried works, but it hasn't for me. This year I finally got around to tincturing some, so we'll see if that works, although it's bound to be a bit more painful with the alcohol content. I also put in some of my salves, but since it's in with other herbs, I can't say for sure how well it works.

Plantain is also supposed to be useful for lung issues and other mucous membrane issues, but I have never tried any of those applications, so really can't say anything about them as yet. If anybody else can, please chime in!

You can also eat it. It just tastes mild and green to me, but the stringy fibers are a bit off putting for common consumption. I'd mostly eat it in a survival situation, personally.

Here you can see the fibers in the leaf of a broadleaf plantain. Narrowleaf also has these fibers.

The two most common varieties are broadleaf, or common, plantain and narrowleaf or English plantain. I happen to have both on the place at the moment.

Narrowleaf plantain - Plantago lanceolata

Broadleaf plantain - Plantago major