Photo Credit:Cameliatwu
You many of you may have this “annoying weed” growing in your yard, or you may have seen it in a local park. Let me tell you this “weed” also knows as plantain is one amazing herb. It ranks up there with my all time favorite herbs like echinaeca and elderberries. Keep reading to find out why plantain is one of my must have herbs for my medicine chest for all times of the year.
Plantain
Common Names: longleaf plantain, ribwort (P. lanceolata); broadleaf plantain, greater plantain, waybread, white man’s foot, englsih’s man’s foot (P. major)
Latin Names: Plantago major, P. ovata, P. phllium, P. lanceolata
Tell Me More
Plantain is an amazing “First Aid” herb. It has been revered since ancient times for it’s powerful astringent, anti-venomous, anti-microbial and expectorant uses.
Plantain leaf was used by the ancients to heal the bites of “mad dogs, snakes, and venomous creatures.” Interestingly, Native Americans quickly learned to use Plantain leaf in the same way, and the colonial assembly of South Carolina granted a handsome reward and freedom to an African slave who taught them how to use Plantain Herb to remedy the bite of rattlesnakes. (Practical Herbalism, page 241)
Interesting Fact: Native American’s noticed plantain growing wherever “white man” set foot , hence two of it’s names.
What Is It Used For?
The easier question is almost, how is it not used? Join me at Modern Alternative Health to learn how.
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