Botanical Name: Plantago Major | Family: Plantaginaceae
Common name(s): Common Plantain, Greater Plantain, Broad-leaved Plantain, Ripple Grass, Englishman’s foot, Ribwort
GROWING
- Perennial, herbaceous, broad-leaf | Temporate zones worldwide | 4-5″
- Found everywhere, lawns, gardens, roadsides, etc, like dandelions.
HARVESTING
Parts used: Roots, leaves, flowers
Gather during flowering throughout the summer. Dry quickly to prevent the leaves from discoloring.
PREPARATION / DOSAGE
Infusion: 2 tsp dried plantain to one cup boiling water, infuse for 10 minutes. Drink 3x/day
Tincture: take 2-3ml of the tincture 3x/day
Ointment: use for hemorrhoids and cuts
Combinations: blend with yarrow and nettle (or shepherd’s purse) to help stop bleeding
MEDICAL
Constituents: allantoin, aucubin, bitters, fatty acids, flavonoids, iridoids, mucilage, protein, starch, tannins, vitamins B, C, and K
Actions: alterative, anti-inflamatory, aperient, diuretic, styptic, hemostatic
Uses: urinary tract infections, hepatitis and other liver disorders, stings, bites, wounds
SOURCES
- A Modern Herbal, Mrs. M. Grieve
- Holistic Herbal, David Hoffman
- Medicinal Herbs, Rosemary Gladstar
- The Way of Herbs, Michael Tierra
- Edible Wild Food
I got poison ivy for the first time this year. It might have something to do with pulling up 6 kitchen trash bags of it and there being a gap between my gloves and my long-sleeved shirt. But I like to think it was so I could try out some herbal remedies. And one of those included plantain. It’s an astringent, and it actually made the non-affected skin around the rash really red. I think it helped dry it up. I have nothing to compare it to, though, not having gone through this ever before.
Psyllium seeds, the main ingredient in Metamucil, are from a cultivated variety of plantain (P. psyllium)
