Monday, July 13, 2015

Quick Healing With Plantain




 I have really appreciated the herb plantain... what a big help the plant is... and it is so plentiful.  It can usually be found quite easily.  It can grow in the garden, yard, walkways, etc. 

It is wonderful to have this great herb so handy... it works for stings, bites, cuts and more. The seeds can be helpful for constipation... they can be made into a tea or I just eat some sometimes.



 Here the plantain is growing along the side of our flagstone path. I leave a few... sometimes a lot when I am behind in weeding, like now.  :)  

A few years ago, we were traveling and I forgot to take the first aid kit or the essential oils. Not a good idea. While walking at a state park, I fell on my knee on the gravel (but I saved my camera from damage as I was carrying it in my hand at the time!) 

I had lots of 1/2" - 3/4" cuts all over my knee....and it bled.  Hmmm.... no first aid kit....  After going back to my parents' house, we found triple antibiotic ointment and bandaids, which was helpful, but I wanted my natural stuff.  I sent my husband out to the yard to look for plantain. He found a pathetic specimen, because everything was so dry, but it was better than nothing.  After picking gravel out of my knee and cleaning it well, we put triple antibiotic ointment on it and then put those pathetic  plantain leaves (cleaned with water first to get the dust off) on the injuries after we bruised the leaves. We covered it with gauze and tape and put ice on it and put my leg up. This was quite a painful injury. Later, the kids were able to find better plantain out in the woods, and so we used that when we changed the dressing. We did this twice a day. That injury healed much faster than I expected it would.. and with very little scarring. That was exciting to me to have my natural remedies there when I had forgotten my natural remedies. :)  I have used antibiotic ointment before and it helped, but the injuries NEVER healed as quickly as this one did. What a great find.



Here the plantain is growing near a stepping stone in my garden. 

If there is a sting or bite, plantain can be crushed or chewed and put on the area.... even out in the wild. I love knowing things like this... we don't always have a first aid bag with us. :) 








A few weeks ago, I was doing a lot of garden work... lots of digging and trowel work.... all throughout the day.  It felt good to get a lot done.  I had a phone call in the evening and did more while I was on the phone... using the trowel, digging... getting much done. All of a sudden, I had a strong pain on the palm of my hand and when I looked down, I was surprised to see a big blister than had broken.  I took pictures, but I am not posting those as I know that would be hard for some people to look at.  I didn't even realize I was getting a blister until it broke and hurt... a LOT!  

 

 
I took a shower and cleaned it out the best I could... it was rather dirty from all of the garden work. Then I put a couple of drops of iodine on it, then triple antibiotic cream ... and pieces of broken/bruised plantain... and covered with a couple of bandaids. It throbbed. The next morning,  I put a clean dressing on it with the same ingredients. I was careful with it, but the pain lessened through the day and by the next day, I had no pain unless I hit it directly. I left the bandaids on for about 2 days, then left it open and was still careful. The blister had removed several layers of skin and it had been very red and angry looking, but the color started to soften... and the healing was rather quick, although it still took a few weeks for all of the skin to grow back over the area.




 One of my sons is over 6 feet tall and he has large hands... look at the size of this plantain plant! It was growing out by the blackberry plants and apparently it loved where it was growing. :)

Plantain is also great for poison ivy and other skin issues.... so many uses.  I have used it on a son's brown recluse spider bite.... and on other issues.

 My kids know that I really like plantain and consider it a very valuable herb. Recently, they came in and said to come and look at the big plantain growing in the yard.

Hmmm... that thing looked huge in the grass.... my son laughed and said he had dug it up from the garden and planted it in the yard to show me. :) We all laughed about it.

This is the close up of that big plantain out in the yard.  

Plantain is a great plant to be aware of... and I haven't even touched on many of its great qualities. This post is just to highlight how it has really helped to heal injuries quite quickly... and easily. 

Thank you for visiting today... I hope you learn more about plantain and how to use this great herb. It is nice to know something about it in case of emergencies.  Do you like to use plantain also? How do you use it? 

Note: This plantain is not the same as the plantain that is like the banana...



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25 comments:

  1. Your pictures are great. I've been looking for some good "real" pictures of plantain (as opposed to hand drawn pictures in biology books) to confirm that the plant I have in my yard is, indeed plantain. And it is! Can't wait to try it on my next owie!

    Have you tried it on a wound without any antibiotic cream or iodine? I wonder how well it works without any other treatments...

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    1. Yes, I have... and it works great... especially if you bruise it good first. :) Since it was so dry the one time I used it, the ointment helped to draw the good stuff out of the leaf for me, but it does work by itself also. I hope you don't get an "owie", BUT if you do, I hope you find that this is a great help. :)

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  2. I have never heard of any of this, so this was a very enlightening, helpful post to me! Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us here. What a blessing you are! Praying for you.

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    1. I am so thankful to find and learn of uses for the "weeds" God has given to us... what a blessing to have such healing things so easily accessible. Thank you for visiting... nice to "see" you. :)

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  3. I have heard about the healing properties of plantain but have never tried it before. I think I will look for it...it's never very hard to find. I get poison ivy almost every year. Please consider joining me for tuesday afternoon at a spirit of simplicity. Hope to see you .

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    1. You're right - it isn't hard to find and what a blessing that is. :) Poison ivy is a challenge... I hope it helps. Thank you for the invite also. :)

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  4. Didn't know about that. I'm wondering if it is the same plantain that is popular in the Caribbean countries?

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    1. It is different from the plantain that is like a banana... I'm sorry, I should have said that. I don't know if they would have this kind of plantain there or not. Thank you for visiting.

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  5. I've never heard of Plantain growing here. I wonder if it doesn't grow in our area. Our ancestors used herbs for many medicinal purposes and they are so wonderful to have in your garden! Thanks for sharing with SYC.
    hugs,
    Jann

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    1. It is so plentiful here in most of the US, that I guess I figured it was easily found all over... maybe not. If not, I am sure there must be other very useful plants to do similar things. I would really miss plantain if we didn't have it though. Thank you for visiting. :)

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  6. I always very much enjoy your photos and storytelling. We miss you at TGI Saturdays Blog Hop and hope you can stop by for a visit today. Have a blessed weekend.

    Peace & Blessings, Latisha

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    1. What a sweet and precious comment! Thank you... I haven't been linking up on the weekends at all lately... life has been extra busy... not linking up a lot during the weeks some weeks either. Thank you for the reminder to visit your party again. :)

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  7. I feel rather sill saying this, but I did not know what Plantain was until I read this informative post - thanks for sharing, dear one. The leaves are huge!

    Have a blessed week! Hugs

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    1. Some of the leaves are very small... and actually, I prefer using the smaller ones, but that huge plant was a fun find for my family. :) It is a great plant to learn about... it is so helpful. Thank you for visiting. :)

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  8. Well you learn something new everyday. I never knew this. Thanks so much for linking up to Thriving on Thursdays. Hope to see you this Thursday!

    Anne @ Domesblissity xx

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    1. I keep finding more to learn in God's creation... what an abundance of wonderful things He has created. :)

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  9. I just adore plantain! Great post!

    Thanks for linking up with Green Thumb Thursday. We hope you'll stop back this week!

    Lisa

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  10. I didn't know plantains could do any of this - great post!
    -Jenna <3
    Follow me back? The Chic Cupcake

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  11. This is very good information and it's all new to me. Thank you for sharing and for all of the great pictures.

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    1. It has been very helpful to us... and I love that it is so available and easy to find. :) Thank you for visiting.

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  12. My husband just loves to eat plantain -I love knowing how much it can help heal. Thanks for the information.

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    1. That is wonderful! I have added it to salad, but had to do it "quietly"... to avoid the comments of "weeds in the salad"! :) I hadn't heard of someone who loves eating it... that is great! Thank you for visiting.

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  13. I love plantain! So many wonderful uses. In my area of Australia I don't seem to find plantain that looks like the one you have pictures but a smaller thinner one called 'ribwort'. I believe they can be used interchangeably though?

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    1. I know that we have 2 types of plantain here in our own yard... one is a broadleaf and one has narrower longer leaves..and we use those the same. I did a quick search on ribwort and it looks like it is a plantain and used in a similar way. I would double check to be sure, but it does look very similar to the other plantain we have. :) Hope that helps.

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