Plantain

History

Plantain is to me a symbol of the “people’s medicine”. It is a humble herb, after all, its name comes from the Latin “planta” which means foot. This it thought to be due to its shape being similar to the sole of a foot. But perhaps it also refers to its propensity to grow on ground that has been stepped on and pounded down due to heavy foot traffic. Indeed, it does grow in abundance in places our feet have compacted the ground and it pulls nutrients deep from the earth. I often tell people that plantain is “the drawing agent supreme”. My husband had a serious break to his leg several years ago. A few weeks after the break, I noticed blood and fluid pooling under the skin in the area superficial to his tibia. I went outside and picked some plantain from my front yard and chopped it up on my kitchen cutting board. Then I took the bright green juicy heap of herbs and put it over the suspect area of his leg firmly secured with some gauze bandages. The next morning the blood and serous fluid had been drawn out of the area soaking the bandages. I did twice more and his leg was free of all fluid, leaving the area healing nicely. Plantain is also the people’s herb because it is so readily available to people all over the world and with such a broad range of usefulness. You probably have it in your own backyard. Plantain has ovate, smooth leaves which grown in a rosette. The leaves have fibrous veins running their length. In the center of the leaves sprouts a spike anywhere from 6-20 inches long with green seeds tightly clinging to the top. Plantain is often known by the term snakeweed because the seed stalk resembles the head of a snake. Native Americans used this plant to draw venom out of snake bites. In ancient India, it was observed that a mongoose bitten by a cobra would eat plantain which would neutralize the venom. It’s also a great drawing agent for bee stings, mosquito bites and spider bites, and splinters. Matt Woods uses it to draw infection and pus out of infected teeth. It is useful for wounds for several reasons. It will pull out debris. It is antimicrobial. And it is a vulnerary, encouraging the epithelial cells of the skin to renew which, in turn, speeds up wound healing. The use of plantain as medicine has a very long history. Not only has it used by people from very early times but various species appear all over the world and so it has found a place in most herbal modules the world over. It is mentioned in many literature texts from Shakespeare’s works to Longfellow’s Hiawatha. The Anglo-Saxons (450 AD to 1066 AD) recorded that plantain was one of their 9 sacred herbs. They used it for many of the uses we esteem it today such as bites of scorpions, stings, lymph gland swelling, excessive menstrual bleeding, uterine pains, headaches, coughs, and fevers. Native Americans placed the leaves of plantain on wounds. They combined it with yarrow as an astringent to stop hemorrhages in the lungs and gastrointestinal tract. They chewed the roots of plantain to relieve toothaches. Delaware Indians used plantain for diarrhea