The time has come to tell you about plantain. No, not the banana plantain, the other kind. Thanks to a recent, rather fabulous fall, I have a current raving testimonial about this common weed miracle herb, and can even show you evidence of the difference it makes.
Here’s where I used it:
Actually, I used it like this on both legs, both shins, both of which took the direct impact of walking into (and subsequently falling over) a low wooden balance beam at the park. (Go big or go home. Not everyone can be this graceful; I know, it’s a gift.) These spots bled and were grossly swollen and super painful. I wasn’t able to treat them until I got home 2 1/2 hours after the fall, and I wasn’t really sure it would do much good since I hadn’t treated them right away.
But it did do much good; here’s what they looked like nine days later. My left leg had zero bruising at all, and my right leg had a relatively light, small bruise that vanished completely after the third day. I’ve also used a little helichrysum and frankincense on the scabs, but the plantain gets all the credit for lack of bruising.
In contrast, this is the small bruise I got higher on my leg, presumably from landing on a small rock or something. This one wasn’t treated at all because I was in so much pain elsewhere that I wasn’t even aware of it. Nine days later, it doesn’t really hurt but still looks like this:
So plantain works wonders.
This stuff grows everywhere — it is probably along the disturbed areas of your yard or along a walkway or driveway. We use it in several ways.
frozen plantain
Since it is winter here for almost half the year (5 1/2 months, but who’s counting) the most important way we use it is frozen. And even though it’s summer now, the frozen leaves are what I used on my legs. When the leaves freeze (and subsequently thaw) the capillaries break open and release the goodness inside. Also, the frozen leaves feel SO good on wounds, and they plaster/lay well on an area that needs covered (although the stems can get in the way, so you might want to clip those off — or eat them.😁) Just gather the leaves and fill a freezer baggie, done.
fresh plantain
You can use this when you’re on the go for injuries (since you can find it anywhere) or just add it to salads or other food as an herb. This article lists its nutritional value and benefits, which include vitamin A, C, calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and manganese. If you use it fresh on wounds, you’ll need to crush the leaves — some people chew them (eww) but you can also just rub them between your hands for several seconds to release the juices inside.
Here’s our best fresh plantain testimonial: At a friend’s house years ago, our kids were playing in the yard, and one of them ran right into a 2x4 that was functioning as a temporary guardrail. Smacked her right in the eye. We scavenged the yard for plantain, found some, wadded it up and plastered her eye with it…and there was no bruise the next day.
If we had been at home, frozen leaves would’ve worked better; she did get leaf bits in her eye. But you know, she was already in pain, so what’s a little more discomfort?
dried plantain
Dried plantain is terrific in teas. I use it in kombucha as well, but you can also use it as you would any dried herb. I try to fill a big jar every fall, and a small batch of plantain is drying on the porch as I type this.
plantain oil, salve, or tincture
Lots of options here, and here’s an article that lists a couple of them (scroll to the bottom).
My favorite way is to make plantain oil. Fill a jar full of the leaves, pressing them in, and then filling the jar again with olive oil — press with a spoon or dull knife to get all the air bubbles out and all the leaves under the oil. Cap the lid, keep in a dark place, turn or shake the jar every few days (or once a weekish, if you forget like I do) and in a month or two it will be greenish and full of the benefits of plantain. Strain with cheese cloth. We’ve used this on sprains, back aches, weird ligament-y hip pain in late pregnancy (it’s a thing)…all sorts of issues.
One more story about how we’ve used plantain:
A few winters ago I slipped outside and caught myself on the concrete steps and felt my hand bend back and crunch in a way it’s not supposed to. I immediately packed snow around it (there are some benefits to winter) and went inside to fetch the baggie of frozen plantain.
I wrapped my hand in it, covered it in paper towels that were soaked in a little apple cider vinegar (info on that here) and prayed. I am a right handed writer and I need that hand to work. By that evening I was able to type a little and even managed to sign some books that didn’t look too badly forged.
The next day there was light bruising, and the day after that, there was no bruising.
However, when I fell, I landed on my knee, which I had completely neglected out of concern for my hand. I didn’t even realize it hurt (in comparison to my hand) until that night in the shower, when I saw it and noticed the blackish bruising. That bruising lasted almost a month. But my hand, which was injured worse, was better in days because I’d treated it.
I once read an article about how plantain was so valuable it was sold on the black market in South America — though with the internet scrubbing all sorts of information these days, I haven’t been able to find a link for it. (Guess they don’t advertise where to find things on the black market like they used to.) But it didn’t surprise me after the successes we’d had with it.
Happy plantain hunting,
Shannon