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

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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)