Healing Salve from Backyard Weeds

I had just pulled the the dutch oven out of the oven. It was screaming hot and ready for baking bread. I arranged the parchment paper just so and was about to pour in my very loose overnight sourdough when I felt the searing pain.

The heat instantly felt cold.

Time slowed down.

I poured the dough in, closed the lid put dutch oven in the oven and immediately went to the freezer and pulled out an ice pack. I didn’t even want to look at my forearm. I knew it was going to be bad. I didn’t need this right before Christmas. As the spot on my forearm went numb from the cold pack,  I thought for a moment about what to do next. I knew this was probably a 3rd degree burn it needed some serious herbal help. So I went to my herbal first aid kit and pulled out the plantain salve I use for just about every skin injury. I slathered the salve all over that burn and put a large bandage on it. I repeated this for three days and on the fourth day I took the bandage off to replace it and low and behold the burn was almost gone. No blistering, only a slight discoloration. And now you wouldn’t even know I had ever touched a piece of 450 degree cast iron with my bare skin. No scarring at all.

Plantain (Plantago major) is an incredible plant. It has an affinity for aiding the body in healing skin cells that is unmatched in my experience. I have given plantain salve to many friends family and clients who have used it on burns and cuts and scrapes with much success. Plantain heals from the inside out they say. Getting deep into the wound and drawing out any infection and closing it up from the bottom up, allowing the skin to heal itself in a way that leaves minimal scarring.

The wonderful thing about plantain is that it can be found almost everywhere and anywhere that people are, all over the world. From abandoned lots to sidewalks and trails.  It’s especially prolific in backyards where people do a lot of walking. You’ve probably encountered it before and thought what a troublesome weed. Plantago throws out thousands of tiny tiny seeds so where you find one plant you’ll find many, many more. There are almost 200 species of plantain. Plantago major, P. lanceolata, P psyhllum. All have medicinal properties and can be used inter changeably. In my area of Northern Utah we find Plantago major mainly, so for the purposes of this article I will reference that species.

Before we get into using Plantago major for medicine, let’s get to know it as a plant. If you are new to herbalism and plant medicine, it’s very helpful to get to know a plant on a deeper level than just “what it’s good for”. “What it’s good for” is not a holistic way of using the benefits of plant medicine.  You need to really understand what a plant does and how it works with the person in order for them to receive the greatest benefits. You don’t need to necessarily know it down to the chemical constituent level, but that can be fascinating as well if you love chemistry and want to know what exactly is in plantain that makes it so fantastic.

If you were here with me I would invite you into my garden to sit with me in the Plantago patch for a minute. Let’s identify plantain first. It’s has wide oval shaped leaves with deep veins running from stem to tip with smooth edges. It grows in a basil shaped pattern of leaves. New growth is very soft and flexible while older mature leaves are quiet stiff and can look puckered some what like spinach does. If plantain has enough water and nutrients the plants can get very large. Generally you want to use the smaller new growth, spring growth I find is the most potent when the plant is putting all it’s energy above ground into the leaves. I often pull up the whole plant when harvesting because we have thousands of them and they do need to be kept in check even if they are soft and nice to touch. If you don’t have thousands of them, feel free to cut individual leaves. The plant will continue to put on new growth all season long.

Plantain is edible. You can eat the young leaves in a salad or make tea out of them for a digestive aid. You can even eat the seeds. You’ll find that older darker colored leaves can be bitter and salty in taste. Whenever I make an emergency spit poultice for a insect sting I notice the bitterness immediately.

Herbal Characteristics:

• Actions: Antiseptic, demulcent, drawing, diuretic, emollient, vulenerary, astringent

• Energetics: Cooling and moistening

• Taste: bitter, cool, astringent

• Parts used: seeds and leaves

Now that we know how to identify Plantago and what parts to use and how it interacts with the body we can begin to explore how you can use plantain to aid the body in healing itself.

If we take my burn story as an example, I had a condition that was hot and red. I needed to cool it down right away, then moisten the area and eventually astringe and tonify the tissues as they healed so there would be no blistering or weeping of the tissues, which could lead to infection. So using a salve of plantain was the best choice.

For another example, I had a client who cut themselves deeply with a kitchen knife. The cut was bleeding quiet a lot. She managed to wash the cut and put plantain salve on it and bandage it. Because plantain salve is astringent it promotes cessation bleeding, as well as helps keep infection at bay with it’s antiseptic properties. In the morning her cut was already beginning to close up and there was no bleeding. She said it was completely healed a week later.

Plantain can be helpful in so many more ways than just topical for burns and cuts. It historically was used for stopping the sting of insect bites and for counter acting venom from spiders and snakes.

It can be used in drawing out abscesses in the mouth from infected teeth and gums. A mouth wash of plantain leaves can help soothe and balance the lining of the mouth when there is a canker sore.

With it’s cooling and moistening properties is very helpful for dry, hot, coughs that are unproductive in removing phlegm from the lungs. At the same time it can aid in drawing up the wet sticky mucus in the lungs from pneumonia. Plantain has also been used to draw out stagnant waters in the body such as edema in the kidneys.

Last, but not least, and certainly most needed in the western world, plantain aids the gastrointestinal tract. When there is heat and inflammation it can cool and soothe the gut after diarrhea and bacterial infections.

Plantain is such a power house of plant that it really should not be considered weed, but rather a plant that should be revered as much as any allopathic remedy.

I’ve walked you through where to find plantain, what it looks, like how it works to balance, soothe and heal the body. Now how do you make medicine with it? For this article I will focus on a salve. For majority of people they will probably find it useful in a first aid kit for scrapes, burns, stings and cuts. For other uses like the ones I mentioned above, I have put a list of reference from well known herbalists for how to use the seeds and leaves in tinctures and teas.

How to Make Plantain Salve

A salve is an infused oil combined with melted beeswax. It’s super easy to make, it just takes a bit of time. Let’s start by gathering the leaves and making an infused oil. We are doing this a bit of the folk medicine way without exact measurements.

If you are reading this during a time of the year when plantain is not growing, you’ll want to purchase some from a reputable source. Purchase the whole leaf if you can. Powders tend to loose their potency quickly.  I highly recommend harvesting your own.

How to Harvest Plantain

From mid spring to late summer I harvest and dry plantain leaves. This gives me a steady supply of it from October to April.

• Harvest the leaves in the morning when they are cool.

• Wash them and put them on a drying rack. I’ve found from experience that you’ll want to dry the leaves out of the sun with good airflow. In an arid climate they should be dry in 3-4 days. I don’t recommend drying the leaves in a dehydrator they often get too hot and can scorch the leaves making them unusable.

• You want to use dry leaves because plantain is very mucilaginous and contains a lot of water. If the leaves still have a bit of water in them it can cause mold to grow in the oil and a ruined oil is heart breaking. Not only do you lose out on plant material, but expensive oil and your time.

How to Make Plantian Infused Oil

• With dry leaves on hand take a quart mason jar and fill it with leaves.

• Take the leaves out and grind that amount into a powder and return them to the jar. You’ll want to have the jar 1/3 -1/2 way filled with plant material. You may need to grind up more leaves to get to that amount.

• Then using olive oil or almond oil (or another oil of your preference) fill the jar to with in an inch of the top. Stir the oil into the plant material  and add more oil as necessary to make sure all the plant material is submerged.

• Place a lid and screw band on to the mason jar and tighten. You’ll want to make sure it’s fully closed so that you can turn the jar over a few times. Turn the jar top to bottom a few times to make sure it’s well mixed up and that there are no dry pockets.

• You might be wondering why you can’t just put the leaves in the jar whole. Well you certainly can, however grind the leaves into powder will allow the plantain to infuse more thoroughly into the oil since it the oil can access more surface area.

• Place your jar in a warm dark place, some where you can check on it everyday or every other day and turn it over a few times.  I find that 4-6 weeks is enough time to have a strong infusion. If you leave it longer it’s not a problem.

• There is a debate in the herbal community about what is better, warm sunny spot or warm dark spot. I am in the dark spot camp. The sun is an amazing tool for creating teas and for drying fruit and laundry, however I find it breaks down oils and they go rancid faster. I also don’t like forcing infusions by using heat. Some people recommend making infused oils quickly in a double boiler over a couple of hours versus weeks. But I feel that you get a better longer lasting medicine if it’s done slowly.
  
  

How to prepare your finished herbal oil

Ok, it’s been 4-6 weeks you have a fantastic plantain infused oil that is ready to be made into a salve.

• First we need to filter out the plant material (medium) from the oil (menstrum). You’ll need a mason jar and coffee filter.

• Place the coffee filter into the mouth of the clean quart mason jar and place a screw ring over it. This will keep the coffee filter from sliding down into the jar. Now slowly begin to pour the oil into the coffee filter.

• Allow the filter to saturate and begin separating the medium from the menstrum. When you see that the oil is starting to filter into the jar, you can add more oil. Take your time and let it filter however fast it will filter.

• When you’ve separated out as much oil as you can set the old jar with strained plant material aside and you can label the strained oil. I highly recommend labeling your infused oils, you will not remember what they are in month.

Making a Plantain Salve

If you are ready to make your salve, get a double boiler going. I use a pot reserved specifically for this, and a glass measuring cup. For this salve recipe we’ll make approximately 6 oz of salve. Note about essential oils: you could include a few drops of lavender essential oil for it’s antimicrobial properties, however I find a simple salve is the best.

Ingredients:

15 grams grated beeswax

1/2 cup of plantain infused oil

Materials:

• 1 cup glass measuring cup with a spout

• Pot large enough to fit the glass measuring cup

• Metal spoon

• Grater

• Medium sized bowl

• Small plate

• Container for finished salve

  
  
  

Directions:

• First put the small plate in the freezer to chill.

• Now begin by grating your beeswax into the bowl. Next weigh the measuring cup and zero it out. Add the grated beeswax until you reach 15 grams. This may look like a lot, but it will melt down to almost nothing. Once the beeswax is fully melted add in the 1/2 cup of plantain oil. The cooler oil may cause the beeswax to harden a bit. Just allow the oil and beeswax to warm up together stirring occasionally until the wax is liquid again.

• Once it’s liquid again it’s time to test it for softness or hardness. You can adjust how soft or hard your salve is by putting a drop of it on the cold plate. This will force cool it and you can test out if it’s the consistency you want. Salves tend to be softer and slightly more oily than a balm.

• If the salve is too soft, simply grate more wax and add a little at a time testing it on the plate until it’s just right; and alternatively you can add a little more oil if the salve is too hard.

• If the salve is just right pour it into your container and allow to cool completely. Label it with the name and date made and I always add “for cuts, scraps and burns” that way if you need to tell someone who is unfamiliar with plantain to grab it for you their be sure they are grabbing the right salve. This particularly help for children just learning about herbal remedies.

Store your salve in a cool dark place. I’ve found it will last for a year or more that way. If you plan to put it in a back pack or first aid kit where it will sometimes be in warmer temperatures I recommend put it in small 2oz containers that have screw lids. Then you will use it up faster and if it happens to melt it will not leak out into your first aid kit.

If you enjoyed this I have more plant monographs and tutorials on the blog.

References:

The Earthwise Herbal Volume 1 by Matthew Wood

The Modern Herbal Dispensary by Thomas Easley and Steven Horne

Wild Remedies by Rosalee De La Forte and Emily Han