Simple Steps To Better Health Plantain

Plantain is a fascinating plant. The First Nations call it “White Man’s Foot” because it appeared in North America with the colonists and is found along the trails they walked. Robin Wall Kimmerer discusses in Braiding Sweetgrass how plantain has become indigenous, though it did not originate here. Chinese medicine uses the seeds from plantain as medicine, and they are known as “in front of the cart seeds.” Where do we find plantain? On the edges of dirt and gravel roads, alleys, and beside paths. It’s almost like it’s following us in case we need it. So what might we need it for? My number one answer is bee stings!

The first time I used plantain for a bee sting, I expected it to help reduce the pain and swelling and feel cool. What I didn’t expect was for it to take the pain away completely while the herb was applied. Not just better, but practically gone.

An easy way to use it, especially for children, is to tear off a leaf from the plant, chew it in your mouth to break the skin of the leaf and activate the medicine, then apply it directly to the sting. I use a band-aid to hold the chewed-up plant mass in place for a few hours.

If you don’t want to chew it, you could also crush it, but the amylase in your saliva, added to the plant by chewing, is the traditional method to activate the medicine. I guess the chew or crush debate depends on whether the child being treated is your own or someone else’s. Lol.

I use plantain this way for any sting or bite. Because its nature is astringent, it will help draw out whatever itch or burn a bug left behind.

So this fall, when the plant goes to seed, don’t be afraid to pick the seed stalks and stomp them into the edges of the alleys or paths around your own home. Then next year, when you get a sting, you will know exactly where your medicine grows.

Written by Martha Rokeby-Thomas
Crowsnest Healing Arts & Acupuncture
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