This Little Weed is Powerful Medicine

Plantago major - aka broadleaf plantain, white man's footprint, waybread, or greater plantain.

Known for growing everywhere, plantain weed is often dismissed as a pervasive garden pest. It pops up in gardens, on lawns and even in driveway cracks. Plantain is one of the most medicinally powerful “nuisance” plants out there. 😂

Dispite this, it’s not only edible and readily available but also has been used for centuries in traditional medicine.

The young, tender leaves can be eaten raw, and the older, stringier leaves can be boiled in stews and eaten. You can add this to green smoothies, make a cup of tea, you can make tinctures or an extract. Use it in the mixed greens, add it into soups, sauces and much more.

Let me just say if you choose to buy seed and start planting it try to find a special area where you want just that to grow because it self-seeds all over the place and can easily

overtake a whole garden area but that's also what makes it really great. Just about anyone can grow this in wherever they are and it is so beneficial in many different ways.

The seeds contain psyllium which is really good for digestive health and out of the plant as a whole the seeds have been the one that's been most promising for helping to prevent and cure cancer but the roots are also showing to be effective against cancer as well.

It's fine whether you take it internally or use it externally as an anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and an antibacterial aid.

Internal uses: it can be use in the form of a tincture, tea or eating it as a vegetable and so on. It's going to help with coughs, colds, preventing tumors, protecting the liver, help with the digestive health also good for heart and respiratory health, as a diuretic and it's also a great antioxidant.

Extrernal uses: it can be use in various different ways. It can help with bug bites and stings, eczema, burns, scratches, and even minor cuts. Since it is anti-fungal this would also be helpful in using topically for fungal type infections such as ringworm and more. It's also said to be really good for drawing things out of the skin such as splinters and glass shards.

I have to admit this was a life saver for me last summer. I had so many nasty insect bites. Plantain was really handy for soothing the pain and speeding up the healing process. The good thing is it won't get stuck into your skin. You can peel it off easily.

Now let's talk a little bit about its uses. The plantain leaf has a very little to mild flavour, it is kind of greenish tasting but not as strong as certain other greens, therefore it can blend very well.

The only issue I have with using plantain is those little stringy parts through the leaves, they can be kind of tough. You might want to pull those out of the leaves while they're fresh. If you're using the leaves either fresh or dried into teas those stringy parts aren't going to matter because that's something you're going to strain out anyway.

If you dehydrate the leaves and crumble them, those little stringy parts come out easily. Therefore, you don't have to pull those out when you're dehydrating them.

When you go to cook with them fresh like adding them to stir fries or whatever you might want to, just grab hold of that stem real tight and when you pull those little stringy parts that go up through the leaf, those will just come right out.

Plantago lanceolata - aka ribwort plantain, narrowleaf plantain, English plantain, ribleaf, lamb's tongue and buckhorn should have pretty similar benefits if not exactly the same.

I enjoy making homemade cough syrup with this narrowleaf plantain. Plantain syrup truly helps with cough and breathing problems.

I collect plantain leaves before blossoming, in the spring. Wash and dry them, put it in a jar with sugar, making nice layers of leaves and sugar until I fill it to the top. I put it in a dark place for a couple of months (usually 3 months) and strain it afterwards.

I just found out some people bury it into the soil instead of leaving it in a dark place. I shall try this next spring to see if it makes any difference 😉.

Last year I collected leaves a bit later and it didn't work out very well. Avoid making this mistake and make sure you collect leaves in the spring time, when there's a plenty of moist in them. The ones which I collected later in the year, didn't make this nice liquid. I had to bring it into boil otherwise I'd have no syrup.

💚How do you see plantain now. Is it still a weed or medicine?💚