Plantain

Jo Francks MH

While working as a scout leader I was in the outdoors a lot with others. Once while at a day camp in the mountains, one of the other leaders got stung by a bee and it started swelling and was very painful. They were getting ready to take him home when they drove up to me and told me what was happening.

We were in a meadow and I looked at the ground and found exactly what he needed; plantain, that miracle eraser that has helped so many people. I picked a couple of the leaves and handed them to him and told him to chew it and put it over the bee sting and cover it with a bandage or piece of tape. Within seconds the pain stopped and the swelling started to diminish. He ended up staying and enjoying the rest of the day.

The man who was with him never forgot about plantain and the miraculous healing he witnessed that day. He had a similar experience one day when a man was on his way to the hospital because he had been stung by a bee on the face and was allergic to bee stings. His face was swelling and very painful. They had to make a stop at this man's house on their way to the hospital and when he found out what had happened he got the plantain out of his yard and showed them how to apply it to the bee sting. They did not go the hospital that day, nor have they had to since because he uses plantain any time he gets a bee sting.

This same man was able to help his granddaughters when they were stung by bees on the foot. The crying stopped within one minute and they were happy and up running around again. My own children have used this remedy countless times and it works every time.

Plantain is an excellent remedy for kidney and bladder troubles. It is an effective remedy for poisonous bites and stings, since the poison of fresh stings is extracted rapidly often within an hour's time.

It is the best herb for blood poisoning: reducing the swelling and completely healing a limb where poisoning has made amputation imminent. Finally, it is very useful for easing pain and healing problems in the lower intestinal tract. This valuable "weed" is often found in soils close to most habitations, in parks, sports fields, etc. (School of Natural Healing, Dr. John R. Christopher)

There are two types of plantain, the broad leaf Plantago major, and the narrow or lance leaf, Plantago lanceolata. The leaves of the broad-leaf are ovate, blunt, abruptly contracted at the base long and channeled petiole, blade is four to eight inches long, three to four inches broad, five to eleven strong fibrous ribs, entire or coarse and unequally dentate-serrate margins, dark green. Lance-leaf is identified as lanceolate, sharp-pointed, on ling and tough stems, strongly ribbed length-wise, dark green.