One aspect of being a mother and homemaker that brings me joy is finding ways to simply help our family – whether it be preparing meals for the freezer, canning produce, making jams or homemade medicines.
Plantain is a common backyard weed – or a weed that will grow most anywhere, for that matter. If you look outside your window, you will most likely find the stubborn plant {weed} growing all around. But plantain, if you have not discovered so far, not just a weed but a wonderful plant God created with lovely medicinal properties.
Plantain is often called a natural anti-bacterial band-aid. Not only does it aid in healing, it can help ease the pain of stings, bites and rashes. Crushed up and placed over a bee sting is one of the best remedies we have found for those sadly painful honey bee stings we often attain during the clover season in our yard (walking through our grass, one is likely to be stung quickly as the bees hum about the summer months).
To help a sting, simply locate a plantain leaf, chew it up (yes, chew it) and place the gummed up sticky mess on your bite. It will work wonders! Such a natural way to help ease the pain and itch of a sting! Or you can make a tea with the leaves, put the tea in a spray bottle and use it to spray pesky mosquito bites during the summer time.
Plantain will help speed up the recovery of wounds on your skin. It only makes sense to collect this precious “weedy”-herb in the summer to save for all year long.
You could dry the leaves and keep them in a cool location in a mason jar.
Or you could freeze the leaves to use in the winter months, as well.
One way to preserve and use plantain is to make plantain infused oil.
This oil can be used for lip balms, skin lotions, baby lotions – any product used on the skin.
It is simple to make – just collect the leaves and gently wash them in your sink. Place them into a mason jar and cover with olive oil. Let it sit for 3 weeks out of direct sunlight. After this time, strain the oil from the leaves into a mason jar. Store in a cool dark location. It can be used throughout the winter for various home remedies. Plantain oil can make the best diaper rash cream – so much better than a store bought version!
Here is a recipe for a wonderful plantain salve:
Once your plantain oil is infused and strained from the leaves, add 1 tablespoon of grated beeswax and a capsule of vitamin E (or scrapings of the gel from your aloe plant) per ounce of oil.
{There are 8 oz. in one cup, in case you forgot.}
Heat the oil, stirring until the wax melts. Pour into jars and cool. One cup of the oil makes one cup of salve.
There are many uses for plantain salve –
all cuts and wounds will heal faster with this lotion applied.
Another way to preserve plantain is to make a tincture with the leaves. Once you have a picked enough to fill a mason jar, top off with 80 proof vodka, give it a shake and store in a dark location for 4-6 weeks.
Strain the vodka from the leaves and store your tincture in a bottle. This can be used as a spray which can be sprayed onto any skin abrasians, bug bites, cuts, splinters, even used to help heal c-section incisions, diaper rashes or little one’s scraped knees.
“He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth.”
Psalm 104:14-15
How do you use plantain in your every day life or your home medicinal cabinet?
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