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VBMA Herbal Wiki |
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| COMMON NAME:
Plantain |
| LATIN NAME:
Plantago major |
| NATIVE
TO: America, Asia, Austraila,
Africa and Europe |
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BACK TO
HERBAL WIKI INDEX |
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| Plantago major,
Wikipedia |
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Plantain, *Plantago major* is a
very common plant. This plant loves to grow in soil
that has been heavily compacted by foot or other
traffic. It is native to Europe but widely naturalized.
A note from King that the dried plant loses its
medicinal activity so to make all of the preparations
from freshly gathered roots and tops.
Taste: bitter, earthen; cool, moist and
dry; root- somewhat sweet and salty quality of fibrous,
mucilaginous and astringent
Properties: alterative, diuretic and antiseptic and
vulnerary. The tops and roots..in syphilitic,
mercurial, and scrofulous diseases. It is beneficial in
menorrhagia, leucorrhea
Meridians: Lung, LI, Bladder, Kidney,
skin Classified as a mild remedy with minimal chronic
toxicity; mo contraindications, no adverse effects
reported for pregnancy or lactation, no side effects
reported, no overdoses reported, and no drug
interactions reported.
Tissue State: (*Matt Wood*) irritation,
atrophy, relaxation, depression (especially
putrefaction)
Actions and uses:
1. Clear Bladder Heat; anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial,
and spasmolytic- treatment of urinary disorders with
burning sensation, dysuria
2. Clear Lung Phlegm and Heat- acute or chronic
bronchitis with dry cough; antitussive and expectorant
effect
3. Clear intestinal heat, reduce diarrhea and bleeding
astringent, anti-hemorrhagic
4. Clear Stomach heat-gastric ulcer
5. Clear topical heat, Damp Heat, Heat Toxin- treats
red, irritating skin rashes, blood poisoning, ulcers and
wounds.; eye, mouth, throat and gum inflammation
6. Tonifies kidney; Bladder qi; harmonizes urination,
and relieves incontinence
Specific Indications: Abscessed teeth,
infected root canal; diseases of the gastrointestinal
mucous surfaces when there are pinching or colicky
pains; inflammatory affections of the skin when there is
pricking, itching or burning pain, dirty wounds,open
sores, boils, abscesses, burns, skin irritations; insect
bites, snake bites (External use)
In Traditional Chinese Medicine:
Plantago asiatica, is asiatic plantain and called Che
Qian Zi. The seed is used.
Property: cold and sweet Channels
entered: Kidney, Bladder, Liver and Lung
Chinese Therapeutic Actions (Chen and Chen):
1. clears Damp Heat and resolves Dampness- used in Lin
Zheng (dysuria syndrome) and edema.
2. resolves Dampness and stops Diarrhea: It
consolidates and hardens the stool by promoting
urination.
3. Clears Liver Heat and Benefits the Eyes; treats eye
problems caused by Liver fire provoked by Liver Yang
rising. and treat dizziness and blurred vision due to
Liver and Kidney deficiencies.
4. Clears the Lung and Dissolves Phlegm-cough due to
lung heat |
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| WOOD |
| *Matt Wood* says of Plantain-
"It was classified as drying in Greek medicine because
it is able to draw out and close up pus and infection
and stop outflows of water and blood. It is also
soothing to irritated membranes and it is one of the
best drawing agents we possess. It is excellent for a
dirty wound, to draw out the dirt and infection and
leaves it in a clean state, and for boils and abscesses.
It is also called "snakeweed" due to the fact that the
little seed stalk resembles a snakes head and because it
is used as a drawing agent to draw out venom from a
snake bite. ...particularly useful when there are
abscesses around teeth, inflamed tooths, or old
lingering infections after root canal surgery,..can be
quite helpful in bronchial infections and pneumonia, it
cools and moistens the mucosa, but also astringes and
draws up,mucus and water from the lungs. It also
strengthens the kidneys- a "nourishing diuretic" meaning
that it increases renal output by building up the
kidneys. ..Plantain was one of the most important
coolants used in European Renaissance herbalism. it was
especially used when heat was associated with scurvy.
It contains Vitamin C. |
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| SALMON |
| It cures the Scurvy in a hot
habit of body, heals the excoriations of the stomach and
other bowels, stops catarrhs, and all sorts of fluxes in
man and woman. It stops also all sorts of hemorrhages
whether internal or external, the overflowing of the
courses in women, spitting and pissing of blood, and
therefore is of excellent use in the curing of a
phthisis (TB) or ulceration of the lungs." |
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| KEEWAYDINOQUAY |
| "Plantain is an important
remedy for the bites of snakes, bees, mosquitoes and
poisonous spiders." |
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| FELTER |
| *Felter* says of Plantago-
Action and therapy- External. The crushed leaves very
promptly relieve the distressing symptoms caused by
punctures from the horny appendages of larvae of
lepidoptera and the irritation produced by certain
caterpillars, as well as the stings of insects and bites
of spiders. This use..leads us to believe it may be of
value in erysipelas and should be tried when that
disease occurs. The alcoholic preparations have been
advised as topical applications in toothache, when due
to a sensitive pulp, and in earache. Internal. Plantago
is reputed useful in bed wetting in children, due to the
relaxation of the vesical sphincter, with copious
discharge of pale urine. |
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| KING |
| The tops and roots..in
syphilitic, mercurial, and scrofulous diseases. It is
beneficial in menorrhagia, leucorrhea, hematuria,
diarrhoea, dysentery, and hemorrhoids. The juice taken
internally every hour and applied topically is in high
repute as an antidote to the bites of venomous serpents,
spiders, and insects. Externally, the bruised leaves in
useful in wounds, ulcers,ophthalmia, salt-rheum,
erysipelas, and other cutaneous affections. |
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| ELLINGWOOD |
| "The remedy is of value in the
internal treatment of all diseases of the blood.
Scrofula, syphilis, specific or non-specific glandular
disease, and mercurial poisoning. It is used in
ulcerations of the mucous membrane, due to depraved
conditions. It may be given in diarrhea, dysentery, the
diarrhea of consumptions, cholera infantum, and where
there are long standing hemorrhoids. It is also given
in female disorders, attended with fluent discharges,
and in hematuria also in dysuria and some form of
passive hemorrhage. It would thus seem to possess
marked astringent properties ,a s well as those of an
alterative character....active influence in the cure of
bites of venomous serpents, spiders, and poisonous
insects. . A simple but important influence in
tooth-ache. It seems to exercise a sedative influence
upon pain in the nerves of the face (Native Americans
used it as a specific for Bell's palsy) and relieves
many cases of earache and tic-douloureux. In the
nocturnal incontinence of urine in young children, with
a large amount of colorless urine, this agent has
produced curative results...relieves inflammatory
infections of the skin." |
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| FYFE |
| "Plantain exerts a soothing
influence upon the brain, and aids in inducing
refreshing sleep and mentionaed the use in inflammation
of especially the mammary gland." Indicated in disease
of the gastro-intestinal mucous surfaces when there are
pinching or colicky pains; inflammatory affections of
the skin, when there is pricking, itching or burning
pain; toothache and earache." |
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| COOK |
| "The roots and leaves are
diffusively relaxant and stimulant, leaving behind a
gentle tonic impression. The kidneys and mucous
membranes receive their principal and other glandular
organs are moderately acted on. The principal use make
of them is in scrofula and light cases of secondary
syphilis,for which maladies , when of the irritable
form, they answer a good purpose; but they may be also
used to advantage in subacute and chronic difficulties
of the kidneys and bladder, such as aching back, cystic
catarrh, and scanty and scalding urine...possess a power
which deserves investigation, especially as they are
rather toning than forcing to the kidneys. In bloody
urine arising from chronic renal congestion, they are
good; and their toning influence on mucous membranes is
of some service in leucorrhea and diarrhea of the
sub-acute character. ..wide reputation for the bites of
snakes, spiders ,and other poisoned wounds." |
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| CULPEPER |
| *Culpeper* says that "neither
is there hardly a martial disease but it cures. The
juice..prevaileth wonderfully against all torments or
excoriations of the bowels, stayeth the distillations of
rheum from the head, and stayeth all fluxes, and profuse
menstruation. It is good to stay spitting of blood and
other bleedings of the mouth or the making of bloody
water, by reason of any ulcer in the reins or bladder,
and also the too free bleeding of wounds. ..especial
remedy for..consumption of the lungs, or ulcers of the
lungs, or coughs that come of heat. Dioscorides saith
helpeth the tertian ague. and for the quatan ague. The
herb, but especially the seed, is good against dropsy,
the falling-sickness, the yellow jaundice and
obstructions of the liver and reins. The clarified
juice dropped into the eyes, cooleth inflammations in
them, and taketh away the pin and web; and dropped in to
the ears easeth the pains in them and removeth the heat.
The juice is of much use and good effect for old hollow
ulcers that are hard to be cured,and for canker and
sores in the mouth and privy parts of the man or woman;
and helpeth also the pains of the piles in the
fundament...it helpeth lunatic and frantic persons; as
also the biting of serpents or a mad dog...also is
profitable applied to gut in the feet and hand.. and
applied where any bone is out of joint, to hinder
inflammations, swellings and pains. The plantain is a
very good wound herb to heal fresh or old wounds or
sores, with inward or outward. |
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| VON BINGEN |
| *Hildegard von Bingen*
considered plantain hot and dry. "as a drink to a
person tormented by gicht, and the gicht will cease.
One who has swollen glands should dry the root of the
plantain by fire and place it warm over the swollen
glands. One who is bothered by a stitch should cool
plantain leaves in water, place them warm over the place
where it hurts, and the stitch will cease. If a spider
or other bug touches or stings a person, the spot should
soon be smeared with plantain juice, and it will be
better. If a person, eats or drink a love enchantment,
than plantain juice should be given.. he will be purged
inside and be relieved. If a bone is broken, he should
eat the root in honey and place cooked green leaves over
the injury and the fractured bone will be healed. |
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| GALEN |
| *Galen* said "among all the
remedies that arrest bleeding, clear heat, and heal
ulcers, Plantain is foremost, or hardly surpassed at
all." |
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