# Plantain



## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Harvested a bunch a plantain taday. Got a oil infusion started an dryin a bunch. Granddaughter gonna pick a bunch fer me. She gets 50 cents a bowl fer it.

Plantain has many uses, as a antibiotic/antibacterial, rashes an skin conditions an it can be made inta a tea.

One mans weed be another mans medicine!


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## cybergranny (Mar 11, 2011)

How do you use it in the winter as a poultis? Or maybe what is the oil and dried used for?


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Winter time ya would use either a salve er ya could use the oil on a traditional gauze pad. Dried can be made inta salves as well er a tea. I ain't never tried rehydratin it. Might give that a whirl come winter.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

I know we have plantain out here and for the life of me I cannot look at a picture and look at a plant and say they are the same thing. I've gone through website after website and I just can't figure it out.

Any hints on what plantain would look like in the eastern part of Texas? I really should have taken a botany class in college!!!


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Here be what we got round here. It be a big wide thick leaf what looks waxy er shiny. When it gets seeds they stick up outa the center a the plant with little ball like seeds on a stem. We got nothin round here similar to it so it really sticks out. Not sure bout yalls neck a the woods.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

This is what it looks like now here in east Texas. Notice the seed heads in the middle.


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

I make itch cream out of Plantain...just chop it up, mix in some Rosemary, and then stir it all in melted lard. I pour that in a jar and keep it in the fridge. The itch cream works as well at relieving itches as the fresh plants do, and I have it available year-round. I have thought maybe if I put some beeswax in it I might not have to refrigerate it. I have bees this year, so I may try it.

Hillbilly, how do you make the infusion?


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Starcreek Bees wax will not preserve your cream, it will harden it into a salve. If you want to preserve it you will have to add some sort of preservative. An Infusion is simply a fancy way of saying Tea if you use water, or if you use oil like you're lard, it will be an oil based infusion. If you take you're lard and Plantain mixture and put it in the oven on low heat until the plant leaves are crispy, and then strain out the plant material, you will have a much more potent cream/salve.


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Fer the oil infusion, ya just chop the plantain up, put in a quart mason jar an add extra virgin olive oil. Fer the first couple days, add oil as needed as the plant soaks it up an the bubbles work there way out.

Store in a cupboard an shake ever now an again. After six weeks the oil will be a nice green color. Strain out the leaves an ya got a infused plantain oil.


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## LilRedHen (Aug 28, 2011)

I tried the oil infusion last year, then heated it gently in a double boiler and added some shaved beeswax to it to make it into a salve.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Are the leaves always wide and shiny with the veins going up and down the length of the leaf? What time of the year do they have seed heads?


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

I use plantain in a number of salves... right now, in my drawing salve.

But with any herb ... do your research.


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

*I like this Plantain better............*

Served with roasted pork and rice and beans or in a butter rum sauce with vanilla ice cream........artydance:


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Country Living said:


> Are the leaves always wide and shiny with the veins going up and down the length of the leaf? What time of the year do they have seed heads?


I have two kinds here, one with wide spoon shaped leaves and one with narrow long leaves. From what I have read both are interchangeable. On both the veins start on the stem then go straight up the leaf, it is kind of like stripes.

The wide leaf has settled into a spot on the East side of the house, morning sun only, and it is usually damp. They get huge, the lower leaves 10" to 12" long. The narrow prefer hot and dry and grow along the gravel drive with all day sun.

Mine have already finished flowering and are going to seed. The wide leaf has stalks a foot to two tall with flowers/seeds starting near the bottom of the stalk and going right to the top. HUNDREDS of easily harvested seeds each. The narrow leaf has a long pole with only an inch or two at the top with seeds. flowers.

I have never dried any or made a tincture or oil/salve. They are available year round so I can just go harvest when needed.


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## gam46 (Jan 24, 2011)

For those whose interest is in using this plant in a culinary rather than or in addition to its medicinal uses you might start here:

http://southernforager.blogspot.com...aign=Feed:+SouthernForager+(Southern+Forager)


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## ETXgal (Jul 12, 2014)

You can use this plant as a spit poultice. It can be used for a lot of things. Insect bites is one of the best things it does. It is a dry condition plant, and a drawing plant. It can be used on bites and rashes. You could dry the plant, and keep it in a package with you. When you need it, chew on it, or macerate it, and place it on the bite. It will also help with a runny nose. Take it as a tea to treat that. It is best to harvest the leaves BEFORE it sends up the seed stalks. Harvest seeds in the fall, depending on where you live. The plant can help with hemorrhoids, fevers, infection, all kinds of stuff. You can use it to help even on snake bite, if you are out in the woods, and cannot get immediate emergency care at a hospital, or doctor's.


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Some yall might know that Amazon has free books each day. Well by chance taday they got one on Plantain!

Here be the link:
http://prepforshtf.com/free-kindle-books-limited-time-offers/#.VX91rsLbLIV


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## LilRedHen (Aug 28, 2011)

Thanks Old Coot!


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

There are dozens of plantain species. The 4 that is most common east of the Rockies (from the gulf coast to Hudson Bay) are Plantago virginica, P. rugelii, P. lanceolata, P. major. In my area P. lanceolata is the most prevalent. 

Most years there only 9 weeks of the year when I can’t get fresh plantain. In my experience fresh plantain is superior, far and above that of dried, frozen, infusions and tinctures. I urge folks to learn all the plantains that grow around them.

Fresh leaf is wonderful, an amazing medicine.


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## lazydaisy67 (Nov 24, 2011)

Yep, that's plantain. Mine is actually taking over my yard a little bit, but I don't want to spray it because it's such an awesome plant! You can crush up the fresh leaves by either chewing them (not recommended) or in a food processor and put them right on top of pretty much any owie you have. It brings down swelling, takes away redness, and kind of "sucks" the puss out if there is any. I've used it for many, many things and it is really amazing. Try to use the youngest, freshest leaves if you can. I've found they seem to work better than the bigger older leaves.


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

Plantain, Common
https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/p/placom43.html


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

Can anyone suggest a bitter herb for an oil infusion? I’ve a german sheppard with a hot spot on his back (common with sheppards, oily skin). Plantain would be great for healing his skin problems. Plantain infusion with olive oil… he just licks it off.

I need a bitter herb to add that would prevent him from licking up the medicine but would cause no harm, any ideas? Anyone treated canine skin problems?


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Cotton said:


> Can anyone suggest a bitter herb for an oil infusion? I've a german sheppard with a hot spot on his back (common with sheppards, oily skin). Plantain would be great for healing his skin problems. Plantain infusion with olive oil&#8230; he just licks it off.
> 
> I need a bitter herb to add that would prevent him from licking up the medicine but would cause no harm, any ideas? Anyone treated canine skin problems?


When Dad made medicine for his Dogs he always mixed Sulfur with his mixtures, which the Dogs would not lick off, and had medicinal properties all its own.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Chamomile

Chamomile's (Matricaria chamomilla) curative properties include relief of both fever and restlessness. This mild bitter herb is used as a sedative and antispasmodic.

http://herbs.lovetoknow.com/List_of_Bitter_Herbs

I make a chamomile tea (let it cool ) and give my little dog a good rinse with it. For her it works wonders ...

I also have a few others and I'll try and post them later.


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