It never ceases to amaze me how empowering it is to be able to walk into our backyard or local wooded area and find powerful  medicinal plants available for their gift of healing. North Carolina offers an abundant bouquet of healing plants. For the last three years I have been offering weekend workshops on identification,application and preparation of these magnificent plant allies. Some of the workshops most enjoyable moments come when the participents realize how our common local plants can have such a profound effect on our health. In the “Wise Woman” tradition the plants you need for healing are found right outside your door. I would like to introduce you to one of my favorites. Plantain: Plantago major  To the uneducated eye this is another lawn and garden common weed most often dug up and disposed of in the compost heap. To the herbally enlightened it is a valued, potent friend. Plantain followed us here from Europe, finding its way across America, following the white man’s footprint. One of its common names is “White Man’s Foot”.  The most common ones to North Carolina are the broad leaf, narrow leaf and rattle snake plantain. Its habitat is wide and varied, found growing in lawns, neglected gardens, waste places (abandoned fields and edges of parking lots). Its uses were common knowledge before the industrial revolution. With the resurgence of interest in herbal medicine, Plantain is taking its place again as a respected and valuable plant ally. I have used Plantain successfully many times with family and friends and have always been delighted and amazed at its gentle healing ways. I was taught that Plantain used internally as a medicinal tea or tincture (alcohol extraction) was an excellent blood purifier; good for blood poisoning. Some say it’s as strong as penicillin for staph and strep infections. Topically it can be used as a poultice for poisonous insect bites, open festering wounds, to stop external bleeding, and to draw out splinters. A healing salve will speed the recovery of bruises and wounds.  It wasn’t until I started using the plant for myself that I witnessed time after time its marvelous healing ways. Let me share a few with you. A hazard of my ex-husband’s profession of carpentry, is the reoccurrence of puncture wounds. This particular time he developed a festering wound from a splinter he thought he had extracted. Within a few days a red line developed running up his arm. We collected a handful of Plantains’ fresh leaves and steeped this into a strong tea, soaking his hand in this solution for 30 min. three to four times a day. After 24 hours a large piece of wood emerged from his hand and within two to three days he was back hammer in hand.  A workshop favorite of mine is its use as a “spit poultice” (chew up a freshly picked leaf, and apply to infected area).This works beautifully on venomous insect bites by drawing out and neutralizing the venom. I had the occasion to experience Plantains effect on insect bites one summer while collecting St. Johnswort in the North Carolina Mountains. I had foolishly gone off to collect herbs one day wearing a pair of sandals and somehow managed to step on a yellow jacket. It stung me in the tender skin between the toes. Ouch! I was far from camp and knew I had a long walk in front of me. Luckily I spied some plantain and made a “spit poultice”, wadding this on and around the bite. To my  amazement, the bite never swelled or became inflamed. There was some slight itching but nothing much to speak of. Traditionally it was used for venomous bites of snake, spider, and flying insects. Internally the tea can be used as a vermifuge (for worms).  The leaf tea taken two to three times a day is excellent for irritable bowel, stomach ulcers, and disorders of the Kidney and Urinary tract. The seeds are a good source of Physillium being mucilagenous and fibrous. The seeds are edible and good sprinkled fresh in a salad, or brewed in a tea. I’ve heard a tale that three teaspoons of  fresh seeds eaten for three days makes one undesirable to mosquito bites (I’ve yet to witness this).  I have just started to discover the wonderful healing ways of this plant and look forward to discovering new ways to include it in my herbal healing journey. Try plantain cooked as a pot herb (cook as you would any leafy green vegetable). A soothing medicinal tea can be made from 3 TBS. fresh herb/ 1 cup water. Steep anywhere from 15-40 minutes depending on the strength needed. Description of Plantain for identification purposes:  Broad Leaf Plantain: Look for smooth heavily ribbed broad leaves with flattened stems growing close to the ground in a basal rosette (from a central point growing out in a circle). Its leaves measure anywhere from 2 to 6 inches long. It flowers from late June through mid fall. Look for tiny flowers greenish to white in color growing along a leafless stem. There are many medicinal plants growing right outside your door, for emergency situations how many can you discover? 

Read more

Healing for the Body, Mind and Spirit  by Suki Roth In our quest to hold herbalism up to the scientific eye, trying to mold it into a clinical science, we have lost touch with the very essence of herbal healing. It is not the clinically tested, standardized medicinal constituents of the plants we need for vitality and balance, but their more obscure, subtle properties. They have an innate ability to offer us the soothing relaxation, gladdening, quieting, emotional defrosting and grounding our over stimulated minds and tired spirits are so much in need of right now. We live in stressful times, far from the comfort and peace one experiences when immersed in an intimate relationship with nature. What is it exactly that is causing our modern ills?  The question here is a bit like the saying “what came first the chicken or the egg”?  Is it physiological disorders or disorders of our spirit and emotions?  Luckily we do not have to ponder this question.  In their molecular cell structures, medicinal plants hold all the keys necessary to unlock our physical, emotional and spiritual vitality.Through many hours of plant meditation, individually and in groups, I have been introduced to the subtler benefits the plants offer. Let me share some of my most profound plant meditation and clinical experiences with you. This in itself is a difficult task as picking out a few plants to highlight is like picking your favorite child. You love them all and they all offer so much individually.  Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) Collect Meadowsweet while it is in flower. Use its beautiful leaves and sweet almond scented flowers for your tea or to tincture. Your first experience with either the tea or tincture will be one of deep release and relaxation. Meadowsweet has a warming, relaxing and soothing effect on the digestive tract. It contains large amounts of salicin, one of the main ingredients in aspirin, without the harmful effects to the stomach lining. It is specific for gastric pain, abdominal cramps, colic, and irritable bowel. Its pain relieving qualities are indicated for tension headache, muscular pain and arthritic complaints. Meadowsweet, a great facilitator for achieving a deep meditative state, also has the ability to quiet the mind and guide the body into a restful sleep. Considered the emotional “chill-pill” it defuses congested thoughts while putting one at ease. It eliminates emotional pain that stems from living in a fast paced over stimulating world. Meadowsweet is able to rebalance electrical body charges making it an ally for opening up energy centers in the body. With daily use for a month or so it expands the body’s energy field creating a greater sense of self and a boost to self-expression. A favorite herb of the Druids who believed it made the heart “merrier”. A must for mild depression. Safe for children, elders and the overly sensitive.   Dose: Make a tea using 1-2 teaspoons of the dried herb to one cup boiled water steep for 15 minutes. Drink three times a day. Tincture 2 or 3 mls (60-80) drops three times a day.   Betony (Wood Betony) (Betonica officinalis) Collect the aerial parts  (leaf, stem and budding flowers) of Wood Betony just before the flowers bloom. Prepare yourself for a little taste of heaven with a cup of tea or tincture. Wood Betony is one of my favorite herbs for insomnia. It quiets our restless minds and caps our frayed nerves. Its medicinal actions are anti-spasmodic, nervine, and anodyne (pain relieving). Wood Betony is specifically indicated for tension headaches caused by stress, fibromyalgia pain, and sore, over worked muscles. A tonic for the nervous system, it reduces fatigue and tension the symptoms of nervous exhaustion, by inducing a restful sleep. Wood Betony with its antispasmodic action relaxes our bowels, musculature and our stifled sense of self- expression. Creating the sensation of being nurtured and held it fosters a feeling of safety and protection. This opens up our emotional body and allows us to express our creativity and stimulates self-expression. Wood Betony has a stimulating opening effect on the solar plexus, considered the center of “gut-level” instincts, groundedness and self-confidence. A true anti-anxiety it erases contracted life experiences. Wood Betony considered a brain tonic, will increase arterial blood flow and cerebral circulation. Lose that frenzied burn out feeling with a cup of Wood Betony today.   Dose: 2 teaspoons of dried herb to one cup boiled water, steep 20 minutes drink three to four times a day. Tincture 20-60 drops three to four times a day.   You now have two new calming friends to take along on life’s journey. Do not forget the old stand bys, Lavender, Chamomile and Lemon Balm. Cheers, to your health and well being.       About the Author   As an  herbalist for the last 20 years Suki Roth has had the opportunity to share her knowledge and great love for the large bouquet of medicinal and edible plants growing “right outside our doors”. Sharing her intimate knowledge of the plants is her life passion. She is available for classes, workshops and consultations all designed to connect you to the gifts the plants offer us for healing on many levels.    

Read more