**Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nor do I pretend to be. This article is informative and only covers the traditional uses for edible plants commonly found in the Appalachian region. It’s always best to consult a health care professional or medical doctor when suffering from any ailment, disease, illness, or injury before trying any traditional folk remedies. **
Now that we are back to the mowing season, it’s time to turn our attention to one of the best, most versatile, and healthy weeds that almost every Appalachian yard, road median, and forest clearing have to offer – the broadleaf plantain. Whether you know it or not, you’ve seen it, and it is one of the most reliably good weeds to know about.
The broadleaf plantain is a common weed from the Plantaginaceae family, and it is one of the most people-friendly plants there are. It offers many health benefits backed by historical uses here in Appalachia and worldwide.
So, let’s talk about my favorite forage, the broadleaf plantain! It’s easy to find, versatile, and has a long history as a common forageable that people have loved for thousands of years. I have no idea why they don’t sell it in grocery stores because it’s so good for you and good to eat!
About Broadleaf Plantain
Folk Names: Common Plantain, White Manfoot, Ripple Grass, Cuckoo’s Bread
Medicinal Properties: anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antispasmodic, anti-venomous, parasiticidal, mildly astringent
Broadleaf plantain is very common in dense, compacted soils, where it creates surface-level roots that break up the dirt, making way for other, longer-lasting plants. Because it helps aerate the ground, it is one of the best weeds to have in your yard.
As a European and Central-Asian native plant, this one has a long and rich history. It’s had its name of “plantain” since the 2nd Century CE, with prominent mentions from Roman Encyclopedist Pliny the Elder. Pliny mentions that the plant has a “cauterizing” effect, making it suitable for dressing wounds and stopping bleeding. At the same time, Roman Doctors also prescribed it for various skin ailments and digestive issues, such as ulcers or gassiness.
Anglo-Saxons termed this plant the “All-heal” since it was suitable for almost any external or internal condition.
Plantain spreads quickly and very easily, and it gained its name plantain from the Latin word planta, which means “the sole of the foot.” So, Europeans traveling to North America quickly spread the broadleaf plantain across the 13 colonies and beyond, where Native Americans gave it the name “White Man’s Foot,” indicating that everywhere the white man walked, the plantain followed.
In North America, it quickly added traction as a readily available remedy for almost any ailment, regardless of who you were or where you were from.
One of the most common traditional Appalachian uses for plantain was as a poultice for snakebites. Records indicate that the broadleaf plantain was a common remedy for both snakebites and bee-stings among the Cherokee, and according to James Adair in his 1775 History of The American Indians, “When an Indian perceives he is struck by a snake, he immediately chews some of the [plantain] root, and having swallowed a sufficient quantity of it, he applies some to the wound; which he repeats as occasion requires, and in proportion to the poison the snake has infused into the wound.”
One unique recipe from North America comes from a 1750 South Carolina Newspaper, which published a story about an enslaved person called “Caesar” (his origin and pre-enslavement name are still unknown to us today), who was emancipated after creating a cure for poisoning and snake bites from the roots of plantain and horehound.
However, it is essential to note that the trial for his emancipation was ethically questionable since the court ran poison trials to test the cure. In addition, it is worth considering that “Cesar’s” family was not emancipated, and he was never genuinely free since his emancipation was just a transfer of ownership to the South Carolina Commons House of Assembly.
If you are interested in learning more about the very murky and questionable legal and ethical complexities of this story, you might want to check out the Charleston Time Machine podcast’s “Episode 190: Doctor Caesar and His Antidote for Poison in 1750.”
Due to its pervasiveness and tendency to crop up wherever we, as human beings, go, plantains have always been there for us, and we have evolved to develop a healthy symbiotic relationship with these common garden weeds. After all, that’s why there’s probably a massive patch of these plants spread out in the bare spots on your lawn.
Broadleaf Plantain poking up through the other weeds – from the holes in the leaves, you can see that it’s a fan favorite among my garden slugs, snails, and rabbits.
How To Identify and Harvest Broadleaf Plantain
Right now, in May through July, is the perfect time to harvest plantain. When this plant is younger, it is much less bitter than its adult counterpart, and the leaves are much more tender and easy to digest.
Broadleaf plantain grows in low rosettes on the ground. It doesn’t grow upwards like grasses, and it’s more of a clumping plant than a crawling one.
In early spring, you’ll notice it pushing down and choking out patches of other weeds, and it is likely to appear in the most compacted areas of your land. Plantain grows all along my yard in sporadic clumps, but I find a lot of it right where I have mulched and around the edges of my garden bed where I do the most walking and working. It’s also liable to poke up around the edges of driveways and through cracked cement when the soil is very dense.
You’ll recognize this plant by its distinctly ridged leaves, which have coarse lines running through them. Most of the time, a plantain leaf has five of these lines. You’ll find a tough string underneath each of these ridges that holds the broad leaves up, functioning a bit like a tent pole.
As the leaves mature, they develop a purple-like color at the base of the stems. This crimson color looks like the color of a blackberry or a beet.
When late summer hits, these plants only get more noticeable. They will start to send up seed spikes that look a bit like a tiny cattail – you’ll recognize these immediately if you have ever spent any time outdoors. This plantain stalk develops tiny hairs, which are actually covert flowers, then it uses the wind to spread its seeds.
When harvesting this plant, I recommend uprooting it entirely. Since it is such a pervasive weed, gathering the entire plant once or twice a year won’t diminish the plantain population. Plus, you probably remove tons of these plants when you weed your garden or mow your lawn, anyway.
However, if you only want the leaves, just take a few from each plant. The plantain will come back year after year, getting larger and healthier each time. I like to keep at least one plant in my garden to produce large leaves. It helps that this plantain is right by my back doorstep for easy harvesting whenever I want a bit.
Then wash the leaves and hang them to dry in a dark, cool place, or just eat them fresh!
How To Prepare and Use Broadleaf Plantain
Plantain makes a fantastic addition to salads, smoothies, soups, and basically any other dishes. I like to look at it as a free alternative to spinach or kale with some additional healthy properties that make it even better than store-bought greens.
However, some specific recipes are well worth trying at home because they are so practical, and some have very interesting histories behind them.
Plantain Burn and Itch Salve
This plantain burn and itch salve is a go-to for so many people, and I keep it in stock as my daily moisturizer. It’s not just for mosquito bites, burns, scrapes, and bruises – it’ll reduce inflammation from skin allergies, razor bumps, and normal wear and tear on your skin. I also make this for my mother, who has issues with cellulitis and dry skin, and it seems to offer some relief.
I absolutely love this stuff, so here’s how to make it:
Ingredients
- ½ cup crushed, dried plantain leaves and/or roots
- ¼ cup coconut oil or beeswax
- ¼ cup olive, jojoba, grapeseed, or vitamin E oil (or any mixture of these oils – I use olive oil since I usually have some in my pantry for cooking)
- Cosmetic-grade essential oils or dried herbs (I commonly use cloves, dried sage, mint, fennel, lavender, rosemary, rose petals, cinnamon, or thyme)
Instructions
- Create a double boiler by filling a pot ¼ of the way with water, then place a sturdy metal or heat-tolerant glass container inside. A mason jar works in a pinch.
- Put your oils inside the metal or glass container and heat the double boiler over medium heat until the oils melt.
- Turn the heat to low, then add your herbs or essential oils.
- Let the oils incorporate (or let the herbs soak) on low heat for at least 30 minutes.
- Turn the heat off.
- If you use dried herbs, you can either let them steep in the oil for two to three days or strain them from the warm oil now. If you wait and let them steep, the salve will be more fragrant, but you will have to re-melt the oil in a double boiler to strain the herbs.
- Pour your oil into a jar, tin, empty lip balm tube, or glass dish. Cover the container and let it cool.
Celsus’ Plantain Remedies
Celsus, 2nd century Greek philosopher and medical encyclopedist, wrote of several medical remedies including plantains. While some are complicated and contain ingredients that we now know can be toxic when ingested in larger quantities, some recipes make delicious snacks using some everyday grocery store items. Here are some highlights:
- Crush plantain leaves and mix them with blackberries for a healthy simple syrup (perfect for smoothies – it’s delicious!).
- For digestive issues, cook a simple lentil soup by adding chopped plantains, one endive (or substitute with next month’s forageable chicory), one minced onion, and minced garlic to a pan and fry them in olive oil for around 10 minutes. Then, add the veggies to 1 cup of lentils and 4 cups of vegetable broth in a pot and simmer for 30 minutes. Season to taste. I like to add some feta and olives on top.
Caesar’s Cure For Poison
Although I can’t recommend taking this remedy as a cure for poisoning (if you suspect that you are poisoned or have been bitten by a venomous snake, seek a professional, accredited doctor immediately), it does make an excellent remedy for minor stomach ailments and joint inflammation, and the ingredients are safe to consume by modern medical standards. So, I recommend giving it a taste, at least for historical purposes. It’s pretty good!
Ingredients
- Plantain Roots
- 3 ounces of fresh or dried horehound (a variety of mint)
- Two quarts of water
Instructions
- Boil 2 quarts of water in a pot.
- Once the water reaches a rolling boil, add the plantain and horehound.
- Boil the water and herbs until the water level has reduced by about ½.
- Strain the tea to remove the plant matter.
- Place the tea in an airtight container such as a jar with a lid and refrigerate it.
In similar contemporary recipes for this “cure,” other ingredients such as rum, sugar, and sassafras may be added to enhance the flavor and make a pleasant health tonic.
Then, according to Kay Moss, author of Southern Folk Medicine, 1750– 1820, here’s how you should take the antidote:
“Let the patient take one third part three mornings fasting successively, from which if he finds any relief it must be continued till he is perfectly recovered.” I don’t recommend following the fasting part, but I recommend mixing this tea with some sugar and drinking it on a hot summer day as an iced tea. It’s the perfect refreshing beverage with an added health kick.
Sources
- Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Weed of The Month: Broadleaf Plantain.
- Loeb Classics: Pliny The Elder, Natural History, Book XXV.
- The Recipes Project: Adjudicating “Caesar’s Cure For Poison.”
- Charleston County Public Library: Doctor Caesar and His Antidote for Poison in 1750.
- US Forest Service: A Guide to the Medicinal Plants of Appalachia.
- Oliver Cowdery: James Adair’s 1775 “History of the American Indians”
- Ritchason, Jack. The Little Herb Encyclopedia: The Handbook of Nature’s Remedies for a Healthier Life, Third Edition.
- Moss, Kay. Southern Folk Medicine, 1750-1820.
