Medicinal Plants

By Steve Roark | The Winchester Sun

Thousands of years before mod­ern med­i­cine, peo­ple depend­ed on med­i­c­i­nal plants to ease pain and aid heal­ing. Our ear­ly pio­neer ances­tors learned from native Indians what plants were use­ful to treat mal­adies. Many of these plants are com­mon in our area and easy to iden­ti­fy. Here is a descrip­tion of some of the eas­i­er to find med­i­c­i­nals found in our area.

Yarrow

Also called blood­wort, nose­bleed, and soldier’s wound­wort. This wild­flower has a tight, flat clus­ter of white, five-petal flow­ers at the top, with soft, aro­mat­ic, fern­like leaves along the stem. It is com­mon in pas­tures, road­sides, and dis­turbed places. The leaves and stems were used to pro­mote heal­ing of open wounds and as a diaphoret­ic (used to increase perspiration).

Common Burdock

Also called clot­bur. This is the plant with the round but­ton like seed­pods that stick to your clothes like Velcro (not cock­le­bur, which are shaped more like foot­balls). It is com­mon in dis­turbed areas, and I see it a lot around barns and in over­grazed pas­tures. The root was wide­ly used by Indians as a blood puri­fi­er and to treat bleed­ing wounds. In Spain and France it has been used to cure skin blemishes.

Common Milkweed

A famil­iar plant that stands 4–5 feet tall and has round clus­ters of pink­ish to pur­plish flow­ers. The leaves are broad ovals that attach to the stem in whorls. The roots of this plant were used as an expec­to­rant (helps force out mucous from the res­pi­ra­to­ry tract), to ease joint pain, increase per­spi­ra­tion, and to increase urine flow). Warning: the plant is con­sid­ered tox­ic, and the white milky sap is an eye irritant.

Eastern Red-Cedar

Found in about every fencerow and needs no descrip­tion. The leaves were used as a stim­u­lant, to induce men­stru­al flow, and to treat tape­worm. The leaves, seeds, and twigs have been boiled and inhaled to treat bron­chi­tis. The boiled bark has been used to treat skin rash.

Plantain

If you don’t use weed killer on your lawn you like­ly have this grow­ing some­where. It’s a weed with broad, heav­i­ly ribbed leaves that lay low to the ground. A leaf tea has been used to treat coughs, diar­rhea, and dysen­tery. It’s called nature’s band aide, and the leaves can be applied to blis­ters, sores, swelling, and insect bites. There is sci­en­tif­ic con­fir­ma­tion that it can aid in the heal­ing process. If you’re out in the wild, sim­ply chew a leaf to a pulp and apply as needed.

A good book on med­i­c­i­nal plants is the Peterson guide called “Medicinal Plants.”