Plantain herb, powder

Scientific Name: Plantago major
Plantaginaceae

AKA: way bread, snake weed, ripple grass

Parts Used: Leaves, aerial parts

Active Compounds:flavonoids, irridoids, tannins, esters, benzoic acids

Description:
Plantain is native to India and Asia, but is grown in other trocial and subtropical areas worldwide. The leaves are gathered as necessary. It grows from a very short rhizome, which bears below a great number of long, straight, yellowish roots, and above, a large, radial rosette of leaves and a few Iong, slender, densely-flowered spikes. The leaves are ovate, blunt, abruptly contracted at the base into a long, broad, channelled footstalk (petiole). The blade is 4 to 10 inches long and about two-thirds as broad, usually smooth, thickish, five to eleven ribbed, the ribs having a strongly fibrous structure, the margin entire, or coarsely and unevenly toothed. The flower-spikes, erect, on long stalks, are as long as the leaves, 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick and usually blunt. The flowers are somewhat purplish-green, the calyx fourparted, the small corolla bell-shaped and four-lobed, the stamens four, with purple anthers. The fruit is a two-celled capsule, not enclosed in the perianth, and containing four to sixteen seeds.

Dosage:

As an infusion, take 1 cup 3 times daily.

As a tincture, take 2-3 ml 3 times daily.

Ointment can be applied to cuts and hemorrhoids.

Safety:
There is no negative safety information available for this herb. Consult your health care provider before beginning use of any herb.

More Bulk Herbs and Spices Information:

For educational purposes only
This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.