3 Myths About Plantain: Seeing This Common “Weed” Differently

0:00Here are three myths about plantain that might be keeping you from one of the best plant allies that you can ever meet. Myth number one, plantain is just a weed. So plantain does grow in sidewalk cracks, driveways, hard packed trails, even in my raised bed gardens, and it's so common that most people just dismiss it as a nuisance. But that toughness is the point. Plantain thrives in disturbed, compacted ground where fessier plants can't, which is cool because it means it tends to show up when you need it. There was a 2023 systemic review of treatments for oral mucocytus, and so they looked at the whole body of research and they named plantain extract among the compounds that produced the best results for reducing the severity of it. So that's amazing for a weed. Thanks, plantain. Alright, myth number two, plantain's only good for bug bites. So this is a cool trick of plantain, right? You chew up a leaf and you can put it on like a bee sting or mosquito bite and then the

1:01swelling and itching all calms down. It works amazingly. But if that's all you're using plantain for, then you're just kind of missing out on the much bigger picture. And one way we can think about this is through energetics. Plantain is energetically cooling and moistening. And once you understand that, you can stop thinking about plantain bug bites and you can start really recognizing every place that cooling and moistening is useful. So bug bite, of course, it's a hot condition. But so is a burn. So is like a hot angry rash. All of them are beautifully served by this soothing cooling gesture. Alright, myth number three, plantain is just for skin. We do reach for plantain a lot topically, but that same cooling, moistening quality works just as well internally. So a strong plantain leaf tea can be one of the more soothing things for an inflamed digestive tract. You could think about it for acid reflux. It's moistening, so it's lovely for other things too, like a dry hacking cough that lingers after a cold. So same plant, same energetics, and that cooling, moistening qualities are useful for the inside,

2:06as well as the outside. Here's what I love about plantain. Once you see it through the lens of energetics, all of these uses stop being like this random list to memorize. It's one very humble plant and it's doing one clear thing in all the places where that thing is needed. And that's what energetics gives you. So instead of memorizing like 100 herbs for 100 conditions, you learn how a plant actually works. You can reach for the right one with confidence. That's exactly what I teach in my herbal energetics course. And I want to give you a sneak peek of that through one of my bonus monographs. So I've written this plantain monograph. It goes over everything deeper that I've just covered. It's energetics, more research, how to prepare it, how to work with it, safely, all of that. And this is one of over 60 monographs in the entire course. I want to give it tea for free. I'll also let you know when enrollment opens for my herbal energetics class. Check out the show notes to get your link.