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brussels_plants [2008-10-14 14:56] – lina | brussels_plants [2008-10-14 15:01] – lina | ||
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- | | + | ===== Plantago major(Broad-Leaved Plantain) |
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+ | 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, | ||
+ | The flowers are somewhat purplish-green, | ||
+ | The fruit is a two-celled capsule, not enclosed in the perianth, and containing four to sixteen seeds. | ||
+ | The Plantain belongs to the natural order Plantaginaceae, | ||
+ | The drug is without odour: the leaves are saline, bitterish and acrid to the taste; the root is saline and sweetish. | ||
+ | The glucoside Aucubin, first isolated in Aucuba japonica, has been reported as occurring in many species. | ||
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+ | Medicinal Action and Properties | ||
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+ | Refrigerant, | ||
+ | Applied to a bleeding surface, the leaves are of some value in arresting haemorrhage, | ||
+ | The fresh leaves are applied whole or bruised in the form of a poultice. | ||
+ | Rubbed on parts of the body stung by insects, nettles, etc., or as an application to burns and scalds, the leaves will afford relief and will stay the bleeding of minor wounds. | ||
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+ | Fluid extract: dose, 1/2 to 1 drachm. | ||
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+ | In the Highlands the Plantain is still called ' | ||
+ | Pliny goes so far as to state, 'on high authority,' | ||
+ | He also says that it will cure the madness of dogs. | ||
+ | Erasmus, in his Colloquia, tells a story of a toad, who, being bitten by a spider, was straightway freed from any poisonous effects he may have dreaded by the prompt eating of a Plantain leaf. | ||
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+ | Another old Herbal says: 'If a woodhound (mad dog) rend a man, take this wort, rub it fine and lay it on; then will the spot soon be whole. | ||
+ | ' And in the United States the plant is called 'Snake Weed,' from a belief in its efficacy in cases of bites from venomous creatures; | ||
+ | it is related that a dog was one day stung by a rattlesnake and a preparation of the juice of the Plantain and salt was applied as promptly as possible to the wound. | ||
+ | The animal was in great agony, but quickly recovered and shook off all trace of its misadventure. | ||
+ | Dr. Robinson (New Family Herbal) tells us that an Indian received a great reward from the Assembly of South Carolina for his discovery that the Plantain was 'the chief remedy for the cure of the rattlesnake.' | ||
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+ | Our Saxon ancestors esteemed it highly and in the old Lacnunga the Weybroed is mentioned as one of nine sacred herbs. | ||
+ | In this most ancient source of Anglo-Saxon medicine, we find this 'salve for flying venom':' | ||
+ | seek those which will float, and one eggshell full of clean honey, then take clean butter, let him who will help to work up the salve, | ||
+ | melt it thrice: let one sing a mass over the worts, before they are put together and the salve is wrought up. | ||
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* Buddleja Davidii (Butterfly Bush) | * Buddleja Davidii (Butterfly Bush) | ||