"First aid" to most people conjures up an image of splints and bandagesone of paramedics administering emergency treatment or of unpleasant accidents. This is not a book that will tell you how to set a fracture, bandage a sprain, or apply a tourniquet. It is about everyday plantskitchen vegetables as well as more conventional medicinal herbsthat can be used to cope with the commonplace ailments that send us reaching into the household medicine chest. It is about herbal alternatives to over-the-counter cough drops, painkillers, or other patent remedies and aims to highlight a few of the many ways in which we can use familiar plants. If you have nothing more on hand than a few apples, a cabbage, a jar of honey, and an onion, then you will have a good selection of remedies to cope with many of the family's minor ailments. Add to that a jar of marigold or tea tree cream, homeopathic arnica tablets, a few slippery elm capsules, lavender oiland a good selection of bandagesand you can handle almost any emergency.
Herbs for the First Aid Kit
In an age of painkilling sprays, instant burn relief creams, and antiseptics guaranteed to "kill all known germs," traditional herbal first aid can sometimes seem medievalto say the least. After all, in the modern housewife's larder of shrink-wrapped, precooked convenience meals, how many would easily find a fresh cabbage leaf to use for mastitis or swollen joints? How many could immediately lay their hands on raw onions to make a cough mixture or find fresh plantain growing in the garden to soothe insect bites?
Taken literally, the herbal first aid kit could look rather like a produce department's rejects. Fortunately, ready-made herbal alternatives to orthodox potions and liniments are readily accessible, while basic knowledge of the properties of a few common wayside plants usually means that for minor accidents, emergency remedies are close at hand.
The list of contents for the family's first aid kit starts with aloe vera, which will happily grow in a pot on the kitchen window sill and is ideal for all those minor burns cooking pots so frequently bestow on us, and ends with yarrow, a common weed and meadow herb that is ideal as an emergency treatment for nosebleeds
Plant availability and space are the key limiting factors. If space is tight, buy the most versatile remedies that can be used for a wide range of ailments. For example, St. John's wort tincture can externally relieve cuts, scrapes, burns, inflammations, and joint stiffness, and internally can help with depression, insomnia, menstrual pains, neuralgia, and immune disorders. If you are susceptible to frequent digestive disorders, headaches, or muscle pains, your personal first aid kit can ease your distress quickly and effectively.
The fifty plants listed in this section are all suitable candidates for inclusion in the first aid kit. Some will be familiar as the popular herbs you can buy at the health food store or pharmacy, while others are more familiar as fruits or vegetables. Where accurate identification is important, detailed botanical descriptions are included for plants that may be gathered in the wild.
Unless quantities are specified, the standard proportions given in the next chapter should be used when making remedies.
Aloe (Aloe Vera)
Aloe is a tropical African plant that has been used medicinally since ancient times. In the West, the juice has traditionally been regarded as a soothing wound herb, but in Ayurvedic medicine it is treated as a restorative tonic. ''Aloe vera" is also the commercial name given to the mucilaginous gel from one particular type of aloe, which has become extremely popular in recent years both as a tonic remedy and as an ingredient in skin creams and cosmetic lotions.
Description: A perennial plant growing in clumps and producing numerous suckers or off-shoots. Leaves are thick and spiky with white splashes, which appear red-tinged in young plants. Tubular flowers appear on long stems in summer.
Parts used: Leaves, sap.
Actions: Antifungal, anthelmintic, cholagogue, demulcent, purgative, styptic, sedative, tonic, wound healer.
Uses: As a bitter purgative, "bitter aloes" is widely included in over-the-counter remedies for constipation. Commercial aloe extracts are also sold as general tonics. For home first aid, use the gel (collected by opening a leaf and scraping out the sap), or the split fresh leaves applied directly, for scrapes, minor burns, eczema,sunburn, fungal infections such as ringworm and thrush, and inflammations. To store a large quantity of sap, simmer it in a double boiler to produce a thick concentrate which can then be stored in jars.
Apple (Malus Communis)
Eating an apple a day to "keep the doctor away" is advice that many will remember from childhood. Today, researchers recommend apples for anti-cancer diets and to help lower blood cholesterol levels.
Part used: Fruit.
Actions: Antirheumatic, antiseptic, digestive and liver stimulant, diuretic, laxative, lowers cholesterol levels, tonic.
Uses: Unripe apples make an astringent remedy for diarrhea while ripe apples have a laxative effect. Traditionally apple juice and teas have been used as cooling remedies for fevers and inflammations including conjunctivitis (use well-diluted apple juice in an eyewash). Raw apples can be mashed and used as a soothing poultice for skin inflammations, while cooked apples are a traditional remedy for diarrhea and dysentery. A bowl of stewed apples will soothe gastritis.
Apricot (Prunus Armeniaca)
Apricots originate in China, where the seeds are mainly used for treating asthma and bronchitis. The fruits are highly nutritious, very rich in vitamins A, B-complex and C, and a good source of many essential minerals including iron, calcium, and manganese.
Part used: Fruit.
Actions: Astringent, antianemic, immune stimulant, laxative, nutrient.
Uses: Apricots are rich in iron and so can be helpful for iron-deficient anemia. When dried they are a laxative, while fresh apricots.
have an astringent effect. Eat fresh puréed apricots to combat diarrhea. Apricot oil is used as a skin softener while apricot jam is a traditional European nerve tonic used to combat insomnia and to strengthen a convalescing patient.
Arnica (Arnica Montana)
Also known as leopard's bane, this daisylike alpine flower has a long history of use in central Europe as a remedy for bruises and sprains. A popular folk remedy for heart problems, it is still used in Germany for that purpose. However, because it is extremely toxic, internal use of arnica is restricted in many countries.
Description: A perennial growing to around 24 inches with golden-yellow daisylike flowers up to two inches across. It grows from a basal rosette of oval-shaped, hairy leaves in summer.
Part used: Flowers.
Actions: Antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, astringent, bitter, heart stimulant, immune stimulant.
Uses: Arnica creams are readily available and make an essential home remedy for strains and bruises, chilblains (if the skin is unbroken) or painful varicose veins. It encourages the circulation to promote healing and tissue repair. Recent research also suggests that the herb may have immune-stimulant properties. As an internal remedy, arnica is used in homeopathic doses for shock, traumatic injury, and to encourage healing after surgery Take arnica 6x tables (one tablet every thirty minutes) after any major shock, accident, surgery, or childbirth.
Cautions: Because of its toxicity, arnica should never be used on broken skin; in some cases it can cause contact dermatitis. It should be taken internally only in homeopathic doses; undiluted quantities can lead to palpitations, muscle paralysis, breathing problems, and, in rare cases, may be fatal.
Bilberries and Cranberries (Vaccinium Spp.)
Medicinal interest in bilberries (V. myrtillus) and their close relatives, cowberries (V. vitis-idaea) and cranberries (V. macrocarpon), has revived in recent years with work focusing on the use of cranberry juice as a cleansing diuretic in cystitis (Siciliano 1996). These culinary berries are also closely related to bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), an important urinary antiseptic. Cranberries, a North American fruit, were used by Native Americans in wound dressings.
Part used: Leaves, berries.
Actions: Antibacterial, antiseptic, anti-emetic, astringent, hypoglycemic, tonic, high vitamin C content.
Uses: Elizabethan apothecaries made a syrup of bilberries with honey, called rob, that was used as a remedy for diarrhea. In large quantities, however, the berries are laxative and make a palatable treatment for constipation.
Externally, bilberries and cranberries can be used in creams and ointments for hemorrhoids, burns, minor wounds, and skin complaints. Recent research has shown that the leaves will reduce blood sugar levels so they can be helpful in adult-onset diabetes that is under dietary control. The berries can be eaten stewed or fresh for digestive problems. Cranberry juice is ideal as a preventive for urinary infections for those prone to recurrent cystitis. Take 1/2 cup of the unsweetened juice three times a day.
Cabbage (Brassica Oleracea)
Jean Valnet, a notable French herbalist, has described cabbage as "the medicine of the poor," and it is probably one of the most widely used household remedies in folk tradition. The plant has been cultivated in the West since at least 400 B.C. and, in the second century A.D., the Greek herbalist Dioscorides considered it a digestive remedy, joint tonic, and cooling preparation for skin problems and fevers. In Germany, sauerkraut, a fermented cabbage mixture,is regarded as a preventive for cancer, rheumatism, gout, and premature aging
Part used: Whole plant.
Actions: Anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antirheumatic, liver decongestant, tissue proliferant, and healing.
Uses: The leaves have been use as anti-inflammatory poultices to relieve inflammatory complaints ranging from arthritis to mastitis, while cabbage lotions were once a regular household standby for skin problems. Cabbage juices and infusions are used to treat a range of digestive problems including stomach ulcers.
The fresh leaves can be applied directly to inflammations (simply soften them with a vegetable mallet and secure with a loose bandage or Band-Aid). A crushed cabbage leaf inserted between breast and bra is a simple but very effective remedy for mastitis when breast feeding. A useful lotion for acne can be made by combining cabbage leaves and distilled witch hazel in a food processor.
