Growing herbs for medicine doesn't have to be difficult. You don't have to search for elusive and scarce ancient herbs that you've never heard of. All you have to do is look to some of the common and often native plants in your area.
Today, lets look at two beautiful, easy to grow Native plants. Many people already grow them because they are so simple to grow. They were both used by the native Americans for medicine because they actually grow in the wild. They are easy to identify and produce prolifically. They are not the same plant but they look very much alike.
The first is the sunny yellow black eyed Susan. You can buy a pack of seeds for under a dollar in any seed display. That pack of seeds will be the only purchase you ever need to make for the plant because each flower is packed full of tiny little seeds. If you snip those flowers when they fade then you will have plenty of seeds to plant and share. Just take those seeds and spread them in your prepared planting bed and lightly sprinkle a little soil on top. Water gently and in less then a week you will have sprouts.
Now the part of the black eyed Susan you want to use is the roots. The flowers are not edible and the seeds are poisonous. Do not let your livestock eat black eyed Susan flowers. If you're going to harvest roots that means you have to plant a nice patch of them so that you can take some of the plant and leave a few to reproduce. They are a perennial and should come back every year. Of course, if you save the seed heads you could always replant a new patch every year. If you let the seeds fall to the ground then they will self sow but you may end up with them where you don't want them.
So besides from being sunshine on a stem and attracting pollinators to the garden what else are they good for? Interestingly, the root is supposed to be an immune stimulant and booster similar to echinacia but its easier to grow. When you harvest the root it needs to be dried and ground up. The root powder can be used as a tea for worms, colds and immune booster. A root tea wash helps heal cuts, insect bites and sores. As a poultice it is used for snake bites and swelling. Pressing the juice from the fresh root then placing a drop or two in the ear can also be done for an earache.
The leaves are sometimes cooked and eaten while young but they have tiny hairs on them and can be an irritant to your throat and stomach so its not something you want to do very often or in great quantity. Some people also use them in an herbal tea but the tea of the leaves and the root needs to be strained for those tiny irritating hairs.
Our second yellow flower is something you might already grow. It's also a native plant and all its parts are useful. It's the sunflower. They come in many different varieties but they are all useful in the same ways.
The seeds are a diuretic and an expectorant. They are used for laryngitis, bronchitis, coughs and colds. If you brown the seeds in the oven first then make a tea you have a very effective herb medicine for whooping cough. The oil from the seeds also retains the medicinal benefits as the seeds but the less refined the better.
The young leaves can be picked and eaten like any other green. The older leaves can be dried and saved for later use. They are used as a tea for sores, scrapes, swellings, snakebites and spider bites. A tincture can be used for fevers.
The leaves have been used as a cure for malaria. They are spread on a sheet and dampened and then the patient is wrapped in the leaves and sheet until the fever breaks. They have been shown to be very effective.
The roots of the plant are also harvested and dried for future use. They can then be used for rheumatic aches, pains and swelling.
Aside from the many medicinal uses sunflower stalks are very stiff and strong and can be saved and used for garden fences, trellises or tipis. They can also be dried and used as a source of fuel for a fire.
Medicine has come a long way in the last hundred years. We NOW have things available that are easy to obtain and easy to use in the form of pills and injections. I don't expect people to stop using what obviously is a great advancement in science. I only want to educate you for a time when those new medicines may not be available or as effective in the case of disease resistant strains. It is information I am sharing NOT medical advice.
We have recently become a society which runs to the doctor or the pharmacy for every tiny ailment when we have powerful medicine growing in our environment. We have just been conditioned to rely on others to know what we need to heal ourselves. If you never NEED to know that a yellow flower can heal you then that is wonderful. If the time comes when you DO need that information then I hope you will recall that you once read about what the native Americans and the pioneers did when they had a fever or a cut. And when you see the yellow flowers along the roadside or standing tall in the back of the garden, you will hopefully forever remember that there grows a secret that very few remember.
Southern Wood Elf