Little known medicinal plants in our backyards and
other wild places.
 Native plants are plants that have the origination in
the geographical area described. Though they may
have spread and adapted to other areas or zones.
 Local plants are plants that thrive in, and can be
found growing in a particular area regardless of the
plants place of origin.
 For this course we will focus on local plants as many
of the edible plants in our area are not natives
though they definitely thrive here.
 Will identify which ones are truly natives to this area.
 Flowers
 Stems
 Roots, tubers, bulbs, and rhizomes
 Seeds
 Barks
 Leaves
 Resins, gums, saps
 Fruits
 Most herbs and medicinal plants lend
themselves to simple forms of medicine making.
 To much over processing and fidgeting can
actually destroy some of the medicinal
constituents found in some plants.
 Keeping things simple lessens confusion and
worry about how things are to be done.
 We will cover the most simple and useful modes
of herbal medicine making.
 Teas or infusions
 Decoctions
 Fomentations and poultices
 Tinctures
 Infused oils
 Fresh or dried plant matter, plus heated water
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makes and infusion.
1-2 teaspoons of herb per cup of water.
Steep 10-15 min.
Strain and drink.
Cover while steeping and do not boil.
 This is the same as an infusion only tougher plant
materials are used so it requires more and
rougher application of heat.
 1-2 teaspoons of herb per 1 ½ cup of boiling
water
 Lower heat and simmer 10-15 min.
 Strain and drink.
 These are both topical applications.
 Fomentations use fabric soaked in a strong
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decoction or infusion.
Poultices use the actual plant matter either fresh
or dried heated and pulped into a mass.
Apply to area affected.
Helps to cover with plastic wrap and a thick
towel.
Keep on area until cool, and then repeat.
 Tinctures are concentrated extracts made with
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either a combination of alcohol and water, or
vinegar that is at 6% acetic acid content or above.
The weight to volume method uses a simple
equation. g X 5 = ml of menstrum: 200 x 5 = 1000.
Combine herb and menstrum in glass container and
seal. Shake twice daily for 14 days. Strain and press.
Usual dose is 1-5 ml or dropper full 3X daily.
This is a 1:5 or 20% tincture.
To make a different percent simple change the
equation.
 Used for mild, tonic herbs.
 Put herb in glass container.
 Add menstrum until ¼ inch above herb.
 Let sit 24 hours to let the herb soak up the
menstrum.
 Add more menstrum to ¼ inch above herb
again.
 Shake twice daily for 14 days. This gives
approximately a 1:5 or 20% extract.
 Same as tinctures only fixed oils are used for
menstrum.
 Used topically and great for bruises, sprains, and
abrasions.
 Can be used as a base for ointment and salves
by adding a natural wax such as bees wax.
 I am not a botanist.
 You take the responsibility upon yourselves to
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properly identify plants.
Plants that have potentially toxic look-a-likes will
be shown.
Some plants have edible parts AND toxic parts.
Some plants are edible, but only when
prepared correctly.
Seek out further instruction and reference
materials.
 Pineapple scented
 Used interchangeably
annual
with German
chamomile.
 4-6 inches
 Used for upset
 Leaves finely
stomach, stomach
dissected with linear
pain, gas, colic,
segments
indigestion, menstrual
 Flowers tiny without
cramps, and
rays, yellow button is a
convulsions.
ray less composite
 Use in infusions and
flower
tinctures.
 Hairless perennial from
stout tap root. Milky
sap.
 Leaves in a basal
rosette of oblong to
oblanceolate leaves,
deeply lobed and
toothed.
 Familiar flowers in
solitary head on
hollow, leafless stem
 Leaves are diuretic,
and help with kidney
and bladder issues, as
well as water
retention.
 Roots are used as a
hepatic and cleanse
the liver and gall
bladder.
 Teas, decoctions and
tinctures are used.
 Stout, hairless perennial
 Used as a liver cleanser
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from a yellow tap root.
1 – 5 feet tall.
Leaves are alternate,
lance to oblong shaped
and have wavy
margins.
Flowers on green spikes
with single seeded fruit.
Seeds have 3 angled
heart shaped bracts.
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and hepatic.
Used internally for skin
disorders, rheumatism,
diarrhea, indigestion,
jaundice and anemia.
Infusions and tinctures
are used.
Natives adopted its use
topically for skin
disorders.
Slightly laxative.
 Large leaved biennial.
 2-9 feet.
 Leaves large rhubarb
like, widely ovate, on
long petioles. White and
wooly below stalk is
solid and celery like.
 Seed enclosed in burr
like head with hooked
spines.
 Large tap roots. 1-4 feet
deep.
 Traditionally used as a
liver tonic and diuretic.
 Stimulates bile secretion
and digestion.
 Long history of use both
internally and externally
for skin disorders.
 Research has shown
root preparations to
stimulate live and gall
bladder function.
 Large, stout biennial
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with abundant milky
juice.
Up to 6 feet.
Basal leaves oblong to
oval and alternate,
sharply toothed, bases
clasping stems.
Margins and central rib
spiny
Flowers are many and
small yellow in open
branched groups.
 Used as a pain reliever
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or analgesic.
Has mild sedative
action.
Was used widely in the
Victorian period as
“lettuce opium”.
Used for irritable
coughs, insomnia, and
nervousness.
Good used as infusions
or tinctures
 Hairless annual or
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perennial with whitish
film.
Up to 2 feet.
Leaves mostly basal,
deeply dissected into
many linear lobes.
Four petal flowers are
shiny and orange to
yellow.
Seed pod long and
slender.
 Used for sedative
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properties.
Taken for stomach
aches and other mild
pain.
Anxiety, sleeplessness,
and for hyper activity.
Studies have Identified
sedative but nonnarcotic alkaloids.
Has no opiate alkaloids.
 Weedy annual
 Leaves alternate and
shallowly palmate, 5-7
lobes, margins are
scalloped.
 Flowers small and pink
to white with petals
notched on tips
 Seeds in cheese like
wheels covered by
bracts.
 Leaf and root tea
used to treat coughs,
sore throats, colds,
bronchitis, laryngitis,
asthma, digestive
tract irritations and
kidney and bladder
infections.
 High in mucilage
content and is
astringent.
 Antimicrobial.
 Hairless perennial.
 Leaves have astringent
 Up to 18 inches.
 Leaves broadly oval in
basal rosettes with
prominent parallel veins
converging at base.
Bases rounded at
thickened stalks margin
wavy.
 Flowers dense in
elongated spikes.
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and wound healing
properties.
Is antimicrobial.
One of the best herbs
for a field expedient
poultice for stings.
Astringency is good for
internal mucous
membrane irritations.
Traditional diarrhea
remedy.
 Evergreen upright or
 Roots contain yellow
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spreading
2-10 feet.
Inner bark and roots
bright yellow
Leave pinnately
compound, leathery
and holly like 5- 11
leaflets, flat and oblong
with spine tipped teeth.
Flowers yellow at
branch tips.
Berries blue to purple
covered with whitish film
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alkaloid berberine.
Has antimicrobial
properties and well as
liver tonic and blood
cleansing qualities.
Used for digestion
problems and gal stone
cases.
Used internally for skin
disorders.
Bitter and induces bile
flow.
 Aromatic perennial,
with alternate leaves
that are finely pinnately
dissected and fern like.
 Flowers white to slight
pink cast in dense flat
top clusters.
 Up to 3 feet.
 Has wound healing,
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antimicrobial, and
haemostatic properties.
Diaphoretic action used
for fevers, cold and flu.
Poultices on wounds
and bruises.
Bitter and induced bile
flow.
Fresh leaves are good
for bladder and kidney
infections.
 Stout, densely white
wooly biennial.
 Leaves in basal
rosette the first year.
 Alternate leaves on
center stalk second
year. Leave bases
fused against stem.
 Flowers flat and on
stalk tip or spike,
yellow and hairy.
 Leaf use for lung and
breathing complaints,
bronchitis, asthma,
colds and coughs.
 Flowers infused in oil
for traditional
earache remedy.
 Anti-inflammatory to
mucous membranes.
 Expectorant qualities.
 Large rooted
perennial 1-3 feet tall.
 Leaves large rough
and hairy, broadly
oval to lance shaped.
 Bell like flower in furled
clusters, purple, blue,
pink or white.
 Roots and leaves used
for there skin soothing
and wound healing
properties.
 Has expectorant
qualities but also
contains potentially
harmful alkaloids.
 Can be confused with
the leaves of Digitalis
which would be fatal.
 Deciduous shrub often
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lacking a main trunk.
Up to 25 feet.
Leaves are pinnately
compound with 3-9
leaflets ecliptic to
ovate. Tips pointed and
midrib often curved.
Creamy white flowers in
flat top clusters.
Berries appear blue but
are nearly black and
covered with a fine
wax.
 Berry extracts have
shown anti viral activity.
 Flowers are used for
fever reduction and
cold and flu symptoms.
 All other parts of the
plant are toxic and the
good parts must be
heated first to rid them
of the toxic
compounds.
 Sticky perennial with
aromatic, sweet
rhizome.
 Leaves alternate
pinnately divided into
many lance shaped
leaflets.
 Flowers white to cream
on in dense racemes
from leaf axils.
 Seed pod pea pod like
and covered with
hooked spikes.
 Root preparations used
for laxative and
intestinal tonic action.
 Sore throats, cold and
coughs.
 Anti-inflammatory,
expectorant,
antibacterial, and
antiviral effects
 Over use can
exacerbate
hypertension and
sodium retention.
 Plants included here are a some of the most
easily identified and used native and local
plants.
 This list is in no way exhaustive, and further
research can show a plethora of useful plants
available in your own back yard.
 Simpler offers a wide variety of services,
including medicinal herb consulting, where
Simpler Sam can visit your property or take
you and a group into the local woods, and
show you the edible and medicinal plants
located there. These consultations include
information on identification and the use of
the plants identified.