You can have 5 herbal remedies…which ones would you not want to do without?
No, this isn’t one of those get to know you quizzes that used to be so popular on social media. 🙂 But it was a very thought provoking question from one of the members of my Herbal Chick Chat Facebook group. Here’s the thread if you’d like to see the variety of answers. She actually asked, “Besides essential oils, what would be your 5-10 must haves for your natural medicine cabinet and why?”
I loved the variety of answers, ranging from elderberry syrup to vitamin C to cartoon bandaids. 🙂
I’m going to limit my answers to herbs, since they are so versatile, and I can make multiple products from one herb.
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This is a REALLY hard question for me. I’m one of those over-preparers, see. One of those poor souls who never has any room in the floorboard for my feet on road trips, because I have *ALL*THE*STUFF* that we could possibly. every. need.
Because stomach bugs happen. On road trips. Just say’in. But I digress…
But I think it’s a good mental exercise to narrow down to the top 5 herbs that I wouldn’t want to be without. You know-theoretically, if I were for some apocalyptic reason limited to (cold sweat) such a small rationing of natural remedies, I’D BE PREPARED. So I’m playing along. Although I’m going to cheat and not say “honey, garlic, and onions” because I can have those in my pantry and get another 3 awesome herbal remedies that don’t count toward my 5, right? Right.
My Top 5 Herbal Remedies
Here you go: my top 5 herbal remedies, and why I picked them. If you want to learn more, the links lead to other blog posts about them.
- Plantain herb– fresh or dried: plantain is amazing for bites, stings, rashes, and even really serious stuff like spider bites. In fact, Indians once used the root to cure rattlesnake bites!
It’s the very first herb I ever wild-harvested, and it’s the only thing I’ve ever tried that actually helped my kids sleep through the night when they have poison ivy. Oh, and the seeds are aka “psyllium husk” fiber. It’s a multi-tasker for sure! - Turmeric– OK, technically this one’s in my pantry too. But I’m counting it anyway. Turmeric is great for a very wide variety of applications and is *the* home remedy of India, where they use it to treat cuts/bleeding, wounds, colds/flus, headaches, etc. We use it for headaches, to stop bleeding (topically), for coughing, and for inflammation or recovery of injuries.
- Comfrey- Comfrey has been used at least since Roman times for wound healing, and it also goes by the name “bone knit”. It contains a constituent called allantoin that speeds up cell proliferation. It’s an essential ingredient in my herbal green salve. I’d have this on hand for wound healing, burns, broken bones, and recovery from surgery and birth. (It features in my Postpartum Care Herbal Sitz Bath recipe!)
- Rabbit Tobacco (Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium)- this one is a folk herb, and it’s a wonderfully potent drying herb that was used in steam huts for colds, congestion, and lung issues. It’s got a rich history of folk uses, including the treatment (and cure) of asthma. After experiencing this herb for cold & flu season, I will not be without it! I promise to blog about this one in the fall when it’s ready to harvest.
- Elderberry– I love having elderberry on hand for shutting down viruses. It works to block the viral replication, so I reach for this at the very first sniffle.
Whew! That wasn’t so bad! In fact, it was fun to think about how many *different* situations and illnesses I could tackle with just my short list of herbs.
And it makes me SO, so, so grateful to NOT be limited. To have a fully stocked herbal arsenal, natural medicine cabinet, and first aid kit with…let’s just say “a LOT” of awesome remedies, herbs, tools and books to choose from.
Herbal Remedy Shop
In fact, I’ve often thought how much I’d love to share *all* of my favorites with you…and have a way to bookmark of all of your best brands and natural products. And I have GREAT news! Now I can!
This (over) prepared girl is happy to announce my new Amazon Remedy Shop here at Gwen’s Nest! My readers asked that I put together an Amazon Affiliate store with some of my favorite herbs, supplements, books, remedies and natural products, similar to my THM Food Store. So I’ve started out with some basic categories and favorites.
Sure, you could sort through the *millions* of products on Amazon instead, but I always like to have recommendations from friends when choosing products, vitamins, and herbal remedies. Amazon has a surprisingly AWESOME selection of herbs, supplements, essential oils, and nice crunchy green organic products to choose from. Come on over to the Remedy Shop and peek around to see what fun things I’ve discovered!
P.S. You can now find SHOP in my main menu so that you can find it easily, anytime.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments…what are your top 5 favorite herbal remedies that you can’t live without in your personal medicine cabinet?
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I like a lot of what you mentioned already. I do like Eucalyptus for colds and I love love love Cayenne to stop bleeding. I once cut my hand on a window and had to go to the ER for stitches but before I left home I took a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and it quite bleeding right away. I also had a friend on Chemotherapy with a nose bleed that would not stop, she remembered what I said about cayenne and sniffed just a little up her nose and the bleeding stopped immediately.
I’ve always been a little (OK…a lot) scared of cayenne. 🙂 Brave soul!
Love this post and will share on FaceBook. I have to add echinacea to your five. I drink echinacea tea once a day for the past two years and I haven’t been sick (cold/flu)since then. It is strengthening your immune system so much.
Thanks for the great list.