Tuesday, July 22, 2014

About That Plantain Salve ...

... Or as I call it, "Green Goo."
I posted about making it here, a couple of weeks ago. Click over and read about it, if you missed it.
My friend used it on her poison ivy, and it eradicated the poison ivy overnight - amazing! She's a farmer. I gave her a little bottle of the stuff, in honor of its success and to thank her for being my guinea pig. Then I took it on my vacation trip. It works well topically because it immediately relieves pain and itch -- seriously. On mosquito bites and stings, it simply makes your skin feel better so that you don't scratch it. And it doesn't become an open wound that you scratch over and over.
Then while I was at Fairhaven I accidentally touched my hand to the heating element in the oven when it was red hot -- on broil. Ouch! The skin turned white. Thankfully I remembered my Green Goo, ran upstairs and applied it on the burn about 30 seconds later. It felt better immediately -- no pain. No burn sensitivity. I kept applying it all that day faithfully. It was rather a bad burn, as you can imagine.
I took this photo the next day.  You can see that the skin never did blister, as burns do. It looks more like a birth mark. The burn area never hurt at all, which is a blessing, and the skin on it never felt like it would fall off. It was secure. Also, the burn did not hurt when I put it under warm water, so I could shower and wash dishes without discomfort. The burn spot remained like in the photo above, for about 6 days. I applied the salve each day a few times. Eventually the brown skin began to dry and itch slightly, as skin does when it's healing and separating from the layers underneath. It was healing well.
Yesterday I got impatient with the dry skin and began picking at it, but still putting on the salve to keep it moisturized. The pink area is where I picked (shame on me!), but you can see that around it is skin that has healed nicely.

I love this salve. I plan to use it on burns and rashes, and on bites as necessary. Think of making your own batch, if you can, or if you desperately want some and don't care to mess with making it, I will sell you a 1/2 cup tin for $5.00, plus whatever the postage is. I need to make a new batch because I've already sold 3 of the 4 tins I made the first time! Let's hear it for Green Goo!!

7 comments:

Lisa Richards said...

Sounds like great stuff! I'll have to go back and see how you made it. My daughter recently discovered some kind of natural ointment that keeps wood ticks from attaching to people and animals. She even put some on her dogs that had attached ticks and they let go and left! She could make a little business out of selling that stuff if she made some herself. Especially here in the back woods! :)

Meredith Richter said...

If you are serious about shipping, I will buy some. I got a nasty burn from cooking last week. I hate burns. So with bites, does it help relieve swelling or just the itching sensation?

Leslie said...

Very cool, esp about the poison ivy. What else will you use it on, I wonder. It is kinda icky looking stuff but I bet that is part of why it works so well. (This is how my daddy taught me to think. He was Mr. Merthiolate if you remember that evil stuff.)

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

Wow, what a great salve! I want a tin of this. I'll get in contact with you via email.

I think it is so neat that you took something from the wild and made it into a healing ointment.

FlowerLady

M.K. said...

My last tin goes to Rainey because I got her email first, but Meredith, I'll be making more this week b/c I have another friend who also wants some for her pets. Leslie, I'm using it on burns. The healing has been excellent. It also relieves itch very well, but must be reapplied, of course. Lisa, I sold a bar of my lotion bar to a friend with a Great Dane. (the bar is insect repellent) He applied it to his hands, and then wiped his hands along his doggie's back, and it kept the deer flies off her, which is a big deal down here!

Gumbo Lily said...

I love seeing testimony like this about using natural herbs and ingredients to make skin healing salves. I made the plantain infused oil last summer and kept that oil in the fridge all year long and made salves as needed. It will last almost perpetually in the fridge. I've taken the oil from the fridge and put it on burns I get in the kitchen and it really does work well. It's especially nice when it's cold from the fridge! The grandkids always ask me for my "special cream" when they have insect bites or scrapes. (I love this!)

I'm noticing plantains growing down below my backyard and will go make a fresh harvest this summer. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to dry some to use later. I'll have to research that some more. You can slap a plantain leaf right on a cut or burn and get good results when you don't have the cream handy.




Mary Ann Potter said...

I'm impressed! This wonderful stuff is obviously a blessing!