I love learning new things and being with Joinavision people a lot of the time I seem to be learning something new every day!
We were lucky enough to have Dee Norwood turn up for volunteering work this week. Dee is very knowledgable about plants and had been looking for some self-heal for a number of weeks. Little did I know we had a whole meadow of it!
This low lying plant is easy to miss amongst our stunning wild orchids and long grasses but once Dee pointed them out to be it was clear we had hundreds of these beautiful, healing plants.
The name says it all but look closely and you see the flower looks like a mouth and the smaller petals to the side are placed where our glands are. It’s no surprise then to learn that self-heal is great for sore throats.
However, Self-heal is also used for inflammatory bowl disease such as Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis as well as issues with the stomach and intestines. A lack of research means that most websites have to say there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses but generally this means because there’s no money in it – unlike pharmaceuticals. But the more we learn about plants the more we realise how much knowledge has been hidden from us. Why aren’t these things taught in school for example?
Self-heal contains chemicals that act as antioxidants which is what makes it so powerful to us.
Use in a tea, on your salads or make into a cream or tincture to reduce skin swelling and inflammation – the uses for this plant are endless. I’m off to the meadow right now to pick some!
