Greetings fair readers,

I bring to you today further good tidings upon the virtues of Plantain. I must say that again I have practiced my own medicine. Yesterday while out picking more of these plentiful beneficial "weeds" from the side lawn, I managed to embed a piece of something right directly into my cuticle. Ouch! I couldn't pick it out right away so it got sore. I did remove it but it continued to get sore. So, this would lead me to believe that either the impailer had some type of irritant in it, or that fragments not visible to me are still lodged into the the delicate skin here, at either rate causing the skin to need to push this foreign matter out.

What helps speed this?  Drawing salve. And it's so easy to make!
I put just the direct plantain oil on my finger before bed under a band-aid, since I haven't prepared an ointment from it yet, and the soreness was SIGNIFICANTLY better by morning. :)
This presents the perfect opportunity to share a few notes about the next phase my experiments will be heading in, now that I have completed some balms.

"Once upon a time, a homemade drawing salve formed the cornerstone of a family's first aid chest. Everyone kept drawing salve for use on humans and animals alike. Homemade drawing salve consists of various healing herbs mixed into a beeswax and oil base." --Homemade Drawing Salve

"The purpose of a drawing salve is to rid impurities or small foreign bodies from the skin. Drawing salves are often used to remove splinters, bee stings and the toxins in boils, for example" --eHow

Prepare an infusion of plantain leaves and lavender flowers by placing the clean, dry herbs in a glass jar and filling it with oil. Plantain leaf is the active ingredient in the drawing salve, and lavender is an herbal antiseptic.

The base of your drawing salve can be made from one of two ingredients according to your preference: melted beeswax or melted vegetable shortening. Add 1/2 teaspoon of benzoin to each pint of salve after it has melted. This will act as a natural preservative.

You will blend your oil and base in a separate container. Mix them together well. You'll want the concentration to be about half oil and half wax or shortening. This will allow the salve to set when it cools without being so hard that it is difficult to apply to the skin.

While the salve is still warm and easy to mix you may wish to add a few drops of other beneficial essential oils. After all, this is one of the advantages of preparing your own homemade drawing salve. Add only two to three drops of each oil and mix them well.

After you have put the salve into its final storage container, it will stay fresh for weeks or months. Pay attention to the smell for indications that it has turned rancid. Apply it to the skin as needed by smearing it on the affected area and covering it with a bandage. The salve should work quickly to draw forth the infection, boil or splinter.