People often ask me if I could only have five or ten herbs, what would they be. And, while many of the spots on such a list might happily be filled with any number of herbs, one of the must-have herbs would be yarrow, Achillea millefolium.
Yarrow really is an amazing medicinal plant. What if you have a laceration? What is you cut your finger? What if you have a gunshot wound? In today’s time, you never know what might happen. These situations is just why you need to know and understand yarrow. And….it can be used internally and externally!
For wounds, I mix the powdered herb with a little water to make a thick paste and slap it on with a bandage. It immediately stops the bleeding. For internal bleeding, I take a yarrow tincture. Almost without exception the bleeding will stop. Yarrow can also be used on oral surgery cases and tooth extractions. In World War I, soldiers knew just how good it worked to stop bleeding and they would carry it with them. As they were marching off into war, they would pack their pockets full to have on hand if they needed it.
But stopping the bleeding isn’t the only benefit yarrow imparts to wounds. It also has antibiotic properties and anti-inflammatory properties to fight infection and decrease some of the pain. Yarrow is also good for bee stings topically. It’s also useful for bladder and kidney infections, menstrual cramps, respiratory infections, and for breaking fevers. The root tincture is one of the best things in the world for a toothache topically.
All in all, yarrow is an amazing herb and one not to be without. It’s very safe internally and topically though it should never be used internally during pregnancy or nursing.
We’ve just scratched the surface in this brief discussion of this amazing plant. If you’d like to really dig deep and learn a great deal more about yarrow, I encourage you to go to this link and join the the homegrown herbalist school. This is where I learned and I highly recommend it.
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Stay natural!
~Dr. Amanda P. Cartwright