BLUE VERVAIN
is a tall wild edible and medicinal plant. Other Names: American blue vervain, Blue Vervain, Herb of Grace, Herba veneris, Simpler’s Joy, Swamp Verbena, Vervain, Wild hyssop, Wild Vervain. Blue Vervain is a North American native perennial herb, found growing along roadsides, in open sunny fields, and waste places throughout the United States and southern Canada. Depending on the geographic location, the blooming period occurs anywhere from late spring to late summer and lasts between one to two months.
Edible parts: Blue vervain had many uses in First Nation’s culture as food and medicine. The seed are edible when roasted and is ground into a powder (although they are somewhat bitter to taste). Leaves can be made into a tea or tossed into salads, soups, etc. The root can be collected all year round. The flowers can be tossed on top of a salad and eaten. (Dried, powdered flowers were once used as a snuff for nosebleeds). Externally, this plant can be used as a poultice to help heal wounds and hemorrhoids. Internally the leaves and roots are a valuable alternative medicine.
Edible parts: Blue vervain had many uses in First Nation’s culture as food and medicine. The seed are edible when roasted and is ground into a powder (although they are somewhat bitter to taste). Leaves can be made into a tea or tossed into salads, soups, etc. The root can be collected all year round. The flowers can be tossed on top of a salad and eaten. (Dried, powdered flowers were once used as a snuff for nosebleeds). Externally, this plant can be used as a poultice to help heal wounds and hemorrhoids. Internally the leaves and roots are a valuable alternative medicine.
Used by herbalists the leaves and roots of Blue Vervain are an antidiarrheal, analgesic, anthelmintic, antiperiodic, astringent, diaphoretic, emetic, emmenagogue, expectorant, sedative, tonic, vermifuge, vulnerary. It is useful in intermittent fevers, ulcers, pleurisy, scrofula, gravel, easing pain in the bowels and expelling worms. A very strong infusion is emetic. As a medicinal poultice it is good in headache and rheumatism. An infusion of the plant is a good galactagogue (increases breast milk) and used for female obstructions, afterpains and taken as a female tonic. The infusion is used to help pass kidney stones and for infections of the bladder. Used as a sudorific and taken for colds and coughs. Also useful for insomnia and other nervous conditions.
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