Selfheal, Prunella vulgaris, or Heal-all is both an edible and medicinal wildflower. It can be eaten raw, added to salads or cooked as a potherb but when cooked it will lose some of its nutritional value. Medicinally, the plant was used by several different American Indians for fevers, colds, coughs, diarrhea and for skin affections. Western herbal medicine had used it for hemorrhages, diarrhea and for sore throats.

Keep your eyes and ears open and your powder dry.

Selfheal Sources:

Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software. Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.

Felter, Harvey Wickes, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D. King’s American Dispensatory, Vol. 2. Cincinnati: The Ohio Valley Company, 1905. pg. 1739-1741

Foster, Steven and James A. Duke. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America. 2nd. ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Print. pg. 217

Hamel, Paul B. and Mary U. Chiltoskey. Cherokee Plants and Their Uses- A 400 Year History. North Carolina: Herald Publishing. 1975. Print. pg. 54

Herrick, James William. Iroquois Medical Botany. Ph.D. Thesis, New York: State University of New York, Albany 1977. Print. pg. 209-210

Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany. Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. pg. 439

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 78-79

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.

Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Web