Self-heal is a mint relation, and as with all the other mints, if you plant it once, you never have to plant it again. Incredibly vigorous, the plant spreads by underground stems that shoot out in every direction once the first root is stuck in the ground. If there is anything to the doctrine of signatures, prunella should make anyone who takes it into his or her body stronger than an ox.

In the southern United States, ground-hog plantain, or square weed as it is called, is collected in the spring as a tonic plant. It is also eaten as a spinach substitute, prepared in a big pot with a piece of hog meat by cooks who follow the traditional southern style or with a little vegetable oil by more modern cooks concerned with the bad publicity animal fats have received in recent years.

Self-heal has a widespread reputation for keeping people well during an outbreak of infectious disease. This, of course, makes it perfect for life in the modern world.

In China, where, as it does worldwide, the plant grows great guns, it is called hsia-ku-tsao and is widely used as a tonic. The Chinese, who collect the plant as it spikes into bloom, take the lower leaves and flower heads from it to treat fevers and rheumatism. They also use the leaves and flower heads as an alterative, a substance which helps the body change from a state of sickness to one of health. When self-heal is taken in tea, the Chinese feel that the plant can keep the entire body well. It is said to assist liver function, resulting in bright, clear eyes. As such, self-heal is used to treat patients suffering from eye or liver trouble. It is also used to treat lumps in the neck and swollen glands. This ties in with its use as an immunity booster: when your body gets run down, those lymph glands swell right up.

Knowing the Chinese use self-heal as an alterative, we should not be surprised to learn that the plant has an antibiotic effect. Experiments indicate that self-heal has broad antimicrobial powers and also kills many pathogenic fungi, the kind that attack the body and do you no good.

Self-heal is well known in Europe, and our friend Gerard had additional uses to list, noting that "the decoction of Prunell made with wine or water, doth joine together and make whole and sound all wounds, both inward and outward, even as Bugle doth." His reference to the plant’s ability to make things whole after the body has suffered both external and internal injuries is consistent with other European sources: as the name says, the plant helps healing. Gerard also wrote of prunella’s potency as a headache treatment when "bruised with oil of roses and vinegar, and laid to the forepart of the head," and he recommended the plant "against the infirmities of the mouth, and especially the ruggedness, blackness, and dryness of the tongue, with a kind of swelling in the same. It is an infirmitie amongst soldiers that lie in campe."

I’ll tell you one thing: if I ever woke up and found I had a black tongue, I would get real nervous fast. Having your tongue turn black is Mother Nature’s way of saying that you need to work on your health regime. Gerard’s reference to soldiers "that lie in campe" is significant. Soldiers live in close quarters, and when a sickness hits the barracks, it spreads like wildfire, kind of like a cold running through the office. Self-heal has a widespread reputation for keeping people well during an outbreak of infectious disease. This, of course, makes it perfect for life in the modern world.

In colonial America, self-heal should have been called heal-anything-you’ve-got, as its uses were incredibly diverse. It was used to treat sore throats, stomach cramps, and urinary and liver problems. It was also prescribed to kill worms and to help folks who suffered from fits. Its main use though was as a tonic.

The Shakers sold lots of self-heal to treat internal bleeding, sore throats, and cankers in the mouth. Also in agreement with Gerard, they believed that self-heal was good for black tongues and cold sores. The gypsies of Eastern Europe, who gave a double ditto on self-heal’s ability to cure sore throats, used it as an ingredient in their medicine show tonics for that problem.

In New Zealand the plant gets wide use as a first aid ointment – the ground plant is applied to cuts, wounds, bruises, and sores that won’t heal. The Kiwis are not alone in the thought that whatever the plant touches heals a lot faster than it otherwise would. Like Gerard, they say that putting the juice of its leaves and flowers on the temples will take care of a headache in short order.

Most would agree that the heart is an organ we would like to keep pumping away, trouble-free. Self-heal is featured in an Irish heart-disease treatment called Cailleach’s Tea. Chinese researchers have found the plant to be an effective remedy for hypertension, a fact that would indeed make Cailleach’s Tea useful for someone whose heart troubles stem from high blood pressure.