In childhood, many, injured, applied a sheet of plantain to the abrasion to stop bleeding and accelerate healing. We decided to check how effective this is a folk first aid.
The effectiveness of plantain as a hemostatic and healing agents write Media And Portals About a healthy lifestyle. Users Blogs share personal experience the use of this plant and the alleged positive effect. Parents ask forums Advice, which side you need to apply a sheet of plantain if the child fell and broke the knee. Visitors are discussing this topic services questions and answers. Supposedly miraculous plant became Internet meme and gave rise to many jokes that applying his leaves could help in solving any problems - from abrasion on the knee to broken roads and fall ruble courses.
Plantain - A genus of plants, which has more than 250 species. In Europe and Asia wide Distributed The plantain is large. It is pollinated with the help of wind and, due to its unpretentiousness, grows everywhere like a weed. In traditional medicine of different peoples, this plant for centuries Applied To relieve pain, reduce temperature, with problems with the digestive system, infectious and skin diseases, as well as abrasions and wounds. In the plantain Contained A number of useful substances that theoretically can have a disinfectant, hemostatic and anti -inflammatory effect: Salicylic, Oleanoleva And Ursolovaya acids, Flavonoids, Polisaccharides and others pharmacies And now you can find a tincture of plantain, which is recommended to be consumed in the cough and externally for the treatment of small abrasions and wounds. So applying the plantain to broken knees-by no means know-how of Soviet and post-Soviet children.
There are not so many studies, which would test the effectiveness of plantain for the treatment of wounds. In 2012, scientists from Brazil conducted experiment: 56 laboratory mice inflicted wounds in the neck area, and then divided into four groups, which were treated with different means (plantain extract, siparuna extract, wound healing ointment and water). The healing rate of the wounds was recorded on the 4th, 9th, 15th and 21st day of the experiment. On the 15th day of the wounds at the mice, which were treated with plantain extract, began to be delayed completely. Scientists concluded that of all the studied methods of treatment, plantain extract is most promising for healing wounds. In 2018, a group of Turkish scientists in a similar way investigated The effectiveness of the use of ointments with an extract of plantain on laboratory mice. 72 animals, which pre-inflicted wounds, were divided into four groups: the first was treated with 10 percent ointment, the second-20 percent, the third-with petroleum jelly, the fourth did not receive any treatment. The results were measured once a week, and by the end of the experiment (after 21 days) it turned out that in animals whose wounds inflicted funds with plantain extract, damage healed faster and better.
Similar studies were carried out in public, although, of course, wounds were not specially inflicted on them. For example, in 2022, the results of such experiment Published by Iranian scientists. 94 patients with a diabetic ulcer and pressure sores were divided into two approximately equal groups. For two weeks, people from one group were treated according to standard medical protocols, and representatives of the second group, in addition to basic care, were applied by a 10 percent gel with plantain extract. After 14 days, it turned out that the size of the wounds of the group, which was treated with gel with plantain, has significantly decreased compared to the control. The proportion of patients whose ulcers managed to cure completely is also higher among them.
Two groups of Iranian scientists in 2019 independently of each other Spent A few more experiments Both on laboratory animals and people. With the reservation that the topic requires further study, the researchers came to preliminary conclusions: gels with extracts of plantain and aloe are relatively effective for the treatment of wounds. Scientists do not specify the ratio of the roles of each of the extracts in this process.
However, in 2021, Brazilian scientists conducted review The studies that existed at that time on the effectiveness of the plantain for healing the wounds, but did not find convincing evidence. According to scientists, the design of many experiments was methodologically imperfect, and a small sample does not allow to consider their results reliable.
In any case, the results of studies conducted in laboratories and hospitals cannot be extrapolate on field conditions when a person falls, tear off the knee, and then puts a sheet of plantain torn nearby to the wound. Firstly, the concentration of the active substance and its bioavailability (that is, the rate of ingestion of the bloodstream) in any extract is much higher than on the surface of the plant - this is precisely the meaning of the manufacture of the extract. Secondly, on the surface of the sheet there can be excrement of animals and settled road dust, therefore, with this method of treatment, you can get infection and only aggravate the situation. At the same time, blood can really be stopped by applying the plantain, but not thanks to the miraculous properties of the plant, but due to physical clamping of the wound. The same effect without the risk of infection can be achieved using a clean cloth or paper cloth, after washing the damaged place with water or an antiseptic.
Thus, today it has not been sufficiently studied, the results of which indicate the positive effect of drugs with an extract of plantain on the healing process of wounds, and those that are, cause methodological criticism from colleagues. Regardlessly the effectiveness of such means to apply dirty leaves to an open wound is a bad idea, the implementation of which threatens even more problems.
Photo on the cover: Robert Flogaus-Faust, CC by 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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