Doc's Blog!
Yackin’ about Yarrow – The Wound Healing Super Herb!
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 stalwart, must-have herbs would be yarrow, Achillea millefolium.
So, let’s yack about yarrow a bit. It really is an amazing medicinal plant. In my veterinary practice, yarrow was always within arm’s reach in every room. Why? Because I saw trauma cases almost every single day. Dogs hit by cars, dogs that had been attacked by other animals, dogs with severe lacerations. And what herb did I grab to stop the bleeding? Yarrow. For wounds, I mix the powdered herb with a little water to make a thick paste and slap it on with a bandage. For internal bleeding, I give a tincture (Bleeding formula). Almost without exception the bleeding would stop.
I also used yarrow on oral surgery cases and tooth extractions. You see, the teeth of a dog are designed to be able to grab a deer’s leg and get dragged 10 yards without getting pulled out. Thus, the roots of a canine’s canines are typically as large or larger than the tooth itself. So removing a damaged one requires oral surgery and cutting of bone to remove those roots. Whenever I do this there’s bleeding from the arteries serving that bone. It’s impossible to ligate or clamp an artery inside a bone. So the professional, surgical technique for stopping such bleeding is to put your thumb on it and pray for five or ten minutes…and repeat as needed. My technique was to pack some yarrow powder onto it, hold it with my thumb for 30 seconds and then be done.
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’s Latin name, Achillea, is a nod to the Greek hero Achilles who, legend has it, learned about the plant from Chiron the centaur. In Greek mythology, Chiron was a great warrior, a great scholar and a great physician. And, being half horse, I’d guess he was a pretty good veterinarian too. Anyway, according to the story, Chiron taught Achilles about yarrow and Achilles had all of his troops carry a bag of yarrow into battle with them to staunch their wounds in the Trojan war. The practice of carrying Yarrow into battle is one that was used across many countries and cultures. Soldiers even carried it with them in World War I. This ancient use of yarrow gave rise to one of yarrow’s common names, soldier wort (wort means plant in old English).
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.
I use it in a number of formulas and, honestly, could use it in a lot more of my formulas for other issues if it’s what I happened to have on hand. You can see the formulas I use it in here: Yarrow Products
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, how it works and how I use it in all kinds of scenarios, I encourage you to join us in The HomeGrown Herbalist School of Botanical Medicine. Yarrow, and over a hundred other amazing herbs would love to be your new best friend. Come and join us.
Doc Jones
The HomeGrown Herbalist School of Botanical Medicine
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Bleeding Powder$21.95 -
Bleeding Tincture$20.00 – $35.00
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Poultice Powder$21.95
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Poultice Tincture$20.00 – $35.00
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The Ammo Can Wound & Suture Kit$215.99
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The Cut Bite and Sting Kit$39.95
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Travel & First Aid Tincture Kit$59.99 – $130.99
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Yarrow Arial Parts Tincture$18.00 – $32.00
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Yarrow Powder$18.50
What would the dosage be for menstrual cramps?
I noticed that you phrased your veterinarian experiences in the past tense. Are you no longer a practicing veterinarian, then?
That is so great! Thank you!
Excellent information, Doc Jones! I have yarrow in my garden (currently blooming here in Florida) and a jar of dried flowers/leaves but didn’t realize all it’s therapeutic uses. Thank you so much for all you do.
OK, so NOW I am all about yarrow and can’t wait to grow it in my garden. You are the Bomb, Dr. Jones–thank you so much for sharing from your abundance.
Thanks for the information. I was excited when I discovered yarrow growing near our home. Good stuff!
However I hesitate to use it much because it throws off my cycle.
Thank you. Just in time for all the dental issues. Braces, tooth pain, tooth removal for four children out of eleven. Its the story of about all of them 😬😩. Good thing i have it !😁
Can I make tinctures with apple cider vinegar instead of vodka.
ACV won’t be shelf stable and although it may extract beneficials it wouldn’t be the same beneficials. Shelf stability is the main issue though.
Excellent talk about Yarrow, thank you. Hope you are going to the Wise Tradition’s conference this year.
Wow. this works great. I cut my finger this morning and grabbed a tiny leaf from my yarrow plant ( still shivering in the No Cal. winter) And sure enough, the bleeding slowed down and turned into a kind of gel. A band-aid did the rest to keep it clean.
Amazing world we live in…Thanks, Doc for your guiding light.