The top medical technology isn’t always available to your characters, so how do they survive without aspirin, cough drops, or antibiotics? Humanity has been using natural healing substances for thousands of years and though some entail cat dung and frogs the list I’ve composed include healing materials that actually do work. So whether your character is in a medieval fantasy setting or stuck in the wilderness with a hospital a thousand miles away, here are some items that can help! I’m focusing on more first aid or illnesses as opposed to beauty treatments, but many of these plants can be used to keep your characters looking fine too!
Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional, so if you do happen to personally try some of these remedies make sure to do your due research!
Images are not mine
1.) Aloe Vera
Also known as Jelly Leek and the Plant of Immortality (I figure other names can spur some plot bunnies) is a succulent plant that grows in temperate or tropical regions. If you know anything about natural remedies you’ve heard of aloe vera. It’s used internally for aiding digestion and externally for burns, acne, blisters, eczema, warts, insect bites, rashes, and fungal infections. If your character finds themselves washed up on the shore of a tropical country and terribly sunburnt from surviving on a scrap of wood from their ship, this is the plant for them! I’ve used this plant growing up for sunburn. Despite the strong leafy smell and the yellow sticky residue, it provides instant relief for angry hot skin. Simply remove the spikes with a knife and fillet off the top layer of skin and apply the gel underneath.
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2.) Salt
You can find salt in the ocean and even from mines inland. Salt mixed with water helps internally sore throats, sore gums, and toothaches and externally burns, cuts, bug bites, insect stings, and poison ivy and oak. A solution of salt and water can be used to treat open wounds since the salt helps kill bacteria and decrease inflammation. Because salt is abrasive it will sting your characters’ injuries so they will be in pain at first, but the salt does decrease pain afterward. So if your character is wounded at sea, put salt water on the wound!
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3.) Honey
You can find this wherever you can find honeybees and they’re found worldwide! Easing sore throats is just a small thing honey can do because it has amazing anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. For open wounds, it stimulates tissue healing, prevents infection, and even stimulates healing in old wounds. Your apothecaries should always have honey on hand!
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4.) Sphagnum Moss
Also known as Peat Moss is found in bogs, coniferous forests, and tundras. It among other moss species can be used to dress wounds and rashes since it has natural iodine qualities that keep it sterile. If your character is mauled by a bear in the mountains, it would be wise to use this to help!
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5.) Bentonite Clay
This clay comes from volcanic ash, so it’s found in any environment where volcanos can be found. Internally it helps with nausea, digestion, and illnesses. I’ve personally drunk this clay mixed with water if I think I ate something bad and it’s helped my stomach. It also helps with heartburn. Externally you can use it for canker sores, wounds, burns, dermatitis, poison ivy and oak, acne, and bug bites and stings. I know for a fact it helps all of this stuff. My skin is extremely sensitive and I use it all the time to help dermatitis. I also have used it to dry out acne. When applied directly to the skin the clay draws out the poison from poison ivy and bug bites and stings, so it speeds up the healing of those. It also helps open wounds and prevents them from becoming infected. If your character is attacked by wasps, put this on the stings to bring them relief!
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6.) Garlic
This plant can grow in almost any but the most extreme environments and isn’t just good for eating. Garlic has antiviral and antibiotic properties. Eating it helps to treat a wide variety of diseases, including bronchitis, diphtheria, and gout. It also direct treats sinus infections and congestion, extricate parasites such as tapeworms, and prevents infections. Remedies often include making a tea out of it with honey or boiling garlic with milk. Wounds can even be treated with garlic by mashing or grating it and applying it directly to a wound. If your medieval characters get a cold, this will help!
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7.) Mint
Also known as Mentha, this plant grows in a wide variety of climates in partial shade and close to water. By making it into a tea it can help with congestion due to colds, asthma, allergies, or respiratory illnesses. Eating the leaves helps digestion or nausea. Making mint into a balm and applying it to the head can help with headaches. If your post-apocalyptic character is suffering from allergies this could be their relief.
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8.) Ribwort Plantain
Also known as Ribleaf or Narrowleaf Plantain is found in a wide variety of places including meadows and fields. This plant is best used for external afflictions such as bug bites and stings, eczema, dermatitis, wounds, burns, poison ivy, and even the outward symptoms of chicken pox and shingles. Poultices and oil can be made out of the leaves and bandages can be made out of them by using boiling water to melt the leaves. If your character is stung by bees in a meadow, pull up some of this herb and use it on their wounds!
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9.) Prickly Pear
Also known as Opuntia, Nahuatl, or Paddle Cactus, grow in dry climates, including deserts, warmer-climate mountains, and plains. It has antiviral and anti-inflammation properties to help treat diseases when ingested and if the spikes are removed and the inner flesh is exposed it can be used on wounds to promote healing by drying out the wounds and keeping them clean. If your cowboy is shot in the desert, definitely use this on his gunshot wound.
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10.) Ginger Root
Also known as Nagara or Imber, this plant grows in tropical and sub-tropical areas and by ingesting can be used to help nausea, menstrual cramps, muscle pain and soreness, indigestion, and infections. After a hard day of martial arts training, your character could benefit from some ginger tea or juice.
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11.) Lavender
Also known a Lavandula grows in temperate climates. It’s common to know about this flower’s calming effects for those with anxiety or insomnia but it’s also helpful for wounds and fungal infections via it used as on oil directly on the affected areas. Another healer staple!
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12.) Echinacea
Also known as Purple Cone Flower, Black Sampson, Black Susans, Fleur à Hérisson, Hedgehog, Igelkopfwurzel, Indian Head, Kansas Snakeroot, Red Sunflower, Rock-Up-Hat, Roter Sonnenhut, Rudbeckie Pourpre, Scurvy Root, and Snakeroot, this plants grows in plains or in the woods in temperate to more northern climates. Using the flowers as a tea it can be used help colds, flu, strep throat, pneumonia, bronchitis, stomach aches, and bowel pain, but be careful not to drink too much because it’s a laxative too! If your character has the sniffles, this could help get them back into fighting condition!
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13.) Willow
This tree grows in temperate and arctic climates and by chewing on the bark or making the bark into a tea it can help relieve pain from headaches, lower back, arthritis, rheumatism, and other conditions. Your elderly medieval characters perhaps could use this!
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14.) Valerian
This plant grows in grasslands and the root is made into a powder, tea, or juice. It’s a natural mild sedative and helps with sleep and calming someone down. This could be useful for a healer with an anxious patient.
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15.) Yarrow
Also known as thousand-leaf, mil foil, green arrow, wound wort, and nosebleed plant is a plant that grows in temperate environments and is primarily used to stop any kind of bleeding. A poultice can be made from the leaves to stop bleeding from wounds. This is a handy plant to have on the battlefield!
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Conclusion – Just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s safe. Overuse of anything can be harmful, but God put herbs on earth for us to use and sometimes it’s the only option one has for healing.
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| When I think of natural healing I always think of Gaius. |