Ai’ve been thinking recently that ai dont particularly know many plant remedies for stoppage of bleeding (especially exessive bleeding). Ai know some good antibacterial plants and ai know that chia seeds have been used to stop bleeding, but other than that… no. What would you guys use?
Yarrow flowers can be used to stop bleeding. One of the main reasons it spread throughout Europe was because Roman soldiers would bring it with them everywhere they went.
My wife and other women I know drink shepherd’s purse tea to help stop bleeding after child birth.
I have used the leaves of Yarrow with great success.
An old Japanese man taught me to chew Plantago leaf and Yarrow leaf together and apply to wound.
If you slice off an aloe vera leaf at an angle and wait a few minutes you will see a yellow orange goo that begins to coagulate at the cut. This is the aloe plants clotting and scabbing mechanism and it works exactly like ‘new skin’. Just dab and spread the goo on the wound and let it dry/stiffen up. It is sterile, will stop bleeding in all but major deep cuts, is waterproof and will fall off on its own in a few days. It also helps protect against scarring. Hope this helps 
I could be wrong, but isn’t Usnea Lichen good for that?
Cattail pollen is awesome for stopping bleeding (and Cattail goo is an awesome antibiotic gel)
Nettles will also stop bleeding if cruched
As will Salal leaves crushed or spit-poulticed
Thanks all! This stuff rocks! ;D
[quote=“Pathfinder, post:8, topic:1010”]Cattail pollen is awesome for stopping bleeding (and Cattail goo is an awesome antibiotic gel)
Nettles will also stop bleeding if cruched
As will Salal leaves crushed or spit-poulticed[/quote]
I feel so cool right now. 8) I know all of those plants, and they are all available in the area where I live!
Ha ha, take that, future open wounds. You are no match against my great arsenal of wilderness knowledge superpowers!
(Sorry, feeling kinda cheesy right now :P)
Tom Brown also said that the goo is a good pain killer. I think he claimed to get minor oral surgery just using the stuff.
stopping acute external bleeding seems much less complicated than stopping internal bleeding.
with internal bleeding (acute or chronic) you need to figure out why someone is bleeding before you can effectively treat them. trauma, deficiency, hormones, heat, etc.
This isn’t technically an herb, but … I heard that you can stop bleeding by applying burnt hair to the wound.
Also, the skin of an onion might work.
Both of these I heard secondhand.
[quote=“David, post:13, topic:1010”]This isn’t technically an herb, but … I heard that you can stop bleeding by applying burnt hair to the wound.
Also, the skin of an onion might work.
Both of these I heard secondhand.[/quote]
Seems like you would need an awfull lot of hair! (burnt hair doesnt leave alot of residue) But thats awsome if it works! We seriously need a Fauna as Medicine section IMO.
Herbs that stop bleeding are called hemostatics or styptics. Always wash cuts thoroughly before applying a styptic. The best styptics are dry, clean and very astringent. My favorite is dried Comfrey root powder. In an emergency, Yarrow, or any astringent herb (there are thousands) can be mashed between clean rocks and applied to the cut.
Geranium root is one of the best coagulants there is!
Have had a couple cuts on my foot recently. If I don’t have band aids and neosporin, what can I do to avoid infection? Yarrow leaves? Do I need to boil them?
I typically dont disinfect my cuts and scrapes, unless I feel there is a significant threat of infection in the first place (lots of grit, especially civilized grit in it, etc.). I often just wash with water and apply clean cloth to it until scabbed (or not even those measures, just let it be). If its a big cut or something nasty got in it, there are quite a few things I use alternately, yarrow being one of them. No, boiling is not necessary - just crush and apply (I usually chew and spit). There are probably quite a few more plants for disinfecting, depending on where you live. Sages work great. Piss (very fresh), alcohol (kombucha, beer, etc), and any other moderately acidic thing should work. On http://herb.umd.umich.edu/ yarrow is the second thing to come up on a search for “disinfectant”. I recommend using this database in general, so much so that I bought the print version. Browse by tribe, usage, species.