← All plantsSelf-heal
Prunella vulgaris
Also: Heal-all, Carpenter's herb, Xia ku cao
CoolingDryingTonifying
Closes wounds inside and out and keeps lymph moving.
A small creeping mint with square stems and stubby spikes of purple, hooded flowers that keep blooming beneath the mower. Self-heal tightens and repairs tissue on the skin and along the gut, fights infection at the surface, and drains stagnant lymph.
- Energetics
- Cooling, drying, toning
- Taste
- Mildly bitter, astringent, faintly aromatic
- Family
- Lamiaceae (mint family)
- Parts used
- Flowering tops
Medicinal uses 7
The tags sort the evidence behind each use by kind. Members are able to tap a condition to compare every herb for it.
TTraditional useLLab and mechanism studiesCClinical studies
Washes, compresses, and salves clean small wounds, slow bleeding, and speed new skin; lab studies show it breaks up bacterial biofilms.
A cooled strong tea or a salve soothes minor burns and sunburn.
Applied at the first tingle, it shortens outbreaks; lab studies show it keeps herpes viruses from attaching to cells.
Drunk as a strong daily tea, it tightens and heals an inflamed, ulcerated gut lining.
Drains swollen glands and congested tissue.
A daily tea through the season steadies the immune overreaction behind hay fever.
A rinse for inflamed gums and mouth sores.
Preparations
Flowering-top tea and tincture, cooled washes and compresses, and salve.
Members are able to see the amounts, ratios, and methods for each preparation, search by condition, and match herbs to your constitution.
Cautions
- Take care alongside blood thinners.
- Deep, dirty, or spreading infected wounds need medical care.
- It is drying; for long use, blend it with a moistening herb such as violet or marshmallow if you run dry.
Medication interactions
Practitioner Practitioners are able to see the 2 types of medicine flagged for self-heal, each with the mechanism and what to do. The plain-language cautions above stay open to everyone.
Pregnancy & breastfeeding
PregnancyAsk your practitioner
Pregnancy research on self-heal is thin. Washes and salves on the skin are the simplest choice; check with your midwife or practitioner before drinking it daily.
BreastfeedingAsk your practitioner
Little is known about self-heal in breast milk; washes and salves are the simplest choice while nursing.
Folklore
Prunella comes from Brunella, after the German Bräune, an old name for quinsy, the throat abscess it was once taken for. In China the dried spikes are xia ku cao, the summer-withered herb, named for the way they brown at midsummer, and Chinese medicine gives them for swollen nodes in the neck and for goiter.
How to grow
A low perennial for sun or part shade and almost any soil that does not dry out completely. It creeps by rooting stems and self-sows into lawns, where it keeps flowering below mowing height. Bees work the flowers all summer. Cut the flowering tops when the spikes are in full bloom.
In the wild
Native all around the Northern Hemisphere, in Eurasia and North America alike, growing in lawns, meadows, roadsides, and woodland clearings.
Every herb here fits some people better than others. Find out which ones fit you.
