25 Reasons Every First Aid Kit Should Include This Underrated Herb. Women, Take Note of #6.

I often get asked, out of the millions of herbs growing on this Earth, what few I would choose to include in my herbal home first aid kit. Well there are a few, but shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa pastoris) is definitely one of them. If you’ve never heard of it, you’re probably not alone—but take one look at the picture and I’m sure you will have seen it all around the place.

It gained its name due to the fact that the plant’s leaves resemble the kind of leather purse which used to be carried by shepherds in times past. While it has a plethora of other names, ‘shepherd’s purse’ is by far the most common.

The reason this herb is definitely one for the natural first aid kit is because of its amazing ability to stop all kinds of haemorrhaging almost immediately, doing so in a gentle manner, and tolerated well by the body. This may be because of the plant’s high levels of Vitamin K. Interestingly, this herb is actually a member of the mustard family.

To make a tea, boil 2 cups of water and add two tablespoons of dry shepherd’s purse. Cover and remove from the heat, allowing the herb to infuse for 45 minutes (obviously in the case of an emergency, this time can be lessened or a tincture used). The strained mixture can be drunk hot or cold, but it seems to work particularly well when cold. To make it more palatable, sweeteners such as stevia or honey can be added.

The herb quickly begins to lose its medicinal properties once it has been dried, and should be discarded after a year at the most. For this reason, shepherd’s purse tincture (which can be stored for years) is preferable to dry shepherd’s purse in your natural first aid kit.

Though many people are unaware of just how valuable this plant is, this list of 25 different uses for shepherd’s purse will be sure to convince you that this is definitely one herb that no house should be without!

1. Stop nosebleeds by soaking a cotton wool ball in some shepherd’s purse tea or tincture, and put this in the nostril. Nosebleeds are a common, but fortunately non-serious, health complaint that children, in particular, seem prone to. Any family must have some shepherd’s purse on hand for those times the kids suffer a bloody nose.

2. For internal bleeding, including ulcers and hernias, drink half a cup of shepherd’s purse tea, or take some tincture, every hour. Most effective results are obtained when the herb is taken on an empty stomach. The herb constricts the blood vessels and therefore encourages any bleeding to stop.

3. For treatment of wounds, ulcers, bites and scratches, soak a cloth with some shepherd’s purse tea, or do the same with some diluted tincture in water, and hold against the wound until the bleeding stops.

4. For any pregnant woman, this herb is a must-have. After childbirth, the tea should be drunk cold, and several cups at a time. Alternatively, as many droppers of the tincture as possible can be consumed, to control post-partum haemorrhaging. For many women, haemorrhaging is one of the most terrifying aspects of childbirth, so to know that there is a herb which can be safely taken to prevent this happening really is a relief. It is exactly for this reason that every good naturally-minded midwife carries some of this herb with her. For situations such as home births, shepherd’s purse can mean the difference between a calm, successful birth and an unplanned, emergency trip to the hospital.

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