The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Bugle Weed

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

Today we discuss an herb that can heal the liver, help the heart, heal wounds, stop bleeding, prevent infection... etc., etc., Bugle is one of my top 10, essential herbs.Please subscribe to my youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzuBq5NsNkT5lVceFchZTtgThe Spring Foraging Cook Book is available in paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRP63R54Or you can buy the eBook as a .pdf directly from the author (me), for $9.99: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-spring-foraging-cookbook.htmlYou can read about the Medicinal Trees book here https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2021/06/paypal-safer-easier-way-to-pay-online.html or buy it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1005082936PS. New in the woodcraft Shop: Judson Carroll Woodcraft | SubstackRead about my new books:Medicinal Weeds and Grasses of the American Southeast, an Herbalist's Guidehttps://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/05/medicinal-weeds-and-grasses-of-american.htmlAvailable in paperback on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47LHTTHandConfirmation, an Autobiography of Faithhttps://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/05/confirmation-autobiography-of-faith.htmlAvailable in paperback on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47Q1JNKVisit my Substack and sign up for my free newsletter: https://judsoncarroll.substack.com/Read about my new other books:Medicinal Ferns and Fern Allies, an Herbalist's Guide https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/11/medicinal-ferns-and-fern-allies.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMSZSJPSThe Omnivore’s Guide to Home Cooking for Preppers, Homesteaders, Permaculture People and Everyone Else: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-omnivores-guide-to-home-cooking-for.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGKX37Q2Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast an Herbalist's Guidehttps://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/06/medicinal-shrubs-and-woody-vines-of.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2T4Y5L6andGrowing Your Survival Herb Garden for Preppers, Homesteaders and Everyone Elsehttps://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/04/growing-your-survival-herb-garden-for.htmlhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X4LYV9RThe Encyclopedia of Medicinal Bitter Herbs: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-encyclopedia-of-bitter-medicina.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5MYJ35RandChristian Medicine, History and Practice: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/01/christian-herbal-medicine-history-and.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B09P7RNCTBHerbal Medicine for Preppers, Homesteaders and Permaculture People: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2021/10/herbal-medicine-for-preppers.htmlAlso available on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B09HMWXL25Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/southern-appalachian-herbsBlog: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/Free Video Lessons: https://rumble.com/c/c-618325

Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. Today we're going to talk about really one of my favorite herbs. I know I say that about a lot of herbs, but this is one that I look forward to every year. It's called bugleweed. But the first thing we need to make clear is that there are several plants called bugle or bugleweed. This is Ajuga riptans. Now that's A-J-U-G-A-R-E-P-T-A-N-S. It is considered a weed, even though it really shouldn't be. It's an incredibly useful plant. Well, depending on where you live, it may be in flower right now.

In the mountains of North Carolina, it has not yet come into bloom. It may be just flower right now. In the mountains of North Carolina it has not yet come into bloom. Maybe just starting actually there was some uh well just uh two days ago I found a patch of self-healed prunella which is in the same family. It's both in the mint family and it was blooming very nicely. It was ready to harvest but I haven't run into any patches of bugle in the mountains yet. but I haven't run into any patches of bugle in the mountains yet. In central eastern part of North Carolina it's already come and gone. It is often planted, if people plant it intentionally, as a ground cover. It doesn't need a lot of sun. In fact, it really does better in partial shade or even heavy shade.

It grows well in most soils, even the acidic soils, like in the sand hills of North Carolina. It will grow very abundantly, and, even the acidic soils, like in the Sandhills in North Carolina. It will grow very abundantly and being in the mint family, it does spread. It not only spreads by seeds, but it sends out little runners and it makes a great ground clover. I mean it will grow up to, I don't know, maybe the highest one I've ever seen is maybe six inches tall. And then that's just the flowering head.

The flowering stalk is the part we harvest medicinally. That dies back very quickly. It's only in bloom for maybe a month. I mean, that would really be stretching it. And after that, it's just this nice green, kind of purplish sometimes, ground cover. If you think, if you've seen like a low ground cover in you know partial shade That's deep dark green or if it hits gets enough sun it turns purple

That's probably a juga. Now there are a few other plants that do have that purplish color. There's alum root another excellent medicinal herb There is well coltsfoot. Well, not really. This is what I'm thinking. Not Coltsfoot. Is it Glitchoma? It doesn't really matter. There's one other on the tip of my tongue. Perilla. Perilla is also in the mint family. It is known as beefsteak plant in Japanese cooking. It's really a neat one. I don't know, it's really a neat one. I don't know that it's necessarily up yet.

I think it needs a little hotter weather. It spreads as well, so people consider it weedy. I really love perilla as an edible plant. It does have some additional qualities, but it's really weird in that it kind of tastes like cinnamon or cloves. So you can throw it in with some pickles if you're making sort of like semi-sweet or sweet pickles. Really good. You can add a little to a salad just for like an interesting taste. A little strong on its own to

eat a full serving of it. But yeah as far as the purplish plants the only one I mean the flower of wild ginger is purple. The leaves really aren't. Elhoof, Elhoof was what I was trying to remember. It can get a little purplish tint sometimes. But, so we're narrowing this down. All but what? Two of these are in the mint family. And, bucoweed is normally this very, very, very dark green.

But the sun will turn it a little purplish. So look it up. You've probably seen this plant everywhere. It may be growing in your yard right now because it's spreading nature and people want these like perfect golf course type lawns. People try to spray it around up and get rid of it. Much better to use this herb. It is actually edible, but it's very

bitter. It is among the most bitter of the the mints. I guess the most bitter of the mints would probably be whorehound. If you've ever had whorehound candy, well I don't know if you can imagine what it would taste like without the sugar in it. Whorehound is very, very bitter. Bugle is not quite as bitter as Horrorhound and Horrorhound are the right conditions can also get a purplish tint. So that may have something to do with the bitterness of the plant in the mint family. But then again, the perilla is really not bitter at all. It's actually kind of sweet. So I don't know.

I don't know what actually does that. I'm not a botanist. I'm an herbalist. But anyway So for many Bugle is just an attractive flower and it has really pretty blue flowers when it when it blooms. It's Really though one of the most interesting bitter herbs I have discovered really though one of the most interesting bitter herbs I have discovered. Now like I said mostly known as a ground cover purple leaves. The spike of flowers just shoots up overnight it seems like and has these pretty blue flowers on it and it's obviously a mint. It's got the square stems the leaves are alternate and then it has those nice little blue flowers. There aren't all that many plants that have blue flowers. Now the

mints can be blue or kind of pink or a little purple but they always have a nice color to them. I can think of one, maybe one that has a white flower but I mean just about everyone I'm thinking of right now from skullcap to peppermint just has a blue flower. At least where I, oh yeah, well, spear mint in my yard and mountain apple mint. They rarely have ever flower. So I'm having trouble remembering exactly what those flowers look like. But like the prunella, the self-heal, the certainly the bugle, so many. There's so many mints. There's so many herbs in the mint family. But that square stem and the opposite leaves,

that means one leaf directly opposite from the other, are how you identify anything in the mint family. It's one of the easiest families, if not the easiest to identify. There are no truly poisonous mints that I know of. Water mint and peppermint can be very strong. That's peppermint that's grown from cuttings. It never gets that strong in the volatile oil from seed. But water mint and pennyroyal would probably be the two most naturally strong in those

volatile oils. In very high amounts, they could be a little toxic. They could cause a miscarriage. You don't want to do that. I think I've told you the story that one of the only documented deaths from herbal medicine in America was about a hundred years ago. A woman tried to use pennyroyal essential oil to induce an abortion and ended up bleeding to death from all her orifices. And yes it can be that strong but remember that's essential oil.

Essential oil is not the natural form of the plant it's at least a hundred if not a thousand times stronger than anything you would eat in nature. So you know generally if you're pregnant and you have a couple peppermint candies or some chocolate chip mint ice cream no big deal right. But remember in medicinal doses is going to be much stronger. So a strong tincture of mint or, you know, anything in that family should really be avoided. But that also includes basil. Basil's in the mint family. I think oregano's in the mint family, if I'm not mistaken. I know thyme is. All of those in medicinal doses are very strong herbs. Lemon balm is in the mint family. It has qualities somewhat like a jugo. We'll get into that

in a second. But these are herbs that people eat or use, you know, throw a few basil leaves in your marinara sauce. You know, it's not going to hurt you, but you got to remember there is a difference between culinary use and medicinal use So and keep that in mind, but now anyway Bugle is it's highly adaptable. It grows in many places But like I said it spreads and people think it's weedy so Not long ago and we're really talking just in the past few hundred years Bugle was considered one of the most important medicinal herbs, but for reasons unknown, it's fallen out of

use and few herbists even know about it. I'm really one of the only ones that writes and talks a lot about bugle weed. You would think that, I mean it's a bitter herb and it benefits the liver and digestion, and so you'd think it'd be, you know, pretty popular. Especially because it can heal wounds so effectively that soldiers used to carry it into battle. So imagine that. You've got a plant that is good for the liver,

that is good for all manner of indigestion, stomach issues of any kind, from burping to diarrhea and everything in between. It's similar to appetite. It can regulate the heart rate. Yes, it actually has the ability to slow and regulate the heart rate. It lowers blood pressure and calms respiration, relaxes the muscles and helps helps with sleep, and it can be thrown into a salad and eaten as a salad grain. You would think it'd be really popular,

especially since that, like, lowering the heart rate, lowering the blood pressure, relaxing, it almost has the same effect to like a couple of glasses of wine. I mean, you would think this would be one of the most popular herbs around, right? You know, several members of the mint family like skull cap and, um, uh, what was it? I mentioned just a minute ago,

lemon balm are known for this effect, that relaxing effect. Uh, they call it a narcotic effect, but don't let that scare you. It's not drug like that just means it slows the heart rate and lowers respiration, relaxes the muscles. It's actually really nice. It's very very pleasant. In fact, bugles once used as a bittering agent in beer. And if you know much about beer brewing and hops, hops have the same effect. Bugle is a little bit stronger I would say in its relaxing effect than hops. Really stronger than

skullcap. And skullcap is really popular yeah and I you know whatever people just forgot about it but um 14th century England this is how popular was Nicholas Culpepper said this herb belongeth to Venus now he was he always tried to assign an herb to a planet I don't get all that but he said, if the virtues of it make you fall in love with it as they will if you be wise keep a syrup syrup of it to take inwardly an ointment and a plaster to use outwardly and let it always be by

you. Yes, literally one of the most popular herbs and he was an apothecist. He was putting the medicine together for physicians and this is how highly he thought of what's now considered as a spy's weed. He says the decoction of the leaves and flowers made in wine and taken dissolves the conchilled blood of those that are bruised inwardly by a fall. So yeah it helps inwardly with bruising. Like I said this was one the soldier's herbs. You would carry bugle and yarrow, at the very least, into battle because they help, well, maybe some arnica as well, to help with bruising, to help with sprains and strains,

to help close wounds and stop bleeding. Very, very important. Before we had, you we had antibiotics and all the kind of stuff we use now. Butterfly bandages and duct tape. Everything we can think of. Tampons in a bullet hole. They didn't have anything like that back then. What they had was yarrow and bugle and such as that. He said it was good for He said it was good for outward wounds as well, and especially stabs in the body and bowels, and is especially a help for all wounds and for those that are liver-grown or have inflamed liver. It is wonderful in curing all manner of ulcers and sores, whether new or fresh or old, or inveterate, yea, even gangrenous, and fistulas also, if the leaves bruised and applied, or their juice used to

be washed and bathed the place, the same made into a lotion, with some honey and alum, cureth all sores of the mouth and gums, so they never be so foul or of long continuance, and worketh no less powerfully and effectually for such ulcers and sores as happen in the secret parts of men and women." So sores on the genitals. Remember the mint family is antimicrobial. It has antiseptic properties. So yeah, it really, the stronger the mints, the more they tend to kill germs.

Good, I mean, whether you've got a sore throat, you can take mint tea, or you've got a wound and you're trying to prevent infection. Or, I mean, he's talking about a lot of inward injuries as well, internal bleeding even. He says, being taken inwardly or outwardly applied, it help with those that have broken any bone or have a member out of joint. It really decreases inflammation and helps

like tighten up a dislocated limb. As far as bone healing, I don't know, it could. Comfrey certainly has the ability to propagate protein tissue healing, tissue growth. Comfrey has been used for thousands of years for broken bones and it's really, really good. I told the story about how when I blew out my knee, I used Comfrey and it healed. I mean, a friend of mine, a beaver trapper, blew out his knee at the same time and he went through the full traditional American medical route and a year later was still getting physical therapy and fluid drained off his knee and mine healed in under six months just using comfrey and aspirin essentially aspirin for the pain and inflammation and comfrey to heal up

the joint it's wonderful stuff amazing it's called knit bone for a reason and ointment made with the leaves of bugle and scabion, scabion if I remember correctly, it's in the lily family, that's an old word for it, I think it's now called scabious, you have to look that up, and sanical which is another herb, bruised and boiled in hog's grease until the herbs be dry and then strained and put into a pot and say for such occasions as it shall require is singularly good for all sorts of hurts in the body, and none know its usefulness will be without it.

None that know its usefulness will be without it." He literally considered this like a cure-all herb. I really like this herb. He said, the truth is, I have known this herb to cure some diseases of Saturn. Well, remember he was also an astrologist and diseases of Saturn would be of the war-like quality. He's talking violent illnesses. You kind of have to decode his old language. You know, this was what I say, 1400s or so.

No, he was 1500s, yeah. 1500s Protestant England and there was this kind of obsession with astrology and such as that that began to take off and yeah, he was part of that movement. But he was a trained apothecist, so his information on herbs was very good. He said, many times such as give themselves too much drinking are troubled with strange

fancy, strange sights in the nighttime and some with voices and also with, yeah, I don't even know what that word is, a fillet, it doesn't matter. But he's talking about hallucinations and troubled dreams and such as that. And he said, I take the reason of this to be a melancholy made by excessive drinking of strong liquor that disturbs the fancy and breeds imaginations. Well, we're talking delirium tremens and such. These I have known to be cured by taking two spoonfuls of the syrup of this herb after supper, two hours, and when you go to bed. But whether this does it by sympathy or antipathy is some doubt. I know there is a great antipathy between Saturn and Venus, so the warlike and the love god essentially. So take that with a great

assault. But what it more likely is is the tonic effect of bugle on the liver. It's one of the best herbs for decreasing liver inflammation and for helping the liver process. Process alcohol, process any toxins in the body. It's those toxins that build up and cause the delirium trem and hallucinations and all that. So it's a liver calming herb that also helps with function. In terms of herbalism, that's how we would look at it because some herbs such as ginseng are liver stimulating herbs. And if your liver's on its end. Over stimulating it can be harmful.

Liver calming herbs such as bugle or milkweed can actually help heal the liver and help it recover while helping it process out those toxins from the bloodstream. So they're really amazing herbs to know. Now, Gerard back in like Shakespeare's time, now this is gonna be flowery language, I'm sorry. I know some of you love it and some of you hate it, but you know Elizabethan English, let me get a sip of water here. He said, it is recommended, no it is commended, same thing,

against inward bursting and members torn, rent and bruised, and as therefore it is put into potions that serve for that in which is of such virtue that it can dissolve and wash away congealed blood and clotted blood." He quotes a French physician that said, he needed neither physician nor surgeon that hath bugle and sanical." That's quite a statement. You know this is Elizabethan England. There were a lot of wars going on. But he said he needed neither physician nor surgeon that hath bugle and sanical. And they weren't like our modern wars with you know bullets

actually designed not to do a lot of tissue damage. You were getting whacked in the head with a mace or stabbed with a sword. You know, they were pretty tough back then. Amazing. I was watching a program one time. It was about Wallace from Scotland, you know, Braveheart. And they were talking about William Wallace, of course, the longbowmen of the time. They had these just incredible, you know, longbows made of yew and ash. And as archers, they were just unparalleled and they could shoot their arrows, you know, hundreds of yards in great

batteries into the oncoming army. They exhumed some of the bowman's remains and found that the bows were so heavy that their shoulder bones, the actual bones of their shoulder and upper arm were enlarged and deformed. Can you imagine how heavy those bows must have been. So even if you didn't get, you know, knocked off your horse in a jousting contest and internal bleeding and broken ribs if you think didn't go right through you obviously, just firing the arrows, just that right there would have been almost a herculean feet if we looked at it in our time and the toll,

the toll I meant to say that took on the body, on the joints, on the muscles, on the bones was incredible. I mean they found all these healed fractures in the bones, stress fractures and that's what caused the bones to sort of enlarge as they healed, one at a time, one at a time. Like they used to do with kids with polio, you know, where their legs, like one leg was shorter than the other, they would break the bone, let it heal, break the bone, let it heal, and with every healing it would extend that bone just a little bit further. You can imagine how painful that must have been.

Well, maybe you can imagine. I hope you never have to imagine. But imagine for a minute William Wallace's time when they didn't have anesthesia. They didn't have, you know, what we have now. I mean, wow. Yeah, seriously. So he says, the decoction being drunken dissolveth, clotted, and congealed blood within the body Healeth and maketh sound all wounds of the body both inward and outward The same openeth the stoppings of the liver and gall and is good against jaundice and fevers of long continuance The decoction cureth rotten ulcers and sores of the gums and mouth

He said bugle, that was what it was called then, we now call it bugle, is excellent in curing wounds and scratches. The juice cureth the wounds, ulcers, and sores of the secret parts and the herb, or the herb bruised and laid there on. So you can use the crushed juice, you can make a tincture of it, you can bruise the herb and use it as a poultice. Skipping ahead several hundred years, we're up to about I guess 1910-1920, Brother Aloysius, who was a great German herbalist, seems like he actually came from Sweden originally, but he studied the German tradition. He said, common bugle, adjugoriptans, recommended for jaundice, hardening of the liver, asthma, ulceration of the lungs, blockage of urine, heavy bleeding, blood spitting, leukemia and dysentery. It is also a depurative, which means it detoxifies. Getting up to 1931, Ms. Grieve is the first one to really explain the

cardiotonic properties of this plant, the slowing and regulating the heart rate. And she said it was similar to digitalis but much weaker and safer. Which absolutely, I am NOT going to go eat a leaf off a digitalis plant that will probably kill you. It has killed many people. Kids grab a foxglove plant, eat something off of it, a leaf, a flower, they die, okay? The digitalis that we know now, use for heart conditions, is a synthetic version of the digitalis

from the foxglove plant in, just say, up until, how long, you know, maybe 1950 or so? I mean, so not even really that long ago. It was an herbal preparation. Digitalis came from Fox Club. And because it is so strong and the strength of the Digitalis in the Fox Club can vary widely from plant to plant, they basically decided that this one farm in Amish country would grow digitalis the same way in the same place every year and all the pharmacists in the United States use foxglove source from that one farm that one Amish farm I think was in

Pennsylvania so that's you know how careful you have to be with digitalis lily of the valley is much safer, much less strong, but still could be poisonous if you mistake a lily of the valley plant for a ramp. The ramps are in season 11, you know. You got to be careful. Don't pick up a lily of the valley because it could slow your heart rate to the point that it stops and you die. Bugle's not going to do that.

No, I guess if you took probably an essential oil, absolutely, you'd probably die from other reasons before that happened. If you had a really super strong tincture and took a whole lot of it, probably, you know. But just picking two or three sprigs, the flowering stalks of bugle and eating them, which is what I do on a daily basis when it's in flower, I consider it a spring tonic, you know, good for the liver, good for the blood, for the lungs, good for everything, right?

It just relaxes you. Just, you're like, oh, like you just had a glass of wine. That's all there is to it. But anyway, she said, in herbal treatment, infusion of this plant is still considered very useful when arresting chemriges and is employed in coughs and spitting of blood, incipient consumption, that's tuberculosis, and also in some biolary disorders, liver

issues, using a wine glass full of the infusion. Now that's a tea and that's specifically one ounce of the dried herb to a pint of boiling water. That's it. In this action, it rather resembles digitalis, lowering the pulse and lessening its frequency. It allays irritation and cough, it equalizes the circulation, and has been termed one of the mildest narcotics in the world and also the best. It has also been considered good for the bad effects of excessive drinking. She quotes an herbalist in 1832 that said, the leaves may be advantageously used in fluctuations and disorders as diarrhea essentially, or it could be internal bleeding, even excessive menstrual

bleeding. Disorders of that kind, as they do not, like many other plants of the same value, produce costiveness but rather operate as gentle laxatives. In other words, it won't cause you constipation. It's not going to dry up your diarrhea to the point you're constipated. He states that a coxswain of the herb has been employed for quinzies in Europe, where the herb has been more employed as a remedy than this country. So she says it's more popular in Europe than in England, at least by the 1930s. So it was already starting to fall out of use

for no apparent reason. She says the roots have, by some authorities, been considered more stringent than the rest of the plant. I've never used the roots. I don't know. You have to experiment with that. So it may be that the digitalis-like compounds in butyl cause it to fall out of flavor.

Favor, I should say. Plants for a future includes the warning while listing its medicinal uses as bugle has a long history of use as a wound herb although it is little used today. It is still considered to be very useful in arresting hemorrhages and also used in the treatment of coughs and spitting of blood in consumption or tuberculosis, the plant contains digitalis-like substances. These are commonly found in digitalis species, that's foxglove, and used in treating heart complaints and is thought to possess heart tonic properties.

It has also been considered good for the treatment of excessive alcohol intake. The whole plant is aromatic, astringent, and bitter. The plant is usually applied externally. It is harvested as it comes into flower in late spring and dried for later use. It is also commonly used fresh in ointments and medicated oils. A homeopathic remedy is made from the whole plant and it is widely used in various preparations against throat irritations and mouth ulcers. The plant is said to be a narcotic hallucinogen that is known to have caused fatalities. Now that's the warning again. I've used I've eaten a lot of bugleweed. I mean every spring daily while it's in flower,

big handfuls of it. I have never found any it to be hallucinogenic in any way shape or form and as far as narcotic deaths just slows the heart rate and blood pressure. But if it was taken in concentrated large amounts I have no doubt that it could cause fatality. Anything that affects the heart certainly could. I did speak with a fellow who said that his mother-in-law, now he's about 70, which would make his mother-in-law, well just say around a hundred, right? I mean she'd passed away, but she had said that I guess back around 1900 you know marijuana was legal so you could go to the pharmacy and get opium, morphine, cocaine and all that they would actually

smoke dried bugleweed flowers as an alternative whenever they didn't have money to get something like that from the pharmacy or they thought it was bad for them. You know you kind of remember around 1900 those were very popular and there was no social stigma attached to what we consider drugs today. So the effects of smoking the bugle were known around 1900. I don't think I've ever tried that. Probably won't actually, but perhaps if you smoked it it would have some pollutant agent quality? I sincerely doubt it actually.

I think if anything it would have to be combined with certain members of the sage family, the salveas which you may remember were kinda popular in the the 90s early 2000s as sort of like a pot alternative but I'm not recommending that and I haven't explored it and I don't know anything about it but anyway I consider it to be a fairly safe verb with you can use with common sense and in moderation but if someone were to just like you know go crazy over it yeah they could probably seriously hurt themselves. So ending with that warning will heed the warning even though I have not found it to be at all hallucinogenic or strongly narcotic or anything of the sort.

As I said eating in three or four spikes of bugle flower has no more effect on me than like a glass of beer, that's it. Now, and it's actually too bitter to eat more of it. So if someone were to actually consume enough of it, they would have to make it into a concentrated form. They would have to make a very strong tincture or try to get the essential oil or something like that. And I have no doubt the essential oil, just like its other mint family relatives would probably be fatal with

I mean really I mean if you were actually to take enough tincture to get really stoned out on it the amount of alcohol you're you were drinking on its own would probably do you and maybe the bugle would help your liver process it as you were drinking I don't know I'm not gonna try that but anyway then remember anything that affects the heart you got to treat with respect but you know on the other hand this herb is so healing to alcohol damaged livers and according to a lot of old authors it would be used as a tea or something to help alcoholics get off of alcohol and heal themselves from

drinking too much liquor. So yeah, I think you could definitely have that potential and I think if used safely it could be fantastic. I mean maybe people ought to really be looking into that. But anyway, as far as edibility, it is quite edible. Its bitterness is similar to radicchio or chicory. And I found just chopping one or two little flowery stalks with a few other herbs, basil, mint, chives,

whatever you have, fantastic in a salad. Well, the mint family, the bitterness of the m, and the bugle with the sweet lettuce and whatever dressing you use is pretty good. You know, mellow it out with some cucumbers and celery, maybe some carrot, a little salt and pepper. Some blanched beans or asparagus, capers, olives, blue cheese, absolutely. Or homemade ranch dressing. I think I've given you my ranch dressing recipe before if not email me I will it's in my omnivores

guide cookbook and I think it's also in my spring foraging cookbook so if you have that on hand you can look it up I'll be glad to share it with you though no problem you know I'm not big on eating a purely vegetable salad so I'm gonna put in some bacon sardines smoked fish grilled beef or chicken boiled eggs Obviously love the blue cheese dressing mustard even a grats always good. I doubt that recipes in my book to be glad to share it You have a little buttered sourdough bread with that a couple glasses of wine long I wouldn't put a lot of bugle in there, maybe one or two stocks and Have it for lunch, take a nap.

This is going to be a real good meal to have, especially with a couple glasses of wine to relax you and allow you to take a nice afternoon nap, maybe a Sunday afternoon. Just remember, my standard disclaimer, it's going to be on the end of the show, but the biblical quote, moderation in all things, that's the key to health. I think most any herb could be toxic in large amounts. Anything could be overdone. But, you know, the Bible also said God made all things and declared them good. So every plant has a use.

It just has to be used responsibly. That's sort of our role as, you know, sentient thinking human beings, stewards of the earth, to use all things responsibly. So I hope you found this one interesting. Obviously from a prepper standpoint, if you've got an herb that grows like a weed and is probably free to you,

I've never known anybody to plant bugle seeds. They just go pull some up where it's growing and stick it in their yard and it eventually spreads, right? So, you've got herbs basically free to you. Has some limited addability, okay, we'll just take that off the list for right now. But is good for bleeding and wounds and diarrhea and the heart could actually help prevent a heart attack,

lower blood pressure, regulate arrhythmia, good for the liver, can help heal a liver from liver damage or protect the liver. I mean, wow, right? I mean, to me, that is a no-brainer. That is an herb you want to be growing and learning how to use. I certainly have and do and yeah to me it's one of the essentials. I mean and for bruising and and all the everything it's good for. Yeah I just think it's one of like the most important herbs you could have growing in your herb garden or find it growing and harvest every year and grow some. It's just fantastic. So anyway, y'all hope you have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you next time. The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not a doctor.

The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine, and there is no governing body regulating herbless. Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs. I'm not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true. I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience and if I believe in herbs, help me. I cannot nor would I tell you to do the same.

If you use an herb anyone recommends, you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, a sensitivity, an underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog, you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices, and not to blame me for anything ever.