Herbs For Wounds
I’m disaster-prone. If you’ve ever heard the joke “careful, gravity is really strong here”, well, gravity is really strong for me everywhere. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been falling, bumping into things, dropping things on my feet, and generally bumbling through my life — and growing up on a farm did me no favors. As I got older I did a lot more ab and back exercises, I went for more runs, and did other balance exercises to correct whatever literal imbalance was present throughout my body, but unfortunately I’m still a bit of a klutz. A downhill walk on a gravel road? I’m going down. My phone slips out of my hand? It’s nailing the top of my barefoot. I’m wearing socks and walking down a staircase? Bad news: I’m bruised. Woe am I to be cursed with such thin skin and low proprioception!
But maybe you’re not like me; maybe you’re an absolute tank of a human being with veins made of steel and skin made of carbon-fiber. I must say, I envy you and death to the cyborg overlords (!!!), but that doesn’t mean you’re excluded from all forms of injury. Using herbs to heal wounds doesn’t mean surface wounds alone. Many of the herbs we’ll discuss here have deep, healing actions on epithelial tissues throughout the body, or they promote liver health for toxin clearance, or bring they energy to hormone regulation or gut balance. These herbs are seriously astounding, and they have virtually no side effects — unless you count being generally happier and healthier a side effect to clearing bruises, cut, scrapes, stings, rashes, etc.
Today we’re going to talk about my top three herbs for wounds, then we’re going to get into three more that are very strong, but regarded as toxic. My top three herbs for wounds are calendula, yarrow, and St. John’s wort — we refer to these herbs as “vulneraries”. These have been my specialist team in resolving bruises, scrapes, acne, etc., efficiently and leaving me healthier than I was before. The last three we’ll cover are arnica, chaparral, and comfrey; not to be taken internally, but sill wonderful healers to be employed when necessary. At the end I’ll throw in a couple of my favorite antibacterials, antivirals, and antifungals to mix with your vulnerary of choice for even better healing, but I’d love to dive right in to these beauties! However, before we dive deep, we need to make a quick disclaimer: if you have a deep wound that’s bleeding profusely, go the hospital! Obviously! You might need stitches, friend. Remember: herbs are powerful allies, not magic bullets.
Calendula - Calendula officinalis
Sound the bells for this beauty! She’s been used since antiquity for wound healing. You’ve probably heard of her by her other name: pot marigold. Yes, this common garden plant is an astounding healer!
We’re starting off strong with Calendula officinalis, or calendula. John Heinermann once wrote “where there is calendula, there is no need of a surgeon”; such a fitting description for this healer. An herbalist reading this post would probably wonder why I’m not saving the best for last, but I must confess if I didn’t write about calendula first I’d just be thinking about it the entire time. The color perfectly fits the action: it looks like fire, and it energetically cauterizes wounds. A quote from Dr. William J. Clary, of Monroeville, Ohio, found in The King’s Dispensary, summarizes the importance of calendula as such: "As a local remedy after surgical operations, it has no equal in Materia Medica. Its forte is its influence on lacerated wounds, without regard to the general health of the patient or the weather…It has been tested by several practitioners, and by one, is used after every surgical operation with the happiest effect. You need not fear to use it in wounds, and I would not be without it for a hundred times its cost” (Felter & Lloyd, 1898). I couldn’t have said it better! No one should be without a salve of calendula in their medicine cabinet. Calendula has been used in the treatment of tetanus, gangrene, herpes zoster, shingles, chicken pox, measles, HPV, and more.
What makes calendula such a rich, healing herb? A lot actually: flavonoids, polysaccharides, vitamin C, tocopherols, carotenoids, beta-carotene, and more. Each of these chemical constituents plays a big role our bodies’ intricate healing cascades. Flavonoids are excellent sources of antioxidants, among many other things. Polysaccharides help modulate our immune systems in case of an infection (calendula is a great antibacterial, antifungal, and antimicrobial). Vitamin C is a well-known remedy for beating illness and healing the body, and “tocopherols” is just a fancy name for vitamin E, a wonderful healer for the skin. Beta-carotene and carotenoids are used by our bodies to make vitamin A, one of the most important vitamins in healing. It’s hard to undersell just how important vitamin A is for every step healing surface and internal wounds, so it makes sense that calendula would be storing it up. All of these constituents work together to provide healing to various tissues across our body. It’s wild to think that calendula was being used as a healer long before we knew about its chemical constituents, but now that we do, it confirms what tradition already established!
This beauty can be used as a wash for any wound anywhere, as a tea taken internally, topically as a salve, as a tea bath, and you can even eat the flowers in a nice summer salad if you’d like! The uses for this herb go as far as your imagination: eye infections, muscle aches, vaginal irritation, cuts, scrapes, intestinal infections, it can be used against a cold, ulcerative colitis, gastric ulcers, eczema, radiation-induced dermatitis, sprains, strains, stings, and so much more. Calendula flowers can seriously relieve and can even heal so many ailments. No wonder there’s no need for a surgeon with calendula! Honestly I could write a book about calendula and love every minute of writing it. This herb is such a powerful, but gentle healer.
One of the contraindications for this flower is that it’s actually so healing, you shouldn’t use it topically on deeper wounds, since it can heal the surface too quickly and trap nastiness in the still-healing wound below. Of course, if you have a deep enough cut, please go to the hospital. Otherwise, calendula is safe for everyone. If you experience an allergic reaction then you should stop taking it, but those are few and far between. I’ve used calendula topically to great effect for annoying paper cuts, shaving wounds, blisters, bites, and bruises, and I’ve used it internally for muscle aches, skin health, and general wellness. It’s really become quite a staple for me whenever I need a tea that promotes healing.
We’ve already established that calendula can be used for anything, but if I had to make a tea with it, I think it would be so beautiful for a mama after giving birth, or a marathoner after their big race. They could drink a cup or two of this after they’ve calmed down and switched into healing mode for a boost of healing power! Calendula would mix beautifully with the other vulneraries included here for a healing tea. Say we’re formulating for the mama and the marathoner: ceteris paribus, my tea would be calendula flowers, nettle, marshmallow root, some cinnamon, and finally raspberry leaf for the mama / hawthorn leaves & flowers for the runner. That would be a super nutritive-rich, healing tea for both!
Yarrow - Achillea millefolium
Is the genus ringing any bells? “Achillea” is a nod to Achilles, the invincible man of legend. Yarrow was said to have been used to staunch the bleeding of roman soldiers during the Trojan War.
Quick history lesson: the oldest record we have for the use of herbs dates back to 60,000 BC. Included in a burial site in Iraq were such herbs as ephedra, marshmallow, and our star: yarrow. We don’t know exactly why these herbs were included in the burial site, but I image someone lost a loved one due to illness and wanted to bless them with health in the afterlife. What a romantic introduction for yarrow! As I mentioned, yarrow gets it’s latin name — Achillea millefolium — from Achilleas and its power to quickly staunch bleeding, and other ancient names for it like “woundwort”, “bloodwort”, “staunchweed”, and “carpenter’s weed”, all point back to its healing properties. Cultures across the world such as the greeks, romans, dutch, native Americans, and more used yarrow for all manner of things, from it’s traditional healing actions to superstitious and ceremonial usage.
Yarrow contains a wide variety of minerals, many of which act as important co-factors for the body during healing. It also includes our precious flavonoids, some salicylic acid, tannins, sterols, fatty acids, volatile oils, and more. Salicylic acid is a fun chemical because we actually know it: it’s used in aspirin. Aspirin contains acetylsalicylic acid, a chemically modified form of salicylic acid, so if we consider salicylic acid in that context we can better understand how powerfully anti-inflammatory it is. However, in a herbal preparation, salicylic acid is balanced by other phytochemicals and often has none of the side effects of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, while being just as effective over time. Tannins are wonderful molecules that tighten and tone our tissues. This isn’t to say yarrow will make your skin tighter or drier necessarily, but it will help pull tired or lax tissues back together, and with all of the incredible minerals yarrow tends to have, it will make those tissues function like a well-oiled machine! Even if tannins were to make you drier, yarrow has sterols promote collagen production and improve healing and skin elasticity. The fatty acids will also help with wound repair and overall cellular regeneration, since every cell wall in our body contains fatty acids. The volatile oils are hard to get in a tea (oil is hydrophobic), but in a tincture (a concentrated alcohol preparation) they come out great and provide stimulating and healing actions to the nervous system, GI, immune system, and every surface they touch.
These incredible phytochemicals have made yarrow a famed healer for tens of thousands of years. It’s quite possible that you’re only sitting here reading this because your great, great, great, great, great, great grandparent used yarrow to stay alive after a dangerous encounter with a predator! Or maybe your mom used it on you as a kid a few years ago to help sterilize and heal your cuts and scrapes. Either way, yarrow has been humanity’s healer for as long as humanity has had healers. Yarrow reduces inflammation wherever it goes: if you drink it internally, it’ll decrease inflammation in the GI and across the body; if you use it topically, it’ll decrease inflammation around the wound. Internally and externally yarrow also reduces passive hemorrhage, reduces excess menstruation, calms blood pressure, and strengthens the vasculature. Additionally, yarrow is a supreme fever remedy. It’s specifically indicated for healing hot, dry fevers where perspiration is needed to help break the fever.
The only issues one could run into when taking yarrow are either actually just being allergic to it, or taking it under the wrong conditions. God forbid you have been in a terrible calamity and you’re hemorrhaging blood, picking some yarrow off the side of the road isn’t going to help, you need to go to a hospital. Additionally, if you’re running a high fever from a UTI that turned into kidney infection, or maybe you have a bone infection, etc., yarrow might bring the fever down but you still need to go to the hospital. Yarrow also shouldn’t be used during pregnancy. It can definitely be used immediately following pregnancy to help stanch bleeding and repair a woman’s body from the stress of labor, but since drinking yarrow for a long time can end up stimulating menses it’s best to remain cautious during pregnancy. Finally, we talked about yarrow for fevers since it helps cool the body and increase perspiration; if you drink too much yarrow you might feel those effects whether you’re feverish or not. Maybe that doesn’t matter to you at all, or maybe you’re like me and you really hate sweating, either way, just be aware of those effects. In summary, if your not pregnant, you don’t have any allergies in the Asteraceae family, and you want to drink an appropriate amount of yarrow every day, then you’re good to go!
So how are we going to use this beauty? Let’s say you have bleeding gums, or maybe a bit of blood in your stool, maybe you’re bleeding too much on your period, or you have a nosebleed, etc., and it’s not gushing out of you, so you want to see if you can stop the bleeding holistically. Go into your beautiful storage room of herbs that you’ve been slowly building up overtime (or if you’re like me, trek your way out to your local apothecary), and make a tea with yarrow, cinnamon, shepherd’s purse, and a bit of codonopsis for a wonderful, vital tea that will help stop/slow the bleeding and bring restoration to the tissues.
St. John’s Wort - Hypericum perforatum
SJW usually gets pigeon-holed as an antidepressant, and for good reason! SJW is an amazing antidepressant, but it’s not as well known for it’s vulnerary effects. As it can deeply heal the mind, it can also deeply heal the body.
Have you ever wanted to feel better and feel better? St. John’s Wort (SJW) is often exclusively considered as an herb for those experiencing depression, and for good reason: it provides wonderful stability to a sad, fearful nervous system. However, it’s also a great vulnerary, especially when combined with calendula. I personally have a SJW salve that I’ve used on breakouts, dry skin, cuts and scrapes, bruises, and more. I had received the salve from a friend, but I’d never considered SJW as a topical herb (I was still early in my education) so I was surprised I could use SJW topically. I never really did any research on it, I just used it on everything to see what would happen, and it was a great healer! Acne disappeared overnight, bruises healed faster, my skin glowed, and my bruises dissipated faster. I later went out and wildcrafted my own SJW oil — I threw a bunch of SJW flowers in olive oil — and I use it on just about everything now. I like the salve better because it’s easier to apply, but the oil is relaxing and rejuvenating. I recently used the oil on a suspicious spider bite that didn’t have any sighs of being poisonous, but was definitely causing inflammation (red splotches around the bite, mild swelling, heat, etc.). I applied a bit of the oil and an icepack, then went to bed and hoped for the best. By the next morning, all the inflammation was gone and all that was left was a tiny red patch and two, tiny puncture marks. After subsequent applications of SJW (along with some healing salve from my local apothecary for good measure), the whole ordeal was completely healed.
But enough about personal anecdotes! What do we know from historical and modern studies? SJW has been used since ancient Rome for healing of the brain and body, but also to ward off evil. It was refered to as “hypericon” because it was traditionally hung above (hyper-) a statue or figure (-icon), or a doorway, to protect against demons, witches, and other sorts of evil. This is thought to come from the fact that it’s beautiful yellow flowers contain blood-red hypericin, which comes out in oil. Hypericin is highly medicinal, but it definitely makes you feel like you’re a witch when your oil goes from gold to ruby red and suddenly you have a liquid can heal everything. Paracelsus the Great (1493-1541 AD), a renown thinker in medicine, talks about SJW (he uses the name “hypericon”) as a treatment for wounds (4), and mentions it later as “arnica for the nerves” — I could not find the original text for this quote, but regardless, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the general understanding of the time. SJW was, and remains, an extremely popular remedy mainly for the nervous system, but also for topical healing.
The main focus of SJW research has been on hypericin and hyperforin, but it contains so much more like flavonoids like kaempferol, quercetin, luteolin, and more, tannins, phenolic compounds, nicotinic acid, choline, amino acids, essential oils, and even trace amounts of melatonin (5, 6). All of these compounds work synergistically to provide a myriad of internal and external healing, but the main studies have focused on hypericin and hyperforin since they are thought to be the main drivers behind the antidepressant effects. However, hypericin and hyperforin are also both anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial, and studies show that hyperforin promotes faster wound healing (7). More studies are being done on the wound-healing properties of SJW, but since it’s such a powerful antidepressant, these studies are often seen as less important. However, SJW is so safe to use that I’d encourage anyone to keep some on hand and gauge it’s healing powers for yourself.
The only contraindication for SJW that I’ve found it that ingesting too much can lead to skin photosensitivity for a bit — it makes your skin a bit more sensitive to light which makes sunburns a bit easier to get. I burn pretty easy, so I tend to tone down my SJW use in the summer, but in the winter this is such a great internal remedy especially for those with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) during winter. Personally, I don’t have a fun time in winter — my mind produces all the blues that the sky is missing! SJW, hawthorn berries, ginger, oat straw, and a bit of elethero would be a wonderful tea for someone in the dark depths of SAD. If they’re missing the light outside, this will help them shine from within. It would also be deliciously nutritious and good digesting of those heavy winter meals. However, back to the topic at hand: SJW can be used topically to treat any cuts, wounds, scrapes, bruises, mild bug bites, etc. Don’t use too much during the summer if you’re particularly prone to sunburns, and if you experience an allergic reaction, obviously stop taking it!
Chaparral, Arnica, Comfrey
I had to include this picture of comfrey. I can hardly stand how pretty it is! The flowers look like little ballgowns! The leaves are the medicine here, but you can always grow this just for those little flowers if you want. They come in all kinds of pretty colors!
Why am I lumping all the powerful herbs in at the end? Shouldn’t I do a deep dive on all three of these? I’ll definitely do my best to give you a proper rundown of these herbs, but unlike calendula, yarrow, and SJW, you won’t be using these long term, so there’s no need to dive into every little thing about them. Chaparral, arnica, and comfrey should be used topically as salves, poultices, or gentle washes when you are in need of healing, and they shouldn’t be used for more than 2 weeks at a time — and many powerful herbs like these should only be used for 4-6 weeks out the whole year. They all affect your liver or other organs, and can shut down or damage many vital processes. I like to think of them as modern pharmaceuticals: when taken appropriately they get the job done quickly and powerfully, but take too much of them for too long, or too much all at once, and they can seriously harm, or even kill you. Each of these herbs has been used traditionally for hundreds, if not thousands, of years so there’s no need to feel nervous about them as long as you use them safely and properly.
Larrea tridentata (Chaparral): This herb has been used for all manner of things from colds, to arthritis, worms, and cancer, but topically it’s one of the best antimicrobials out there. The active constituent in chaparral is nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA), which is a powerful anti-inflammatory, but it’s long been used for it’s ability to kill microbes in wounds. It’s not well understood what exactly is causing the toxic effects seen by ingesting chaparral, but kidney and liver damage has been observed with long term internal use, so it’s best to exercise caution and only use internally. A chaparral salve is a great addition to a hiking first aid kit in case you get scratched or stung by something in the woods. Chaparral is sure to help reduce inflammation and kill any unwanted microbes hiding out. You can find chaparral salves from various homeopathic websites, or if you live near a desert you can try to seek some out and make your own salve!
Arnica Montana (Arnica): I have personally used arnica to heal some pretty nasty bruises. Years ago I fell and totally wrecked my knees. They were bruised black and blue, and I could barely walk, but I had to go to work in two days, so I used some arnica salve and ice packs to expedite the healing process. I probably used too much arnica salve, which isn’t great, but it didn’t matter to me at the time because I was back on my feet by Monday to work on my feet all day at a coffee shop. Arnica has helped me through tough bruises ever since I was a kid. It has epic constituents like sesquiterpene lactones, flavonoids, terpenoids, phenolic acids, and essential oils, which together exhibit “antibacterial, antifungal, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, antiradical, antisclerotic, and antioxidant activities” (2), aiding the body in the healing process. The culprit in toxicity here is a specific sesquiterpene lactone called helenalin. While helenalin actually still has some anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer actions, it can also cause liver damage, GI damage, and even spleen damage when taken internally at high doses. Topically, though, you’re good to go! You can find arnica gel in your local store, from last I remember. Maybe not in a small country store, but Whole Foods, Walmart, and most places with an herbal aisle should have some stocked.
Symphytum officinale (Comfrey): Comfrey is a doozie. It’s also known as “bone-knit” — can you guess what it does? This beauty binds bones! This one is a doozie because it’s basically perfect: it contains winning constituents such as allantoin, rosmarinic acid, and tannins. People in the beauty community might recognize allantoin as a key ingredient in their face creams. Allantoin hastens the regeneration of skin, connective tissue, and bone (side note: one of the herbs I really wanted to include here was plantain leaves; they are loaded with allantoin and the tea has helped rejuvenate my skin on several occasions!). I’ve had herbalists deny this story, but I read in an old book that a farmer once accidentally cut his toe off so his wife soaked rags in a comfrey decoction, put the severed toe back on his foot, and wrapped the area in the rags. When he woke up, his toe was re-attatched (OooOoO WEEeeE OoOooO!) (3). Seems like a miracle herb…but here’s where the bad news comes in: while comfrey expedites healing at the deepest levels, taking it internally is a no-go. While containing so many good things, it also contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), and this chemical constituent can do some serious damage to the liver leading to conditions such as liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, or liver failure over time. If you decide to grow your own comfrey, harvest the adult leaves, as they’ll have less PAs than the young leaves. Today, whatever you buy off the shelf has probably been standardized to remove a majority of the PAs, but whatever you use, practice caution to only use it topically for two weeks, then take a break for a month or so. Comfrey acts so quickly that you might not need it for more than a week anyways.
I promised a short addition to those who finished reading this post! Many people think of herbalism as a kind of esoteric practice where you have to use herbs you’ve never heard of to achieve a noticeable change, but some of my favorite antibacterials/antivirals/antimicrobials/antifungals are actually probably sitting in your kitchen right now! Rosemary is a stand out antibacterial, and so is garlic. Garlic can kill just about anything, and it’s a class remedy for ear infections. Anything in the mint family, and/or with those wonderful volatile oils, will often be antimicrobial to some extent, so peppermint, rosemary, lavender, lemon balm, etc., are also good during a fever or on a wound. Some are more antibacterial/antimicrobial/antiviral than others, but they’ll have those healing properties in some amount. Of course I could go on about ginger, cinnamon, and cayenne, as fantastic herbs for blood stimulation and cleaning, but then I’d just be starting a whole new guide. This short little addition is here to serve as a reminder that healing is never far from you. Don’t feel like you have to travel the world to eat some ancient root only found in the most remote river valleys of the congo just so you can feel more awake in the morning or heal an injury faster. Sometimes the remedy you need is already with you.
Sources:
(1) Felter, H. W., & Lloyd, J. U. (1898). King’s American dispensatory. Ohio Valley Co. April 17, 2025, https://archive.org/details/kingsamericandis02kinguoft/mode/2up
(2) Sugier, D., Sugier, P., Jakubowicz-Gil, J., Winiarczyk, K., & Kowalski, R. (2019). Essential Oil from Arnica Montana L. Achenes: Chemical Characteristics and Anticancer Activity. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 24(22), 4158. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24224158
(3) I’ll come back with this citation! I’m moving and all my books got packed up, but I know exactly which one it was.
(4) Paracelsus The Great. (1894). Hermetic and alchemical writings of Paracelsus (A. E. Waite, Trans.). James Elliot And Co.
(5) Salehi, B., Sharopov, F., Fokou, P. V. T., Kobylinska, A., Jonge, L., Tadio, K., Sharifi-Rad, J., Posmyk, M. M., Martorell, M., Martins, N., & Iriti, M. (2019). Melatonin in Medicinal and Food Plants: Occurrence, Bioavailability, and Health Potential for Humans. Cells, 8(7), 681. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells8070681
(6) Klemow KM, Bartlow A, Crawford J, et al. Medical Attributes of St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) In: Benzie IFF, Wachtel-Galor S, editors. Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects. 2nd edition. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press/Taylor & Francis; 2011. Chapter 11. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92750/
(7) Takada, H., Yonekawa, J., Matsumoto, M., Furuya, K., & Sokabe, M. (2017). Hyperforin/HP-β-Cyclodextrin Enhances Mechanosensitive Ca2+ Signaling in HaCaT Keratinocytes and in Atopic Skin Ex Vivo Which Accelerates Wound Healing. BioMed research international, 2017, 8701801. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/8701801
