Identity
mediumHill explicitly separates water plantain from true plantain, saying it has little resemblance except in the leaves; this supports keeping Plantago evidence distinct from lookalikes.
Found in the Hermetikon archive
Plantain
Plantago major
Plantain appears in Hermetikon as an archive-backed plant entry, with references across historical medical, magical, symbolic, and ritual contexts where the source texts support them.
- Risk
- low concern
- Books
- 26
- Contexts
- 5
- Mentions
- 208
Archive Profile
Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.
Herb identity
- Common name
- plantain
- Latin name
- Plantago major(ambiguous)
- Identity note
- This is the herb Plantago, not banana plantain.
Safety
low concern
Generally low concern; allergy is possible.
Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.
- EMA HMPC: Generally low concern; allergy is possible.
Aliases
plantainPlantago lanceolataPlantago major
Plantain in Historical Sources
Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.
Hermetikon's curated reading of Plantain (Plantago major) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 2 preparation or ritual-use entries. The strongest recurring contexts are medicine and identity. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.
Medicine
mediumHill preserves the practical use of bruised plantain leaves applied to inflammations, while cautioning that the cooling application is not always right.
Identity
mediumFrazer's plantain-stem and banana passages are ritual evidence for banana plantain, not Plantago major, so this archive thread is separate from greater plantain materia medica.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1906
§ 6. Hunters and Fishers tabooed.
Preparations and ritual uses
Bruised leaf application
mediumHill notes the custom of applying bruised plantain leaves to inflammations for cooling ease, while warning that it is not always appropriate.
Identity caution
mediumFrazer's plantain-stem rite concerns banana plantain used for ritual cleansing after taboo, not the Plantago herb.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1906
§ 6. Hunters and Fishers tabooed.
Plantain Archive Contexts
Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.
Medicine
3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: King's American Dispensatory.
Matched as plantain; medium confidence.
Astrology
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as plantain; medium confidence.
Preparation
6 passages across 6 books; strongest source: Ritual and Belief.
Matched as plantain; medium confidence.
Ritual
2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as plantain; medium confidence.
Safety
2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: Culpeper's Complete Herbal.
Matched as plantain; medium confidence.
Plantain Cited Excerpts
Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.
The Family Herbal
John Hill
1755
"... a custom of applying these leaves bruised to inflammations; they cool and give ease, but it is not always right. WATER PLANTAIN. *Plantago aquatica.* A VERY common tall plant in ditches, and having not the least resemblance of any kind of plantain, except in the leaves; from which, however, it has received its name. The root is composed of a great quantity of fibres. From this, there rise in spring a number of leaves, oblong, broad, smooth, and of a beautiful green colour, and having in shape, though not at all in colour or consistence, some slight resemblance ..."
Page 409Open in Reader
Preparationalias: plantainmedium confidence
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter
1854
"...d 989 Hawtlioni I(il3, 1930 Englisli 1613 Hazel 1229 beaked 1292 Hazelnut, snapping 974 Heal all 1737. 1741 Heart-baved plantain 1515 Heart liverleaf 985 He irlsease 2079 Hebbakhade 1300 Hectographs 916 H.d a 976 piilegioides 976, 1360 tbvmoides 977 Hedeomol 1361 Hedera 978 Heli.x 978 Hederin . . ., 978 Hedge garlic 1761 mustard 1761 nettle 1126 Hedi.'e-bvssop 955, 956 He 4 Hedvsa rum Alhagi 123S Heera l-ol 1300 Ileerabole 1299 Hilenin 1058, 1059, 1325 llelenium 979 nutuninalc 979 tenuifolium 979 parvitlorum 979 Helianthemum 979 GENERAL IXDEX. Helianthemum corvm..."
Page 1302Open in Reader
Medicinealias: plantainmedium confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1912
"... and north-eastern hills a curious feature of the ceremony is the manufacture of guré or ‘horses’ out of pieces of plantain-stem for the body, and of bamboo for the head and legs. The image of the ‘horse’ is laid on the floor of the nokma's house, and the assembled guests dance and sing around it the whole night long, with the usual intervals for refreshments. Early the next morning, the ‘horse’ is taken to the nearest river and launched on the water to find its way down stream on the current. For those who possess the necessary paraphernalia, the g..."
Note: The Ceremony of the Horse at Rice-Harvest Among The Garos.Open in Reader
Preparationalias: plantainmedium confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1906
"...ds, and afterwards rinsing his hands in water. If there was no water near, he rubbed his hands with the juicy stem of a plantain or banana. After that he was free to feed himself with his own hands without danger of being attacked by the malady which would otherwise follow from eating with tabooed or sanctified hands. But until the ceremony of expiation or disinfection had been performed, if he wished to eat, he had either to get some one to feed him, or else to go down on his knees and pick up the food from the ground with his mouth like a beast. He might not e..."
§ 6. Hunters and Fishers tabooed.Open in Reader
Preparationalias: plantainmedium confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1890
"...ds, and afterwards rinsing his hands in water. If there was no water near, he rubbed his hands with the juicy stem of a plantain or banana. After that he was free to feed himself with his own hands without danger of being attacked by the malady which would otherwise follow from eating with tabooed or sanctified hands. But until the ceremony of expiation or disinfection had been performed, if he wished to eat he had either to get some one to feed him, or else to go down on his knees and pick up the food from the ground with his mouth like a beast. He might not ev..."
6. Hunters and Fishers tabooedOpen in Reader
Preparationalias: plantainmedium confidence
Books Mentioning Plantain
Complete public source inventory, placed after the interpretive reading so the page opens with the most useful synthesis first.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper | 1653
plantain
106 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1890
plantain
10 mentionscited
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1908
plantain
9 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1912
plantain
9 mentionscited
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
plantain
9 mentions
The Family Herbal
John Hill | 1755
plantain
6 mentionscited
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
plantain
6 mentionscited
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854
plantain
5 mentionscited
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1890
plantain
5 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1913
plantain
5 mentions
The Gospel of Buddha
Paul Carus | 1894
plantain
4 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
plantain
4 mentions
Psyche's Task
Sir James George Frazer | 1909
plantain
4 mentions
Tradition and Mythology
Lord Arundell of Wardour (John Francis Arundell) | 1872
plantain
3 mentions
Ritual and Belief
A.W. Buckland | 1891
plantain
3 mentions
Primitive Manners & Customs
James Anson Farrer | 1879
plantain
2 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1916
plantain
2 mentions
Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton | 1621
plantain
2 mentions
Human Animals
Frank Hamel | 1915
plantain
2 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1913
plantain
2 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1913
plantain
2 mentions
The Serpent Power
Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) | 1919
plantain
2 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1890
plantain
2 mentions
Clavis Astrologiae Elimata
Henry Coley | 1669
plantain
2 mentions
Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim | 1533
plantain
1 mention
Miscellanies
John Aubrey | 1696
plantain
1 mention