Lanting
Plantago major Linn.
PLANTAIN, WAY BREAD, RIBWORT
Ch'e-ch'ien

Other scientific names Common names   
Plantago crenata Blanco  Lanting (Tag.)  Cart tract plant (Engl.)
Plantago erosa Wall.  Llantin (Span.) Way bread (Engl.)
Plantago media Blanco  Ribwort (Engl.) Broad-leaved plantain (Engl.)
  Wild saso (Engl.) Ch'e-ch'ien (Chin.)
  Plantain (Engl.)

Botany
· A perennial herb, the leaves of which occur in a rosette near the ground.
· Leaves: oblong or oblong ovate, 5 to 10 cm long, with entire or toothed margins, usually 5-nerved, and borne on petiole often as long as the leaf blades.
· Flowers: usually in crowded or erect, slender spikes, 6 to 12 cm long; corolla small and smooth, with the lobes spreading or reflexed. Sepals ciliated.
· Fruits: capsules, ovoid, about 3 mm long and containing 2 cells. Each cell has 4 to 8 angular, very minute seeds.

Distribution
Found in cultivation and occasionally on wastelands at medium altitudes.

Parts utilized
· Seeds and leaves.
· Harvest the seeds when fruits are ripe, fully grown with a plump and shiny.
· Sun-dry.

Constituents
Citric acid; aucubin; glucoside; invertin and emulsin.

Properties
· Slightly sweet, cooling.
· Antipyretic, stomachic, diuretic, lymph deobstruent.

Folkloric uses:
· Boils, furuncles, abscesses: Cover the lesion with fresh crushed material.
· Anuria and dysuria due to beriberi: Concentrated decoction of the whole plant or seeds. Use 9 to 15 gms of the whole plant or 6 to 12 gms of seeds.
· Severe cough with plenty of phlegm which cannot be smoothly expectorated: Concentrated decoction of the whole plant or seeds with bark of Morus alba
· Insomnia, bloody urine, urinary lithiasis, nephritic edema, beriberi edema, hypertension, bronchitis: Decoction of 30 to 60 gms of dried or 30 to 90 gms of fresh material.
· Reddening and swelling pain of the eye.
· For furuncles, eczema and various skin irritation: Poultice of pounded fresh material.
·
Gum inflammation or gingivitis: Use decoction as mouth wash or as gargle.
· Skin irritation: Apply decoction over affected area.The powdered seeds may be mixed with oil for treatment of dermatitis.
· Used as antidote and diuretic. Also used as poultice for sores, particularly inflamed fingernails. A watery extract of the seeds is given for whooping cough. To purify blood, stomachaches, and malaria, the whole plant is boiled and the decoction is taken internally as a diuretic for stone in the bladder.

Availability
Wild-crafted.