Heal All Plant (Self Heal Benefits & Herbal Uses)

Last Updated on May 7, 2025

Ever heard of heal all plant? Also known as self heal, this multipurpose herb has numerous benefits and uses, from wound healing to addressing allergies and viral infections. It’s also easy to grow, so you can have an abundant crop to harvest right outside your door.

Read on to learn more about self heal, Prunella vulgaris.

Getting to Know Heal All / Self Heal Benefits & Uses

Every season I learn about a new wild herb and add it to the growing number of medicinal plant allies I turn to often.

I got to know heal all a few years ago and planted some in my garden. One of the more shade-tolerant herbs, heal-all is often included in mixes for seeding flowering lawns.

Known also as heal-all, selfheal, self-heal, or carpenter’s herb, the heal all plant (Prunella vulgaris) is a member of the mint family.

As always, when you’re getting to know a new plant, it’s vital to look at its Latin name, since there are often other plants that go by the same common name. Apparently bugleweed (Ajuga) and an herb called sanicle (Sanicula) sometimes also get called self-heal. Occasionally selfheal goes by the name woundwort, as do several other plants.

While sometimes counted among wild edible plants, self heal is not the tastiest options for would-be foragers. Sam Thayer considers it “among the poorer leafy greens…only worth mentioning as food because it is so ubiquitous.” If you’re determined to try it anyway, he recommends harvesting just the earliest leaves in spring and boiling the leaves, draining, and cooking a second time.

Since heal all is such a wonderful medicinal plant, this doesn’t seem like the best use of it, and there are so many more tasty edible wild greens to seek out instead.

Top Medicinal Uses for Self Heal

As the name ‘heal-all’ implies, this useful plant has been used to address a wide range of maladies. Used much more frequently in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) than Western herbalism, self-heal is often used for liver support and conditions like eye swelling and pain, and headaches.

But many North American herbalists note self-heal’s many useful properties and maintain it’s underutilized. Below are some of the top benefits of heal all to explore.

1. As a Cooling Herb

Like other mints, self-heal is one of many cooling herbs that can cool down body temperature internally or with external hot conditions like rashes. Matthew Wood calls out the mucilaginous quality of selfheal as especially helpful for poulticing wounds.

Add heal-all to your iced herbal tea blends in summer for extra cooling power in your drink.

2. For Fighting Viral Infections

Heal all has a long history of use for relieving sore throats and fighting viral illnesses, and modern research supports its use as an antiviral. Research suggests that self heal interferes with the ability of viruses to attach to receptors in our cells, inhibiting viral replication.

I keep a self-heal tincture on hand for fighting off viruses. When I have extra from my garden I’ll sometimes add it to my wild tea blends for an extra boost of antioxidants and immune support.

Heal all also being studied for effectiveness against herpes viruses.

3. For Healing Wounds

Like another powerful wild plant, plantain, selfheal has long been a go-to for wound healing and can be used for outdoor first aid. You can make a poultice from self-heal for cuts and scrapes similar to the way you would for plantain. (Find out more about uses for plantain, a super-common plant with some impressive superpowers.)

4. For Moving Lymph

A beloved lymphatic herb, self heal promotes the movement of lymph, which plays a key role in delivering nutrients to our cells, clearing out waste, and defending us from infection. Here’s more on the lymphatic system if you want a refersher.

Additional Uses & Benefits

Other studies have suggested that self-heal may have anti-inflammatory properties, and some research has found it may be beneficial for thyroid conditions, diabetes management, and for addressing certain types of cancer.

Cautions Using Heal All

Note that research suggests heal-all has strong anti-estrogenic effects. While potentially useful for addressing estrogen-dependent cancers, if you’re dealing with low estrogen (for instance in menopause), self-heal may be an herb to approach with caution.

Additionally, because selfheal is strongly cooling, it’s generally not recommended when cooling isn’t wanted or for those with weak digestion.

As with so many medicinal plants, we have little or no data about self heal’s interactions with other medications or safety during pregnancy. Always consult with your doctor before taking a new herb.

Heal all is one of many wonderful herbs to learn more about! Pick up one of these excellent herbalism books to discover more wonderful herbs to add to your herbal apothecary.

Love learning about medicinal uses for plants like heal all? Be sure to check out the many wonderful courses you can take at the Herbal Academy. They have introductory through advanced herbalism courses, plus lots of courses on topics like foraging, botany, herbal skin care, and many more. Click the banner below to explore their offerings!

Sourcing Heal All

Interested in trying out heal all for yourself? You have three options for sourcing it: Grow it, forage it, or buy it.

Growing Self Heal / Heal All

I recommend growing it so you can have an abundant supply at the ready when you want it. Foraging heal all is certainly an option, but it relies on there being plenty near you and requires you going out to find it.

If you grow herbs yourself, you can keep an eye on them to protect them from pests and ensure they get enough water. Consider planting a medicinal herb garden filled with your favorite herbs, and you’ll always have what you need.

Since selfheal is often included in flowering lawns, another option is adding some where you currently have grass.

But not everyone has the space to grow all the herbs they might want, so foraging is certainly another option to consider.

Foraging Self Heal

Many foragers report finding self-heal growing wild in abundance, though it doesn’t near where I live.

If you want to forage self-heal yourself, be sure to follow these foraging guidelines:

The first rule of foraging is to always make absolutely certain to positively identify any plant you intend to consume.

Don’t rely on memory or plant identification apps when foraging a plant for the first time. Consult a quality field guide to check multiple features of the plant, not just the flower or leaf, as many plants can have similarities. Eating a toxic lookalike rather than an edible plant can make you very sick, and in some instances prove deadly. When in doubt, don’t eat it.

–> Be wary of the many guides currrently being published that were written by AI. Use a trustworthy foraging guide vetted by foraging experts. The best guide I’ve ever found is Sam Thayer’s Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants, pictured below. Here are other top foraging books to consider adding to your library.

Other things to bear in mind:

It’s best to avoid areas treated with chemicals or that have a history of industrial use. Many plants take up heavy metals and contaminants from the soil, and you don’t want those in your herbs.

Take only what you will use. Leave plenty for plant regeneration and animals. Generally it’s advised to take around ten percent of what’s there. Though in cases of invasives like garlic mustard, harvesting as much as possible actually helps the ecosystem.

Be mindful of the law. Public lands often have regulations regarding foraging. Check local guidelines and get permission before you forage on private property.

Identifying Self Heal / Heal All Plant

Habit and habitat: Self heal is low-growing perennial that can reach heights of a foot or more. It prefers moist and disturbed soil and can be found growing in lawns, along the edges of forests and fields, and by rivers and streams. Plants spread through rhizhomes, so they will often form clumps.

Leaves and stems: Like other members of the mint family, self-heal has square stems and opposite leaves. Leaves are lance-shaped and have smooth edges or a few blunt, irregular teeth. Unlike most mints, selfheal has little smell when its leaves are torn.

Plants may send up a single stem, or multiple. Sometimes stems will branch, supporting multiple flowerheads. Lower stems are typically hairless or nealry hairless, while the upper stems have more hair.

Flowers: Self heal is easiest to recognize when the flowers are in bloom, but you will often be able to spot dried flowerheads from the previous season to help you identify newly-growing plants.

Flowers grow in clusters along the length of the flowerhead. Each flower is tubular in shape and can be pinkish or purple. Flowers have two lips, the upper one hood-shaped, and the lower one with three lobes, the center one fringed.

Lookalikes: The characteristic flowerheads make self heal easy to identify and hard to confuse with other plants, though Sam Thayer notes when young, heal all plants can be mistaken for fringed loosestrife, which he classifies as “edibility unknown.”

Some other wild plants with purple flowers bear a passing resemblance to heal-all, but when you get to know the distinctive flowerheads, you’re very unlikely to misidentify it. Ajuga, ground ivy, henbit, and purple deadnettle are likewise edible and medicinal, so if you harvest one of these instead, be sure to make use of them. You can find descriptions and photos of all these plants in our post about weeds with purple flowers.

Buying Self Heal

You can buy dried self heal to use in tea or to make tinctures, or you can buy already-tinctured selfheal from an herbalist or herbal products company. It’s not one of the more commonly-available dried herbs, so you may have better luck acquiring a tincture.

Mountain Rose Herbs is considered by most herbalists to be the best source for quality herbs. They sell both dried self-heal and seeds.

How to Use Self Heal

Externally

Selfheal leaves and flowers can be ground up to make a simple poultice that can be applied to minor wounds to prevent infection and promote healing.

You can also brew heal-all into a strong tea that can be applied as a compress.

A tincture can also be used topically to clean wounds and promote tissue repair.

Internally

Self heal can be used in infusions on its own (though the flavor isn’t great) or with other herbs. Add fresh or dry flowers and leaves to other more flavorful herbs, like lemon balm, mint, or tulsi.

If you’re purchasing selfheal, you’re more likely to find it as tincture. You can also make your own tincture using dried or fresh herbs. Here’s how to make a tincture from Herbal Academy.

Because self-heal is an excellent herb for wound healing, it’s often incorporated into salves. If you’d like to try making your own salve, check out this tutorial.

Which parts are used?

In Chinese Medicine, only the mature fruit spikes are used. In Western herbalism, mostly the flowerheads and leaves are used, though some herbalists also use the stems.

Save this info on self heal / heal all for later!

Disclaimer: I’m a health enthusiast, not a medical professional. Content on this website is intended for informational purposes only and is not meant to provide personalized medical advice. I draw on numerous health sources, some of which are linked above. Please consult them for more information and a licensed professional for personalized recommendations.

Additional photo credits: Cover and pin photos by step2626