Antiviral Herbs
Contrary to popular belief, antibiotics don’t cure all infectious conditions. They only kill off bacterial infections.
But we get them prescribed to us for viral infections and everything in between, simply for the reason that antibiotics are great for treating the symptoms, even if they don’t do squat for the underlying reason that those symptoms are there in the first place, that fight is left to your own immune system.
This has led to a very serious problem that no one expected; antibiotic resistance.
Now that we’ve been pumped full of the stuff for every case of strep, chicken pox and the common cold, that did not do a single thing to kill the viruses that caused them in the first place, our immune systems have adjusted accordingly.
Now when we really need antibiotics for actual bacterial infections that CAN kill us, the antibiotics that can save us just don’t work anymore.
The reason our bodies build up a resistance is because it actually needs about 98 percent of the bacteria in the body. Without them, we can’t digest food and they even kill off the bad bacteria that doesn’t belong there.
Natural antibacterial herbs don’t kill every bacteria they come across, and they don’t encourage your body to build up defenses against them like the pills do.
They come in, recognize what doesn’t belong there, add a little good bacteria to help with the fight and they tackle the bad guys head on, while relieving your symptoms in the process.
Take a look at some of nature’s natural antibiotics, how to grow them and use them to their fullest advantage.
Garlic
Garlic been through the ringer in the lab, and everytime it comes out superior to even the pharmaceutical stuff. The main reason for this is because it contains astronomically high amounts of allyl sulphides, ajoene and allicin.
All of them have antibacterial and antiviral properties, and concentrated forms of them are used in modern antibiotics too.
And since we’re on the subject of antibiotic resistance, garlic’s been put to the test as recently as 2022 to treat resistant strains of bacterial and viral infections to great success.
You’ll get a fair amount of it in your system as it digests in your stomach, but for optimal release of these compounds, give the raw garlic a slight knock beforehand with the flat end of a knife. You just need to break the outer layer.
Garlic and onions are related to each other, and as you know onion releases a mist that makes your eyes burn when the skin is penetrated.
Garlic releases its compounds in very much the same way when it’s broken up just a little. By letting it rest for 10 minutes before use, whether that be raw or in cooking, will give you twice the punch than it normally would.
And most of us just attribute garlic to helping us with internal conditions like colds and infections, whether they be viral or bacterial. And while this is absolutely true, we forget that it treats outward infections just as well. Viral, bacterial and fungal, we told you Garlic has no limits. Working raw garlic into a salve or tallow will make you stink, sure, but it’s going to clear up your skin rashes and funky toes better than foot powder and steroid cream will. Otherwise, just cook it into your food as you normally would, making sure to have more garlic infused dishes than you normally would when you’re sick.
Growing garlic isn’t exactly hard either. They just need a little shade and some good nutritious soil and they’ll be perfectly happy. And if your area is a little too hot for the cool climate plant, there are warm variety species out there if you ask around for them.
Echinacea
Echinacea is another one of those very well known herbs that’s in just about every medicinal garden. Seriously no natural pharmacy should go without it. It’s been around to cure the respiratory tract for centuries. Like garlic, it goes both ways, bacterial and viral.
But since it’s mostly known for the chest and the throat, people fail to realise that it’s just as good for outward scrapes, rashes and even to treat gum disease and tooth infections. And while it’s treating whatever bug is trying to make a home in your chest or on your skin, it will reduce the swelling that usually comes with infections.
The great thing about Echinacea is that it’s appropriate for children, the elderly and everyone in between. Salves, teas, tinctures, there’s no limit to how you can use it. Even a few petals in your warm bath water goes a long way to treat your rashes and it gives you a better night’s sleep to boot.
And it’s not like you can kill it, no matter how bad of a gardener you are. Most people actively allow it to go a little wild between their vegetable patches because bees love it and it keeps bad pests away.
It’ll grow right until the snow comes, and when spring rolls around, it’ll have thrown down enough seeds to replenish what the frost killed off.
Seriously, they’re so pretty and so easy to keep alive that it’ll be a shame if you didn’t take advantage of one of nature's most prolific natural cures that it gives to us so freely.
Oregano
Oregano is one of those back of the rack herbs that you almost only see in Italian cooking, and given that it’s got a relatively mild taste, people don’t really bother keeping it permanently in their kitchens. This is an absolute tragedy.
Oregano is one of the most well rounded herbs from a medicinal standpoint that you can find. It’s easy enough to grow that you’ll always have a fresh supply at hand. And when you use it fresh, its flavour is amplified so much more than the dehydrated herbs in the grocery store are.
It’s got a great deal of antioxidants in it, which will help you expel any foreign invader. But it’s in the carvacrol where the magic lies. This compound has shown to be effective against mutant strains of streptococcus and it even manages to put up a good fight against the notoriously resistant staph infections.
Outside of fighting bacteria inside and outside, it also treats acne, parasites, warts, indigestion and heck, even dandruff.
Warm compresses are good for arthritic joints and overworked muscles. But no matter what you’re treating, it needs to be concentrated as much as possible.
Give your bushes a trim and boil it down for 20 minutes, more if you want to add it to salves, to get the optimal amount of punch.
Again, nature’s given us a powerhouse that’ll grow anywhere. All it needs is sunshine and not to be too heavily overwatered and you’ll always have more than you know what to do with.
Unless you have chickens, they absolutely love it, and it’s great to fight off parasitic infections and mites for your hardworking egg layers.
Aloe
Aloe is often overlooked as a staple in medicinal gardens, just because people think that it’s hard to grow them. But they grow just as easily as any other succulent would, and with just as little effort.
They just need heat, and a little space, because they can get quite big and they’ll appreciate the extra room to stretch out in.
Aloe is mostly used for outward skin conditions to treat everything from simple rashes, acne, scar removal and even more serious conditions like psoriasis.
But the plant actually contains a great deal of polyphenols. They stop bacteria cultures from growing and spreading, allowing your white blood cells to come in and kill off the bacteria that can’t multiply any more. Then the antioxidants come in and expel the lot, both dead and alive from your system.
It’s going to cost you a pretty penny to get the plant, or you can grow them from cuttings if you know someone who already has one.
If it’s hot and you have a little corner to spare, you’ll have one of the best bacterial fighters at your disposal for many generations. And a nifty wrinkle remover too!
Wormwood
Wormwood is a relatively unknown herb sort, since it originates from Northern Africa and the Middle East. It’s most often used by farmers and homesteaders to treat parasites in their livestock, so its use as a human medicinal aid gets overlooked.
It has a compound called terpine, the same compound that gives camphor its strong odour. Camphor is the stuff that goes into Vicks VapoRub, in case you were wondering.
Terpine is good for treating all of the soft tissue infections, including those inside the mouth. It can be added to teas and eaten raw to treat internal bacterial infections, but it’s so horribly bitter that very few people go to the lengths to consume it, even though it’s perfectly safe to do so.
Even farmers need to snipper it fine and hide it amongst other, tastier feed to trick their animals into eating it. By adding it to more pleasant tasting antibacterial herbal treatments like honey and mint, you can increase your intake by a lot more than you would if you were eating it on its own.
But mostly we mention it for outward conditions, because that’s where the lab results agree overwhelmingly. It's been used in its raw form to treat surgical scars instead of antibiotics in mice to great effect.
And it’s on this list because it's so easy to grow that it’s more equivalent to a weed than anything else. If there’s enough heat and just a little bit of water, wormwood’s going to take over every inch of your garden if you allow it to.
Cayenne Pepper
All of the chilli peppers have antibacterial properties. But Cayenne peppers have some of the highest concentrations of vitamins and minerals that you can ask for.
Everything from your various B and K vitamins to minerals like iron and magnesium. Honestly the list of what cayenne contains is so long that we should just make a whole video dedicated to it instead.
It’s on our list because of the Capsaicin that it contains. That’s also what gives peppers and chillies their burn. Capsaicin doesn’t fight infection, but it does reduce inflammation by an enormous amount, allowing your white blood cells better passage to come through to do the fighting.
Then it’s followed by all those antioxidants to dispose of the dead cells that your immune system took care of and it brings in all of the vitamins and minerals you need to rebuild all of the cells and tissue that got damaged in the height of the infectious stage.
We cannot stress just how well it treats inflammation, even debilitating arthritis is treated by adding more spice to your diet. And there’s nothing special about how you need to get it into your system, just a few flakes, and a whole lot of flavour, is going to give your system the boost it needs to get fighting.
Diabetes, blood pressure, weight loss, colds and sores, skin, digestion and joints, cancer and dental health. Name a condition and a bowl of spicy chilli is going to get you halfway to curing it all, or at least give your system the tools it needs to do so all on its own.
Chillies and peppers of any kind are considered the perfect beginner plant for anyone starting a garden. In your window sill or in the raised bed, they just need sun, good soil and a dish waiting to receive them.
Mint
We equate mint with relief from congestion and see it as nothing more than a relief of the symptoms brought on by colds and allergies.
But there's a lot more to this devil of a garden invader than just clearing up all that backed up snot in your nose. Its antibacterial properties is the main reason it's used in toothpaste, not just because it tastes good. You have to realize that gum disease was one of the most prolific killers in ancient times.
Getting a tooth infection was often a death sentence, but the introduction of toothpaste has eradicated even the memory of how deadly it could be and that's all thanks to the introduction of mint and all of it’s cousins, spearmint, peppermint…it doesn’t matter what kind you have, they come with all of the good stuff you need.
Mint actively kills germs, any kind of germ, be that viral or bacterial, so obviously it’s going to be good for any bacterial infection you have going on from your mouth all the way down to your rectum.
That entire digestive tract will be cleansed out of anything that had plans of multiplying with just a simple cup of peppermint tea. Blood sugar, blood pressure, weight loss, digestion and stress, mint’s good for all of it, and it’ll destroy any invaders just like it destroys other plants with its prolific creepers that can spread far and wide.
So please keep it in a pot and give it regular trimmings, or it’ll get out of hand.
Thyme
Thyme, as unassuming as it is, actually tackles some big league bacterial infections. E. Coli, Listeria and MRSA.
Back in the day it was used as a disinfectant for surfaces as well as wounds. It’s so good at killing germs and contaminants that it’s even a pretty good organic option for disease control in the garden.
Its ability to kill germs should tell you all you need to know about it, and it translates that disinfecting properties to the inside of the body too.
There’s a whole host of things it can aid, from chronic conditions like diabetes, blood pressure and asthma, all the way to your everyday bugs and icks.
Having it regularly as a part of your diet is a great preventative measure. But when you’re sick and you want the absolute most of the benefit it needs to be concentrated by boiling a whole bunch of it down.
It can be drunk as is, once it’s cooled down of coarse, or had as an addition to tea and tinctures. For all of your skin infections that concentration can be worked into tallow or a water based cream to work as a salve. And then of course it can be had raw too.
But thyme is so strong in its concentrated form that it can kill off the natural, good bacteria in your gut, just like antibiotics can. So keep some probiotics at hand to replace the good microbiome in your gut. It does everything that antibiotics do, just without the antibiotic resistance that comes from overuse.
And like all of the other herbs on our list, it’s a simple little plant to keep alive. It just wants sunshine and a regular trim.
Keep your climate in mind to get a variety that likes your weather. Some varieties are slow growing, whereas others are so prolific that they can be a bit of a monster to control. So do your research.
Other Good Antibacterial Plants
And finally there are a few very good antibacterial plants that we’ve avoided mentioning, just because they might be a little harder to grow.
Cinnamon, turmeric and ginger are up there in antibacterial properties, but both require very specific conditions in which to grow.
Sundews, the carnivorous plant that’s very similar to the more popular Venus Fly Traps, have a very interesting medicinal repertoire, but again it’s a terribly finicky plant to grow.
Acacia and Juniper trees are large and very reliant on specific climates. And it’s illegal to grow cannabis, but luckily buying hemp oil is perfectly legal and readily available.
Ready to get started growing?
Check out this amazing Medicinal Garden Kit. All these seeds have been handpicked from the very best plants, as I wanted nothing less than premium quality.
With your seeds kit, you’ll also receive a FREE copy of Herbal Medicinal Guide: From Seeds to Remedies. This guide will show you how to turn these 10 plants into tinctures, ointments, salves, poultices, decoctions, infusions, essential oils —all in minute detail so you can follow our guide even if you’ve never made an herbal medicine in your life.
