Was asked about this just this week so guess it's from the same newsletter.
Found this description in Jim Duke's Handbook of Medicinal Herbs:

Geranium maculatum ( cranesbill or wild geranium)
note: not to be confused with Pelargonium - which most non-gardener types
think of as "geranium".  This plant is a common-in-Minnesota hardy wildflower
which my deer do not eat, nor do they eat the other species of "wild geranium"
I grow in my garden.

Considered an astringent, diuretic, stypic, tonic.
Roots and leaves used by many North American1st Nations.  Duke supplies long
list of applications in folk medicine of which only the most pertinent are
listed here:  Cherokee used root decoction with wild grape for thrush, canker
sores, wounds.  The Fox applied  bruised root poultices to anus to shrink
piles.  Duke also described general use of plant to treat "swellings".  No
specific mention of  use for sore nipples.

One curious use: The Nevada filled a trench with warm ashes, in which the
mother, 1 month postpartum, lay relaxing, and drinking geranium tea to keep
her safe from pregnancy until after the baby's 1st birthday.  Duke notes the
tea was probably the most widely used medium of birth control amongst many 1st
Nations.

High tannin content. 10-28% tannins ( which would argue against internal long-
term use) which hydrolyses to gallic acid and geranium red; gum resin, starch,
sugar and calcium oxalate ( also not so good for you).

If using leaves on the breast, would give thought to any residue as the taste
could be pretty bitter and/or alum-like in the mouth.  Use of tannins on
nipple wounds a questionable activity - this stuff way beyond black tea leaves
in tannin-content.


Sheila Humphrey
BSc RN IBCLC (who spent the day driving around in a March blizzard...)