Herb Alley Mullien

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HERB ALLEY

Mullien
(Verbascum Thapsus)

COMMON NAMES: Aaron’s rod, blanket-leaf, candlewick, flannel-flower, feltwort, great mullein, hedge-taper, Jacob’s staff, mullein dock, old man’s flannel. shepherd’s club, velvet dock, velvet plant.
MEDICINAL PART: Leaves, flowers.
DESCRIPTION: Mullein is a tall biennial plant which grows in clearings, fields, pastures, and waste places from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast. The tall, stout, simple or branched stem bears alternate, thick, felt-like, light green leaves, whose stems are winged by decurrent bases. There is also a basal rosette of larger, obovate-lanceolate or -oblong leaves. Yellow, sessile flowers grow in cylindrical spikes, 1 to 3 inches long, from June to September.
PROPERTIES AND USES: Anodyne, antispasmodic, demulcent, diuretic, expectorant, vulnerary. Mullein tea makes a good remedy for coughs, hoarseness, bronchitis, bronchial catarrh, and whooping cough. It can also be used for for gastrointestinal catarrh and cramps in the digestive tract. The flower tea will help relieve pain and induce sleep. For external use on inflammations or painful skin conditions, use the tea or a fomentation of the leaves boiled or steeped in hot vinegar and water. For nasal congestion or other respiratory problems, breathe the vapor from hot water with a handful of flowers added. The crushed fresh flowers are also said to remove warts. A poultice of leaves or the powder of fried leaves can be used for difficult wounds and sores.
Another of the “most excellent” respiratory herbs, mullein is useful for all lung complaints both as a remedial and a tonic.
This is one of the old household herbs we have used from childhood. The root has been successfully used for many years in asthma. For this purpose, burn the root and inhale the fumes. A tea of the leaves is very valuable in asthma, croup, bronchitis, all lung affections, bleeding fom the lungs, difficult breathing, and hay fever. The tea is good as a throat gargle, for toothache, and for washing open sores. A tea made from the flowers will induce sleep, relieve pain, and in large doses act as a physic. The fresh flowers, crushed, will remove warts. Formentations wrung from hot tea made from the leaves are helpful for inflamed piles, ulcers, tumors, mumps, acute inflammation of the tonsils, and malignant sore throat. Formentations are excellent in any glandular swelling. This is a splindid remedy taken internally for dropsy, catarh, swollen joints. Boil for a few minutes on ounce of mullein in a pint of boiling water or milk and take a half teacupful after each bowel movement, for dysentary, diarrhea, and bleeding of the bowels. For swollen testecles or scrotum apply fomentations for one hour three or four times a day wrung out of the tea. These fomentations are good for any kind of swelling or bad sores.
PREPERATION AND DOSAGE:
Infusion: Steep 1 tsp leaves or flowers in 1 cup water. Take 1 to 2 cups a day.
Tincture: Take 15 to 40 drops in warm water, every 2 to 4 hours.

The Herb Book by John Lust
The Science and Art of Herbology by Rosemary Gladstar.
Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss.