What bitter mint is a cough remedy?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
November 4, 2002
Horehound (Marrubium vulgare Linnaeus) is a strongly flavored member of the Lamiaceae or mint family. It is native to Europe, North Africa, and Asia, and has become a nuisance species in Australia and North America. The plant spreads easily and is frequently found along roads and in fields and pastures. Horehound's medicinal use dates back to Rome and Egypt. Gray's Manual of Botany (1950, reprint 1989) suggests that Marrubium is derived from the ancient Hebrew marrob meaning 'a bitter juice'.
John Gerard (The Herbal, 1633 ed.) recommended "Common horehound boyled in water and drunke, openeth the liver and spleene, cleanseth the breast and lungs, and prevailes greatly against an old cough, the paine of the side (pleurisy?)....
"Syrrup made of the greene leaves and sugar, is a most singular remedie against the cough and wheezing of the lungs. The same syrrup doth wonderfully and above credit ease such as have lien (lain) long sicke of any consumption of the lungs, as hath beene often proved by the learned Physitions of our London Colledge."
Mrs. Grieve gave a recipe of horehound, hyssop, rue, liquorice root, and marshmallow root. "For children's coughs and croup, it is given to advantage in the form of syrup, and is a most useful medicine for children, not only for the complaints mentioned, but as a tonic and a corrective for the stomach." (A Modern Herbal, 1931, reprint 1996)
Horehound contains marrubiin and premarrubiin, diterpene lactones. These diterpenes apparently are effective as an appetite stimulant and an expectorant. The Physicians Desk Reference for Herbal Medicines (First ed., 1998) states "The drug is used for dyspepsia, loss of appetite, bloating and flatulence and respiratory catarrh (bronchitis)." Because of its bitter flavor, horehound is not as popular as it once was, but remains an ingredient in herbal cough drops.
The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation has great photographs of horehound. To view the photographs, click on the link:
http://www.noble.org/imagegallery/Forbhtml/Horehound.html
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the close-ups.
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