Herbals for
Coughs
With proper herbal (and water therapy) treatment, most chest involvements should not go beyond the early stage. Strengthen the total body with daily cold foot splashes or treading. Add seeds of anise, cloves, nutmeg, and licorice sticks to herbal drinks on a preventive level. Use any of the following herbs, depending on the respiratory condition: *
Almond Drink Grind several almonds into powder, and
steep that in a pint of cold water. This is a nutritious drink for fever and will help "soften" the cough.
Anise Make an anise tincture by crushing a handful of anise seeds in a pint of inexpensive brandy. Steep this for two weeks, then strain out the seeds. Use a teaspoon of the resulting liquid at a time added to hot water or hot herbal drink (peppermint, for instance). An excellent (but more complex) tincture of anise is available as anisette liqueur. Purchase a bottle in the liquor store, and keep it on hand for emergencies. Use several tablespoons of anisette, and dilute it with a small amount of water to soothe the hacking of chronic bronchitis or to help alleviate an asthmatic attack. This is usually very effective.
One tablespoon of garden radish juice, squeezed from the root
and taken three times, is helpful in decreasing coughs and soothing
a hoarse voice.
Elecampane was one of the most important herbs to the Romans and
Greeks. By the nineteenth century it was widely used for stubborn coughs and
congestion, colds, bronchitis, neuralgia, and skin problems.
Benzoin (Tincture): The tears of this resinous tree are an excellent aid for coughs. Buy it in tincture form in a drugstore, and add it to the vaporizer "well," The fumes help alleviate minor chest conditions and also help to clear the skin of impurities.
Camphorated Oil Purchase oil of camphor in the drugstore, and rub it on the chest to bring blood to the surface and ease chest pain.
(Wild) Cherry Add a teaspoon of wild cherry bark extract to any herbal drink, such as chamomile, linden (lime blossoms), peppermint, horehound, and so on. It will relieve an irritable cough. The extract is available in health food stores, gourmet sections of food stores, and some drugstores.
Coltsfoot Coltsfoot, once such a famous herbal simple that it was the symbol for all apothecaries in France, is now practically unknown. Yet this common weed can also be grown in the garden. Make a tea of the leaves with licorice and honey to alleviate coughs. Coltsfoot leaves may be smoked like tobacco to cure a cough. A well known British herbal tobacco contains half coltsfoot leaves and small amounts of dried leaves and
flowers of the herbs eyebright, thyme, lavender, chamomile, buckthorn, and betony. It is smoked in various parts of Europe to alleviate asthma attacks.
Another coltsfoot cough tea includes a half ounce each of coltsfoot leaves, horehound leaves, comfrey root, hyssop, and vervain, with one stick of licorice. Steep the mixture in 3 pints of boiling water, and stand it for half a day. Use this tea in teaspoon doses throughout the day.
Dock (Yellow Curled) A few drops of yellow curled dock tincture in a hot herbal tea will help with a tickling cough.
Elecampane The root of this stunning yellow flower is the basis of many ancient cough medicines and sweetmeats. It is a powerful antiseptic, delicious and effective in a lozenge, and in tea form is considered a help for old coughs as well as for those patients who have trouble breathing "unless they hold their necks upright." To use elecampane, boil I tablespoon of the root in I pint of water for ten minutes, then strain and cool the liquid. Use this also to help regulate menstruation and (high) blood acidity.
Garlic Make a garlic tincture by placing three to four peeled buds in brandy. Steep this in a dark closet for fourteen days. Use several drops at a time, several times a day, for coughs or asthma. Garlic is an exceptional cleanser for the body and has antimicrobial action similar to other antibiotics.
Ginseng Use 1/8 teaspoon of pure Korean or Siberian ginseng in hot herbal tea or hot water. Ginseng powder tea frequently eliminates a tenacious cough unresponsive to other medicines.
Honey Add honey to any herbal drink, or simmer honey and washed and cut lemons in water to prepare a hot honey lemonade. Keep on reusing the old lemon rinds, and add fresh cut lemons and additional honey. This is an effective, inexpensive cough easing, soothing remedy.
