Verbascum thapsus flowers and leaf — the soft, woolly roadside plant whose flowers were infused in oil for earache and whose leaves were smoked and steeped for the lungs. A complete foraged respiratory medicine.
Mullein is dooryard and roadside lung medicine — the tall yellow-flowered stalk that a family knew to dry for winter coughs and infuse for a child's earache. In communities far from doctors, a warm drop of mullein flower oil in an aching ear was real, accessible relief.
Mullein leaf is one of the great lung herbs — its mucilage soothes irritated airways while its saponins act as a gentle expectorant, loosening congestion. This is why mullein leaf tea (and the old practice of smoking dried mullein) was used for coughs, bronchitis, and asthma. The yellow FLOWERS, infused in warm oil, make the classic folk earache drops, with anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial action (verbascoside). Together the plant treats the whole respiratory tract from ear to lung.
Leaf: dry and steep into a tea, STRAINED THROUGH CLOTH to remove the fine irritating hairs. Flowers: pack fresh yellow flowers into a jar, cover with olive oil, and warm gently for weeks to make ear oil (a few warm drops in the ear for earache). The big soft first-year leaves were also famously used as 'nature's toilet paper' and as a warming poultice.
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