WHITE HOREHOUND: DESCRIPTION AND USING

Date: Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 2:34 am

Marrubium vulgare LABIATAE

This is one herb which has proved invaluable to me. Everyone knows the prickly sensation in throat and nasal areas which heralds an old-fashioned, heavy cold. I have proved to my own satisfaction, over and over again, that 8 or 10 small leaves of horehound, crushed and eaten slowly mixed with a tablespoon of honey to counter their very bitter taste, can stop a cold before it really starts if taken as soon as the first uncomfortable “cold feeling” is noticed, within the hour if possible. You can repeat the treatment again several times during the day to be doubly sure if you wish; it will not do you any harm, and the natural vitamin C will most certainly do you good.

I must admit this sounded too good to be true to me when I read repeatedly in old (and newer) herbal writings, “fresh leaves of horehound will ward off colds”. However, I have proved it so often now that I no longer doubt the skill and knowledge of the first herbalist to discover its uses to man, and to prescribe it for colds and chest complaints. Plant minerals and vitamins are easily assimilable into the human body, and quickly go to work against that unnatural state called “illness”.

Horehound has been prescribed for many generations for chest, nasal and sinus congestion, and was often an ingredient in snuff, a social habit that should be revived for its healthy protective cleansing of the nasal area.

The popularity of horehound beer for sufferers from any of these conditions has carried down from the Middle Ages to our own day. One large commercial group I know of markets many thousands of bottles of horehound beer yearly.