Useful information

Mullein: medicinal and beneficial properties

Softens and envelops

About medicinal types - in the article Medicinal mullein and their cultivation.

Dense-flowered mullein

Even Hippocrates and Aristotle knew about mullein. The first one successfully treated wounds with mullein. Aristotle pointed out that the substances from the mullein are poisonous for fish (he did not yet know such substances as saponins, which, getting through the gills into the blood, cause hemolysis of erythrocytes) and by scattering seeds into the water, the fishing process can be facilitated. Dioscorides recommended its leaves for all lung diseases.

Hildegard of Bingent recommended mullein for "sad heart", for any internal inflammation and against coughing. For chest pains and loss of voice, she recommended preparing mullein broth with fennel fruits in good wine. Given that the genus Mullein is very numerous, many species are used in folk medicine, but in scientific medicine in our country the main species is the mullein (Verbascum densiflorum).

Raw materials. As a raw material in scientific medicine, flower corollas with stamens are harvested. This is done in June-August, when the bulk of the plants bloom. Each flower blooms only one day: in the morning it opens, and in the evening it withers and falls. Blooming flowers with a bright yellow color are harvested in the morning after the dew has dried. Collected in damp weather or in the evening, they turn brown and lose their medicinal properties. Flowers can be harvested from the same plants within 2 months. The collected raw materials are immediately dried in attics with good ventilation, spreading in a thin layer (1-1.5 cm) on paper or cloth and stirring occasionally. In good weather, the raw material dries up in 4-5 days. You can dry it in dryers or ovens at a temperature of 40-50 ° C, sprinkling it on sieves. Drying is finished when the corollas become brittle.

Store raw materials in well-sealed jars. Mullein flowers are extremely hygroscopic, with an increase in air humidity they damp, and with further drying they turn brown, which gives the raw material an absolutely unappetizing look.

In folk medicine, in addition to flowers, leaves and grass harvested during flowering are used.

 

Active ingredients

Corollas of mullein flowers contain up to 2.5% mucus (and in the leaves up to 8%), which include D-galactose, arabinose, D-glucose, D-xylose, L-rhamnose, D-mannose, uronic acid; 0.5-4% flavonoids (hesperidin, verbascoside, luteolin, apigenin, kaempferol, quercetin, rutin, chrysoeriol), polyphenol carboxylic acids (vanillic, ferulic, caffeic, hydroxybenzoic), triterpene saponins (verbascosaponine) , β-carotene), iridoid glycosides (aucubin, catalpol, isocatalpol), sugars (about 11%), up to 2.4% fatty acids (palmitic, linolenic, myristicic), essential oil, gum, malic and phosphoric acids, and others substances. In addition, the raw material contains macro and microelements: potassium (17.3 mg / g, magnesium (1.9 mg / g), iron (0.22 mg / g, manganese (49.2 μg / g), zinc (23 , 6 μg / g), selenium (0.05 μg / g), etc.

 

Application in official and traditional medicine

Dense-flowered mullein

Infusions from flowers are used for diseases of the upper respiratory tract (the effect is due to the presence of saponins and mucus), and preparations from fresh grass are used in veterinary medicine. Mullein flowers are used in scientific and folk medicine as an antitussive, anti-inflammatory and emollient for catarrh of the upper respiratory tract, accompanied by a cough. Luteolin has an anti-edema effect, triterpene saponins and steroidal saponins have an anti-asthmatic effect. Mullein preparations are also used for gastrointestinal diseases. They soften catarrhal phenomena on the mucous membranes of the oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, stomach and intestines. Used as an enveloping agent.The mucous substances of the mullein protect the mucous membrane from irritating factors, alleviate pain at the site of application, reduce painful reflexes, spasms and tissue swelling.

The oil infusion of flowers has been used against colic and colic in Germany, ear pains, frostbite, eczema and other diseases. External use of various types of mullein in many countries is recommended for the treatment of warts, suppurations, carbuncles, hemorrhoids. Recent studies have found that the skeleton mullein contains glycyrrhizin derivatives with bactericidal and potential antitumor effects. These substances are concentrated in flowers, in addition, iridoids, primarily aucubin, exhibit bactericidal action.

Infusion of flowers, and less often leaves, is taken for coughing, hemoptysis, whooping cough, pneumonia and bronchial inflammation, severe rhinitis with lacrimation, shortness of breath, asthma, hoarseness of the voice. Infusion of flowers is also used for diseases of the liver, spleen and inflammation of the stomach and intestines. Leaf decoction or herbal teas have been used to cough up dry coughs, bronchitis, sore throat, and hemorrhoids. The combination of the expectorant action of saponins and the emollient properties of polysaccharides makes the infusion especially effective for coughing.

Home use is optimal in the form of aqueous extracts. For cooking infusion of flowers take 1 tablespoon of dried mullein flowers, insist for 4 hours in two glasses of boiling water in a closed vessel, filter, and filter it thoroughly, through a fine sieve or paper filter, so that the villi from the raw material do not irritate the mucous membrane, add sugar or honey if desired. Take warm 0.5 cups 2-3 times a day 0.5 hours before meals for colds accompanied by sore throat, cough. When treating inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, it is better to refrain from adding sugar.

Alcohol tincture of flowers used for rubbing as an anesthetic for rheumatic, arthric and especially nervous pain. 50 g of flowers are insisted for 2 weeks in 0.5 liters of alcohol or vodka. Used for rubbing into sore spots.

In Germany, the flowers were infused with olive oil and used as microclysters in the treatment of hemorrhoids.

In Ireland and England, mullein was considered an effective remedy for pulmonary tuberculosis. It is prepared as follows: take 100 g of fresh or 30 g of dry leaves per 1 liter of milk, bring to a boil, leave for 10 minutes. During the day, you need to drink up to 2 liters of this drug.

In homeopathy, mullein in the form of drops is used for otitis media.

 

Other application

There is a rather peculiar French recipe for how to return the color to gray hair. Burn dry mullein plants, collect ash and mix it with laundry soap. Shampooing in this way restores hair color. But according to other sources, the decoction of the flowers slightly lightens the hair.

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