So Impressed by Mullein

Megan Venturella
Megan Venturella Posts: 678 ✭✭✭✭
edited November 2020 in Growing Medicinals

I made a tea with equal parts mullein and tulsi, then sweetened it with some raw honey for my son who had a terrible dry cough last year. It was so soothing he came looking for me after his first sip to ask what was in it!

Then this weekend I gave some to a friend whose daughter has a persistent dry cough. My friend believes it's a reaction to black mold in their apartment. I gave her some of the tea to try and the next day the cough was GONE! I just thought it was worth mentioning. I'm so impressed that I'm growing it now.

I know you can make an infused oil with the flowers for ear infections too, but haven't done it yet. I think you can use the leaf as a poultice for swollen lymph nodes too, but I haven't tried that either. Has anyone else had great success with it?

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Comments

  • 7207chablis
    7207chablis Posts: 46 ✭✭✭

    Good to know! Thank you for sharing!

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin
    edited March 2020

    I don't have experience with using this, but knew a boy who had a dry cough from black mold. It was heartbreaking to hear. They are no longer here & I don't know if they would have tried a natural method to rid him of the cough.

    I hope to remember this. It is simple and sounds like it gives a good result.

    Actually, I have a dry cough right now (pretty sure that it is just a regular cold, not Covid). I wonder if it would get rid of it. I might just see as I have both herbs in my cupboard right now.

    @torey Do you know of any precautions or contraindications?

  • herbantherapy
    herbantherapy Posts: 453 ✭✭✭✭

    @Megan Venturella do you use the Mullien leaf or flower? I grow a traditional yellow flower and a pink one too. So far they are lush and beautiful but no flowers. I expect flowers this year as it will be year two in growing them.

  • Melinda
    Melinda Posts: 123 ✭✭✭

    Thank you for posting this! I will add it to my list.

  • seeker.nancy - Central Texas
    seeker.nancy - Central Texas Posts: 795 ✭✭✭✭

    I adore mullien! I tincture the leaves which I dry and it really helps me all year with allergens. I'm trying to get some started here. It is a self seeding biennial plant, blooming in it's second year. I also want to use the flowers in an oil because it is supposed to be great for earaches and skin care. Great info @torey ! I have used the smoke for a really bad cough, just lighting some on fire in a fire proof container and inhaling the smoke. It sounds counter intuitive but it worked for a bad cough I had years ago.

  • Megan Venturella
    Megan Venturella Posts: 678 ✭✭✭✭

    @herbantherapy I've used only the leaves so far. I had a beautiful plant with flowers last spring, but somehow I expected them all to flower at the same time, so I didn't collect them as they bloomed. Duh. I haven't found it growing anywhere, so I started another few plants from seed this spring.

    @seeker.nancy I didn't know it could help with allergies too! I should be giving it to my son!

  • SherryA
    SherryA Posts: 314 ✭✭✭

    I'm going to try that tea! Thank you.

  • alindsay22
    alindsay22 Posts: 129 ✭✭✭

    I use mullein a ton all year round. It's got an affinity for the respiratory system and I feel an important choice for keeping colds/flus from going to the lungs. I drink it in tea a lot during the winter, have it in a tincture form that my kids take whenever they have a cold. When everyone ends up with that dry hacking cough for weeks, my family has the cold and is back up and running soon after. Elecampagne is a good one to use if you feel something starting up in your lungs as well.

  • herbantherapy
    herbantherapy Posts: 453 ✭✭✭✭

    @Megan Venturella thank you. As they are biennial I always have leaves but I don’t always have flowers 💕

  • nksunshine27
    nksunshine27 Posts: 343 ✭✭✭

    mullein is great for a lot of things as noted earlier. onion juice is easier for ear infections though.

    also you can harvest the leaves any time the root the fall of first year or spring before flower of second year ( dont have to strain tea cause of hair on the leaves) it flowers second year but not all at once so collecting the flowers is difficult to keep up with, so that being said you can also use the leaf as toilet paper.

  • Megan Venturella
    Megan Venturella Posts: 678 ✭✭✭✭

    @nksunshine27 It's kind of funny to think i could be growing my own toilet paper now too. Life changed quickly over the course of a month!

  • alindsay22
    alindsay22 Posts: 129 ✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning is the information you've posted your accumulation or from somewhere specific?

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    torey I am so impressed and jealous. I would love to have the chance to study with all of these herbalists. Wish you lived in my neck of the woods so I could come study with you! LOL

    Mine is all from studying whatever I can find online and trying to make sense of it all until I found TNG.

  • soeasytocraft
    soeasytocraft Posts: 237 ✭✭✭

    This is great! I had a plant given to me and had no idea of how amazing the gift was. My mission is to put this plant to better use.

    Is it true the leaves can be picked any time? It was pretty late in the season when I picked them and they have just been stored since I thought they had little value.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @vickeym I would love to visit Alaska. We have talked about it a few times. Possibly getting on the ferry in Prince Rupert, travel up the coast to Anchorage and then travel home by car. I would love to go walk in the woods with a local.

    Have you done the courses offered through TGN? Some pretty good teachers on those courses as well.

    This is a link to Rosalee's Herbal Jump Start course which is being offered for free at the moment. You have to scroll down the page a bit. https://www.herbalremediesadvice.org/rosalee-de-la-foret.html

    @soeasytocraft My information says that they are best picked in the fall of the first year or spring of the second year. Don't wait until too late in the fall or the leaves will have started to lose a bit of vibrancy. In the spring you want to get the leaves before they send up the flower spike. That being said, those are the optimal times to pick leaves for best potency, but if you need them, pick them. They can be used pretty much anytime.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    torey Yes I have been working my way through the courses here on TGN. Have done a bit on Rasalee's site as well. They do sometimes have a mushroom class up here, though it usually happens during my busiest time at work so I haven't been able to even try and participate. I think it runs around $400 but could be more and it is 1 or 2 sessions.

    I know at least once there was a wild edibles walk. But it was not well advertised. By the time I found out it was already taking place and too late to get in on it.

    I am late getting started on my herbal learning, but will continue as often and by whatever means I can.

  • r.lewmir
    r.lewmir Posts: 9 ✭✭✭

    nksunshine27

    Could you explain what you meant by "...the root the fall..."? Do you mean that one can harvest the root in the fall of the first year or in the spring before it flowers in the second year?

  • Vicky M.
    Vicky M. Posts: 74 ✭✭✭

    In addition to the previous comments, a tincture of the root is working wonders on my spine.

  • Megan Venturella
    Megan Venturella Posts: 678 ✭✭✭✭

    @soeasytocraft I'm not 100% sure, but while you probably can pick the leaves any time like you said, my guess is they're best in the spring and before it flowers. It's a biennial.

  • sallyhoward
    sallyhoward Posts: 106 ✭✭✭

    great info, thanks everyone. I will have to get my hands on some.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    @Vicky Morris This is excellent information. Thank you for posting. While I have known about Mullein's properties when it comes to pain relief, I have never used it specifically for the spine like this. But it certainly makes sense. The flower spike is much like a spinal column. A colleague of mine makes a trauma oil using equal parts each of Mullein, Arnica and St. John's Wort oil in combination which is good for any body part that has experienced injury and I have used that for my husband's back with good results for pain relief.

    I would like to caution everyone, though, on the use of Arnica as a tincture. Jim is a very experienced herbalist and obviously comfortable using Arnica as a tincture, however, this is not something that should be done by the home herbalist. Arnica tincture is for use by someone like Jim who has so much training and Knowledge and is done in minute doses, usually single drops. If you wish to take Arnica for pain relief, you can take it as a homeopathic remedy or use it externally as an oil, salve, creme or make a liniment using Arnica tinctured in isoproyl alcohol for external use only. Again, please consult with a trained herbalist before taking any Arnica tincture internally.

  • Vicky M.
    Vicky M. Posts: 74 ✭✭✭

    You are so right to caution to not use Arnica internally, this is an herb I personally would only use externally.

  • herbantherapy
    herbantherapy Posts: 453 ✭✭✭✭

    Half my mullein patch in its second season got decimated by slugs. I cut the plants back and found a big blob of slug eggs! 

    I put out beer and got over 30 baby slugs overnight. Second night no slugs in beer. Tossed Sluggo over remaining plants. 

    Do you think the plants I cut back have time to regrow and bloom this year? 

  • solarnoon.aspen
    solarnoon.aspen Posts: 219 ✭✭✭

    Mullein grows naturally all over our property, so I am lucky!! My daughter in law is a voice teacher and singer herself and is extremely protective of her throat. She uses it constantly in a tea format to sooth along with Lemon Balm. I send huge packages (don't weigh much cause and Lemon Balm are light) to her every year. Last Christmas, I dug up a few baby plants that had begun nearby and sent that and a seed head to my son to plant in their garden.

    Thought it would start them on their own patch.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    Here are my 8 little babies! The parent plant died a couple years ago. I only had it for 1 season.

    I had forgotten that I stored some seed, but found it this spring when I tested other seeds...so, I did the same with these. I am so happy that they were still viable! I can't wait until they are grown.

    Time to go water them. They look very thirsty.

  • nksunshine27
    nksunshine27 Posts: 343 ✭✭✭

    @torey also look up homegrown herbalist that is the classes im also doing he has a lot of youtube videos also