| Coughs and Catarrh |
| Take a phlegm-reducing infusion made with hyssop, anise, elder or goldenrod | Make a tea of horehound, ground ivy, angelica, red clover, wild cherry or elecampagne roots. Add lemon and honey if desired. | Drink an infusion of honeysuckle leaves and flowers. | Make a syrup by sliciing fresh elemcampagne roots, covering them with sugar and baking them for an hour or two. |
| Decoct quince seeds, about one ounce to 1 cup boiling water. Let sit for an hour and strain. Take with equal amounts honey as a cough syrup or for hoarseness or sore throat. | Make a pectoral (chest plaster) of sage, barley and turnips. | Make a chest poultice of boiled onions. | Make a mustard plaster with egg whites and flaxseed meal, applied over a piece of gauze. Check at regular intervals to avoid burning or irritating the skin. |
| Induce sweating. | Take a hot bath with eucalyptus in the water. (Check first to make sure your skin is not sensitive to eucalyptus.) | Drink mullein flower tea. | Drink a tea of onions and wild lobelia. |
| Horehound Lozenges Biol 1 cup horehound leaves in 1 cup water for 20 minutes. Cool well. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth, reserving the decocted liquid and discarding the dregs. Add 2 cups sugar and 2 TB corn syrup or honey. Boil again, then reduce heat and simmer. Cook, stirring constantly until the syrup reaches hard-crack stage. (300 F) Butter a baking dish and pour in the syrup. When the candy has cooled slightly, score and break into drop-size pieces. Roll in granulated sugar if desired. Use as cough lozenges. (Caution - Do NOT use in large doses as horehound can be a purgative and cause irregular heartbeat.) |
Make a tea of boneset, elder flowers, peppermint and yarrow to help break up mucous. | Eat raw garlic. | Inhale the steam of chamomile tea. |