What Is Horehound - Marrubium Vulgare?

Other Common Names: Common Horehound, Hashishat Al Kalib, Hoarhound, Houndsbane, Itsinegiotu, Marrubio, Niga-Hakka, Qutainah, White Horehound, Wild Horehound, Woolly Horehound, Marrubium vulgare

Range: Britain; Europe; Iraq; Kurdistan; Mexico; Sicily; Spain; Turkey; USA

Habitat: Downs, waste places and roadsides. White Horehound is a hardy plant, easily grown, and flourishes best in a dry, poor soil.

The Romans esteemed Horehound for its medicinal properties, and its Latin name of Marrubium is said to be derived from Maria urbs, an ancient town of Italy. Other authors derive its name from the Hebrew marrob (a bitter juice), and state that it was one of the bitter herbs which the Jews were ordered to take for the Feast of Passover.

The Egyptian Priests called this plant the 'Seed of Horus,' or the 'Bull's Blood,' and the 'Eye of the Star.' It was a principal ingredient in the negro Caesar's antidote for vegetable poisons.

Gerard recommends it, in addition to its uses in coughs and colds, to 'those that have drunk poyson or have been bitten of serpents,' and it was also administered for 'mad dogge's biting.'

White horehound is a well-known and popular herbal medicine that is often used as a domestic remedy for coughs, colds, wheeziness etc. The herb apparently causes the secretion of a more fluid mucous, readily cleared by coughing.

The leaves and young flowering stems are antiseptic, antispasmodic, cholagogue, diaphoretic, digestive, diuretic, emmenagogue, strongly expectorant, hepatic, stimulant and tonic.

Horehound is a very valuable pectoral, expectorant and tonic that can be safely used by children as well as adults. It is often made into a syrup or candy in order to disguise its very bitter flavor, though it can also be taken as a tea. As a bitter tonic, it increases the appetite and supports the function of the stomach. It can also act to normalize heart rhythm.

Horehound is sometimes combined with Hyssop, Rue, Liquorice root and marshmallow">Marshmallow root, 1/2 oz. of each boiled in 2 pints of water, to 1 1/2 pint, strained and given in 1/2 tea-cupful doses, every two to three hours.

For children's coughs and croup, it is given to advantage in the form of syrup, and is a most useful medicine for children, not only for the complaints mentioned, but as a tonic and a corrective of the stomach. It has quite a pleasant taste.

The plant is harvested as it comes into flower and can be used fresh or dried.

The root is a remedy for the bite of rattlesnakes, it is used in equal portions with Plantago lanceolata or P. major.

A mild pleasantly flavored tea is made from the fresh or dried leaves, it is a favorite cough remedy.

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