Mullein

Native to Europe, North Africa and western and central Asia, some species have escaped and are common in the US and Canada.. A tall erect, unbranched wooly stem, 2-7 ft. tall. With basal leaves, narrowing at the base into wings which pass down the stem.. The dense spikes of yellow flowers bloom from July to August.. The flowers and leaves, if properly dried store well for winter use. We make delightful garden torches with mulleins who have volunteered to set root in our gardens. Three years in the making, mulleins their first year are simply large, furry leafed rosettes, the next year they grow their full height and flower. By the end of their second autumn we collect the hardened and brown stems, let them dry overwinter then, the following spring, make them into delightful garden torches by painting on coloured wax over the dead flower heads.

Medicinal Part: leaves and flowers

Solvents: boiling water

Uses:
Native North Americans smoked the dried leaves to relieve lung congestion. Mullein is an excellent lung herb, useful for asthma, pneumonia, spasmodic coughs, colds, flu, bronchitis, hoarseness, and whooping cough. It expels mucous, cleansing the bronchioles and lymphatics. Mullein specifically aids mumps, earaches and glandular swellings.. For all these conditions it can be taken as a tea, or the dried leaves can be smoked which also soothes the throat and is a good substitute for tobacco.  Mullein has been considered a treatment for hemorrhoids for several hundred years and is still used for this purpose, both internally and as a fomentation..  A poultice of mullein leaves can be locally applied to help hemorrhoids, inflammations, wounds and toothache as well. Mullein flowers have strong nervine, analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. Oil made from the flowers is an important remedy for earaches and suppurative inflammations of the inner ear.  It also helps heal discharges from the ear, frostbite, bruises, hemorrhoids and eczema of the external ear and canal. The oil is excellent for mucous membrane inflammations and hemorrhoids.

Dose: Infuse 1 teaspoonful of  leaves or flowers to 1 cupful of boiling water, steep for 20 minutes. - drink ½ cup, 2- 3 times/day. Fomentation of the leaves in hot water forms an excellent application for inflamed piles, ulcers tumors, mumps.
A mixture of simmered leaves can also be inhaled through a teapot spout for many of the mentioned conditions. Oil: put 5-10 drops in ear every hour until earache is gone.