Mullein

Category: Medicine Wheel Plants Written by CrystalWind.ca

Helps you feel courageous and adventurous.
Gender: Feminine
Planet: Saturn
Element: Fire
Powers: Courage. Protection. Health. Love. Divination. Exorcism.

Magical Uses:

Use a mullein pillow to guard against nightmares.

Carry mullein to obtain love from the opposite sex.

Use powdered mullein leaves as a substitute for graveyard dust in spells.

Carry some as a charm for courage, especially when faced with wild animals.

In India, mullein is regarded as the most potent safeguard against evil spirits and magic, and is hung over doors, in windows, and carried in sachets. It is also used to banish demons and negativity.

In the Ozarks, men performed a simple love divination. The man went to a clearing where a mullein grew and bent it down so that it pointed toward his love’s house. If she loved him the mullein would grow upright again; if she loved another it would die.

Medicine Wheel Association: The Ducks Fly Moon - September 23 to October 23

Botanical Name: Verbascum thapus
Common Names: Mullein, Aaron's Rod, Clot, Doffel, Feltwort
Family: Scrophulariaceae
Plant Type: Hardy biennial
Parts Used: Leaves, flowers
Solvents: Boiling water
Bodily Influence: Demulcent, diuretic, anodyne, anti-spasmodic, astringent, pectoral

Features:

Mullein is a biennial plant native to Europe, where it is found on hillsides and open land.

Description: Mullein is a tall, weedy, unbranched, hairy and soft biennial plant that attains heights of up to 8 feet. It rises from a basal rosette about 2 feet wide with winged stems and a soft, downy or woolly foliage. The leaves are single, alternate, and widely oblong or lancelike, 2 inches to a foot long, with smooth unlobed rims. The high, clublike seed spike does not form until the second year, when, from late June until September, yellow flowers grow densely along it, each with a five part calyx, five-lobed corolla, and the same number of stamens, eventually forming a fruit that is a pod or seed-filled capsule.

Cultivation: Mullein is common in dry, sunny places; growing wild in fields, waste grounds and roadsides. It can be grown from seed, and it will flower in the second year. It prefers dry, chalky soil, in full sun, protected from strong winds.

Harvesting: Collect the leaves before midsummer. The flowers appear between July and September and must be gathered in dry weather - if they are wet, they will turn brown.

Active Compounds:

• flavonoids such as verbascoside and herperidin
• mucilage
• saponins
• tannins
• volatile oil

Herbal Healing with Mullein

Medicinal Actions: Anti-inflammatory, antiviral, astringent, demulcent, diuretic, expectorant, vulnerary

Medicinal Uses:

• The leaves and the flowers are both used as a remedy for respiratory disorders.
• Mullein is a good children's remedy. It is mild tasting, gently sedative, and eases hard, sore coughs or sore throats.
• Mullein tones and soothes inflamed mucous membranes making it useful for acute bouts of bronchitis, laryngitis or pneumonia, and chronic conditions of bronchitis and sinusitis.
• The leaves have been used for tobacco and smoked to relieve throat congestion, catarrh and asthma.
• Mullein extract in olive oil can be used to treat inflamed skin.
• A fomentation of the leaves in hot vinegar and water makes an excellent local application for inflamed piles, ulcers, tumors, mumps, acute inflammation of the tonsils, malignant sore throat, dropsy of the joints, sciatica, spinal tenderness, etc.
• To treat deafness resulting from dried earwax, wax too soft, or insufficient wax - apply mullein oil, sun distilled from green mullein flowers, 3 to 5 drops twice a day until the condition is corrected.

Healing Combinations with Mullein:

• For an acute (rapid onset) respiratory problem, combine mullein with elder (Sambucus), yarrow (Achillea), thyme (Thymus), and echinacea (Echinacea)
• For chronic respiratory complaints, combine mullein with golden rod (Solidago), elecampane (Inula), or Eyebright (Euphrasia)
• A decoction made with equal parts of horsemint (Monarda punctata) and mullein (V. Thapsus) and taken three times a day is excellent for kidney diseases.

Dosage:

Infusion: Pour a cup of boiling water onto 1-2 teaspoonfuls of the dried leaves or flowers and let infuse for 10 - 15 minutes. This should be drunk three times a day.

Tincture: Take 1-4ml of the tincture three times a day.

Poultice: A poultice of fresh bruised leaves can be appied to slow-healing wounds as well as skin rashes, ulcers, burns, sores and ringworm.

©2010-2022 crystalwind.ca. All rights reserved.

Whatsapp