Common names: Mullein, White Mullein, Greater Mullein, Aaron’s Rod, Adam’s Rod, Beggar’s Blanket, Poor Man’s Blanket, Woolly Mullein, Velvet Mullein, Blanket Mullein, Bunny’s Ears
Taxonomic name: Verbascum thapsus
Family: Scrophulariaceae
Related herbs: Eyebright (Euphrasia sp.)
Area of origin: Europe, northern Africa, and Asia
Parts used: Leaves, flowers, root
Has been used medicinally for:
Healing Actions: Expectorant, demulcent, anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic, vulnerary, Tones respiratory mucus membranes, Alterative, astringent Immune modulator, anti-hemorrhoidal, antihypertensive
Taste: Sweet, bitter
Tissue states: Heat, damp, dry
Energetics: Cooling, clearing, moistening
Organ/System affinities: Lungs, connective tissue, joints, urinary system
Healing constituents: Tannins, volatile oils, mucliage, Iridoid glycosides (harpagoside, harpagide, aucubin), Monoterpene iridoids – aucubin, catalposide, specioside. Sesquiterpene – buddlindeterpene B. Triterpene saponins – ursolic acid, phenypropanoid. Glycosides – verbascoside, poliumoside. Flavones- apigenin, apigenin-7-glucuronide, apigetrin, cynaroside, luteolin, luteolin-7-glucuroni, 6-hydroxyluteolin-7-glucoside, 7-methoxy-luteolin, acacetin, acacetin-7-O-α-d-glucoside, hesperidin, herperidin Flavanols, Quercetin
Contraindications and warnings: Little consistent information was found but precautions should always be taken with pregnancy and breastfeeding because of limited data about this. Allergic reactions are possible with Mullein, particularly with external use.
Drug/herb interactions: Anti-diabetic medications, antispasmodics, anti-hypertensives, diuretics, anti-coagulants, lithium.
Description
Mullein is a tall biennial herb growing 1–3 m in height with a deep, stout taproot. In it’s first year, it iinitially grows as a basal rosette of leaves. In the second year, the plant becomes upright as it grows, bearing a tall flowering stem.
Mullein usually has a single upright main flowering stem, but occasionally smaller flowering stems grow from the upper leaf axils. Stems and leaves are densely covered with soft hairs.
Leaves are alternate, grey-green , and covered with short, matted, stellate (star-shaped) hairs without glands. They’re really interesting to zoom in on but my phone wasn’t capable of capturing a good pic to share (the phone and my shaky hands…). The basal rosette leaves can be enormous and range from 8 cm up to 50 cm long, and the stem leaves to 30 cm long. Basal leaves are said to be the most medicinal but I’ve not noticed much of a difference between them and the stem leaves.
Five petaled, hairy flowers are yellow-ivory to yellow, with glandular dots and five stamens of different lengths. Flowers are borne on very short stalks and arranged in groups of 1–7 in each bract axil. Flowers are densely clustered on a long spike-like raceme which grows 20–100 cm long, at the tops of the stems.
Flowers don’t bloom all at once, with a small number blooming every day.
The fruits are rounded or egg-shaped capsules, 7-10 mm long and 3–6 mm wide, covered with tiny hairs, and contain up to 600 tiny reddish-brown, rod-shaped, pitted seeds less than 1 mm long, 5 or 6 sided, rod-shaped with one pointed end.
Medicinal uses
Keywords – lungs, soothing, inflammation, coughing, ears
Mullein’s fame comes from its almost uncanny way of supporting our respiratory system and that’s where most folks stop. But as you’re about o find out, this wonderful healer has many more tricks up its hairy sleeves.
Mullein works primarily by modulating (increasing and decreasing as necessary) our body’s inflammatory response, which is a key part of our immune system’s response to anything it perceives as being wrong with us. This broad response allows us to apply Mullein in a wide variety of circumstances, to a wide range of ailments.
But let’s start where it is most well known – in the respiratory tract. Mullein benefit so many respiratory ailments not only by reducing inflammation, it stimulates the production of new fluids (phlegm) in the respiratory tract, loosening old phlegm and allowing our cilia to beat more easily. This allows them to move old phlegm , wastes and contaminants ‘up and out’. From this observation, we can consider using Mullein when there is congestion (new phlegm loosens old) or when there is dryness (new fluid moistens and lubricates). It is particularly useful when there is hoarseness, which often means our throat is dry and needs moistening. In this way, it can also help with any throat ‘-itis’, from pharyngitis to tonsilitis, especially when associated with a cough.
All of the abilities of Mullein combined lead us to why it is used as an anodyne (pain reliever) for the chest area (which means that it’s classified as a ‘pectoral’ as well). It eases flow, reduces inflammation and reduces congestion – all of which can contribute to chest pain. Reducing coughing too will reduce it by giving sore muscles a rest.
Mullein has some great effects on the circulatory system and for this reason, I often pair it with Hawthorn. It protects our heart by reducing inflammation and coagulation and works to reduce hypertensio.
Mullein has astringent properties that tighten the blood vessel walls of haemorrhoids and varicose veins. It is a rubefacient which means that it brings fresh blood to the area. A demulcent property also soothes irritation
Our wonderful herb, Mullein, also has another trick tucked away. It improves the production of collagen. Anti-inflammatory, astringent, demulcent and collagen promoting properties make Mullein very handy when it comes to healing wounds, and skin conditions – think red, inflamed rashes such as eczema, ulcers, burns and bites. It can help with deeper wounds too such as cuts, contusions and even broken bones – which are 60% collagen. Mullein is not as powerful at this as Comfrey but can be used by people with liver conditions in a way that Comfrey can’t. Talking about bones, the soothing properties of Mullein have been used to bring relief in cases of arthrosis and rheumatism.
Mullein helps wound healing by increasing granulation tissue – that’s the soft, rough looking, pink stuff that forms at the bottom and on the sides of wounds, filling them in. It’s what fills in empty sockets after tooth extractions. You can see it next time you have a clean wound. Granulation tissue is new blood vessels and connective tissue that is literally rebuilding you from the inside out! Healthy granulation tissue is pink/red, lumpy and moist.
Skin conditions in general an benefit from Mullein. Improvements in collagen levels as well as the astringent effect of this herb can improve skin tone – it’s the secret of my youthful good looks 😉😁.
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Inflammation and wounds inside can benefit from Mullein too, in just the same ways that hey can on the outside of us, plus they have the bonus that Mullein can produce new mucus, helping keep some areas very clean. This includes gum boils, mouth and digestive tract ulcers, any ‘-itis’ in any part of the digestive tract (including things like pancreatitis, liver inflammation and gall stones). Being a moistening agent for mucus membranes links Mullein to the relief of some types of constipation too.
Two of our sensory organs can benefit from Mullein too. A wash can help ease the discomfort of, and eliminate, conjunctivitis and an oil made from the flowers has been used to relieve earache (especially in children) and toothache.
Preparing and using Mullein
Synergies -With Coltsfoot &/or Thyme for respiratory conditions With demulcent herbs for soothing irritations. I love to combine it with Hawthorn because it brings balance to the Heart/Lung connection and both can increase the other’s healing potency
A very specific synergy that read about but haven’t tried is combining Mullein with Catnip for pancreatitis. Luckily, I’ve not had nor come across anyone with this painful condition and I hope it stays that way.
Mullein leaves are best when harvested in their first year, well before they go dormant in Winter (depending on your area, they may not go dormant). Second year leaves and leaves from the stem can still be very effective. They are easily dried whole but the midrib can become very tough.
A small number of flowers will be available to harvest every day after they start to bloom. I harvest open and opening flowers to increase the amount I can get but you’ll have to come back every day over the season to score a good number.
Mullein roots are harvested during dormancy after the plant’s first year. You’ll most likely kill the plant (though I have successfully managed to keep one alive after removing most of the roots but still leaving a good number), which is why you should always grow multiple Mullein plants to get the range of harvestable parts.
Mullein makes a gorgeous, dark green tincture that I use combined with Hawthorn in drop doses. It is so powerful that it doesn’t seem to work well in larger amounts. Add a drop or two of Ginger to balance the cooling energy of these two herbs. It has its own anti-inflammatory properties that can be included in the mix. Once again, Ginger is a herb that I only use in drop doses as a tincture.
You can infuse Mullein easily but if you do, make sure that you strain it well through cheesecloth or a coffee filter before you drink it. The tiny, hairs can be extremely irritating when swallowed, so care should be taken to remove them. I have a fried who, in their enthusiasm to use Mullein, dried leaves, crushed them and put them into capsules (I don’t like using but they do) and swallowed them. Shortly after they had great abdominal pain over several days and where told by a doctor that they had an ulcer. They’d never had a sign of an ulcer before, so my take is that they delivered a whole lot of irritating little hairs, undigested, straight onto their sensitive gastric linings. The hairs then did what they do best and what was diagnosed as an ulcer ensued. It’s also interesting they the bacteria H. pylori was detected – in industrial medicine, these bacteria are considered to be the cause of stomach ulcers but in other schools of thought, they are thought to arrive at points of damage for purposes, this far, unknown. Could be one, could be the other…I can’t tell.
Mullein flower oil is an old and trusted remedy for earaches, especially in children. Old school herbalists would deliver warmed oil straight into the affected ear canal but nowadays, we usually put it onto a wad of sterile cotton wool (still warmed a litlte though).
Mullein leaf can be smoked by itself, purely for its medicinal benefits but is more usually mixed with tobacco for smokers who want a smoother smoke or who are trying to reduce the amount they smoke. It seems to work well for both Tobacco and Cannabis smokers.
The huge leaves are just asking to be crushed up and used as a poultice. Like Plantain, the leaves can be big enough to use as bandages to hold the poultice in place.
Mullein syrup can be used to get kids and husbands to take their medicine more readily (we all know that husband’s illnesses are worse than anyone else’s and that we need more TLC, don’t we guys?)😁
Other herb pages on Ligaya Garden
We cover a lot of ground on many herb related topics here on our website. There are whole pages devoted to different topics as well as frequent posts. Some of the links are –
