Mullein?

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Does anyone have any personal experience with this plant?

 

Image here:

http://chili.rt66.com/hrbmoore/Images/T-Z/Verbascum_thapsus.jpg

Info from here:

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/mulgre63.html

 

Mullein, Great

Botanical: Verbascum thapsus (LINN.)

 

---Synonyms---White Mullein. Torches. Mullein Dock. Our Lady's Flannel.

Velvet Dock. Blanket Herb. Velvet Plant. Woollen. Rag Paper. Candlewick

Plant. Wild Ice Leaf. Clown's Lungwort. Bullock's Lungwort. Aaron's Rod.

Jupiter's Staff. Jacob's Staff. Peter's Staff. Shepherd's Staff. Shepherd's

Clubs. Beggar's Stalk. Golden Rod. Adam's Flannel. Beggar's Blanket. Clot.

Cuddy's Lungs. Duffle. Feltwort. Fluffweed. Hare's Beard. Old Man's Flannel.

Hag's Taper.

 

---Parts Used---Leaves, flowers, root.

 

---Habitat---Verbascum thapsus (Linn.), the Great Mullein, is a widely

distributed plant, being found all over Europe and in temperate Asia as far

as the Himalayas, and in North America is exceedingly abundant as a

naturalized weed in the eastern States. It is met with throughout Britain

(except in the extreme north of Scotland) and also in Ireland and the Channel

Islands, on hedge-banks, by roadsides and on waste ground, more especially on

gravel, sand or chalk. It flowers during July and August. The natural order

Scrophulariaceae is an important family of plants comprising 200 genera and

about 2,500 species, occurring mostly in temperate and sub-tropical regions,

many of them producing flowers of great beauty, on which account they are

frequently cultivated among favourite garden and greenhouse flowers. Of this

group are the Calceolaria, Mimulus, Penstemon, Antirrhinum and Collinsia.

Among its British representatives it embraces members so diverse as the

Foxglove and Speedwell, the Mullein and Figworts, the Toadflax and the

semi-parasites, Eyebright, Bartsia, Cowwheat, and the Red and Yellow Rattles.

Most of the flowers are capable of selffertilization in default of insect

visits.

 

Unlike the Labiatae, to which they are rather closely related, plants

belonging to this order seldom contain much volatile oil, though resinous

substances are common. The most important constituents are glucosides, and

many of them are poisonous or powerfully active.

 

A number of the Scrophulariaceae are or have been valued for their curative

properties and are widely employed both in domestic and in regular medicine.

 

The genus Verbascum, to which the Mullein belongs, contains 210 species,

distributed in Europe, West and Central Asia and North Africa, six of which

are natives of Great Britain. The Mulleins, like the Veronicas, are

exceptions to the general character of the Scrophulariaceae, having nearly

regular, open corollas, the segments being connected only towards the base,

instead of having the more fantastic flowers of the Snapdragon and others.

They are all tall, stout biennials, with large leaves and flowers in long,

terminal spikes.

 

 

---Description---In the first season of the plant's growth, there appears

only a rosette of large leaves, 6 to 15 inches long, in form somewhat like

those of the Foxglove, but thicker - whitish with a soft, dense mass of hairs

on both sides, which make them very thick to the touch. In the following

spring, a solitary, stout, pale stem, with tough, strong fibres enclosing a

thin rod of white pith, arises from the midst of the felted leaves. Its rigid

uprightness accounts for some of the plant's local names: 'Aaron's Rod,'

'Jupiter's' or 'Jacob's Staff,' etc.

 

The leaves near the base of the stem are large and numerous, 6 to 8 inches

long and 2 to 2 1/2 inches broad, but become smaller as they ascend the stem,

on which they are arranged not opposite to one another, but on alternate

sides. They are broad and simple in form, the outline rather waved,

stalkless, their bases being continued some distance down the stem, as in the

Comfrey and a few other plants, the midrib from a quarter to half-way up the

blade being actually joined to the stem. By these 'decurrent' leaves (as this

hugging of the stem by the leaves is botanically termed) the Great Mullein is

easily distinguished from other British species of Mullein - some with white

and some with yellow flowers. The leaf system is so arranged that the smaller

leaves above drop the rain upon the larger ones below, which direct the water

to the roots. This is a necessary arrangement, since the Mullein grows mostly

on dry soils. The stellately-branched hairs which cover the leaves so thickly

act as a protective coat, checking too great a giving off of the plant's

moisture, and also are a defensive weapon of the plant, for not only do they

prevent the attacks of creeping insects, but they set up an intense

irritation in the mucous membrane of any grazing animals that may attempt to

browse upon them, so that the plants are usually left severely alone by them.

The leaves are, however, subject to the attacks of a mould, Peronospora

sordida. The hairs are not confined to the leaves alone, but are also on

every part of the stem, on the calyces and on the outside of the corollas, so

that the whole plant appears whitish or grey. The homely but valuable Mullein

Tea, a remedy of the greatest antiquity for coughs and colds, must indeed

always be strained through fine muslin to remove any hairs that may be

floating in the hot water that has been poured over the flowers, or leaves,

for otherwise they cause intolerable itching in the mouth.

 

Towards the top of the stalk, which grows frequently 4 or even 5 feet high,

and in gardens has been known to attain a height of 7 or 8 feet, the

much-diminished woolly leaves merge into the thick, densely crowded

flower-spike, usually a foot long, the flowers opening here and there on the

spike, not in regular progression from the base, as in the Foxglove. The

flowers are stalkless, the sulphur-yellow corolla, a somewhat irregular cup,

nearly an inch across, formed of five rounded petals, united at the base to

form a very short tube, being enclosed in a woolly calyx, deeply cut into

five lobes. The five stamens stand on the corolla; three of them are shorter

than the other two and have a large number of tiny white hairs on their

filaments. These hairs are full of sap, and it has been suggested that they

form additional bait to the insect visitors, supplementing the allurement of

the nectar that lies round the base of the ovary. All kinds of insects are

attracted by this plant, the Honey Bee, Humble Bee, some of the smaller wild

bees and different species of flies, since the nectar and the staminal hairs

are both so readily accessible, though the supply of nectar is not very

great. The three short hairy stamens have only short, one-celled anthers -

the two longer, smooth ones have larger anthers. The pollen sacs have an

orangered inner surface, disclosed as the anthers open.

 

In some species, Verbascum nigrum, the Dark Mullein, and V. blattaria, the

Moth Mullein, the filament hairs are purple. The rounded ovary is hairy and

also the lower part of the style. The stigma is mature before the anthers and

the style projects at the moment the flower opens, so that any insect

approaching it from another blossom where it has got brushed by pollen, must

needs strike it on alighting and thus insure crossfertilization, though,

failing this, the flower is also able to fertilize itself. The ripened seed

capsule is very hard and contains many seeds, which eventually escape through

two valves and are scattered round the parent plant.

 

 

---History---The down on the leaves and stem makes excellent tinder when

quite dry, readily igniting on the slightest spark, and was, before the

introduction of cotton, used for lamp wicks, hence another of the old names:

'Candlewick Plant.' An old superstition existed that witches in their

incantations used lamps and candles provided with wicks of this sort, and

another of the plant's many names, 'Hag's Taper', refers to this, though the

word 'hag' is said to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon word Haege or Hage (a

hedge) - the name 'Hedge Taper' also exists - and may imply that the sturdy

spikes of this tall hedge plant, studded with pale yellow blossoms, suggested

a tall candle growing in the hedge, another of its countryside names being,

indeed, 'Our Lady's Candle.' Lyte (The Niewe Herball, 1578) tells us 'that

the whole toppe, with its pleasant yellow floures sheweth like to a wax

candle or taper cunningly wrought.'

 

'Torches' is another name for the plant, and Parkinson tells us:

'Verbascum is called of the Latines Candela regia, and Candelaria, because

the elder age used the stalks dipped in suet to burne, whether at funeralls

or otherwise.'

And Gerard (1597) also remarks that it is 'a plant whereof is made a manner

of lynke (link) if it be talowed.' Dr. Prior, in The Popular Names of British

Plants, states that the word Mullein was Moleyn in AngloSaxon, and Malen in

Old French, derived from the Latin malandrium, i.e. the malanders or leprosy,

and says:

'The term " malandre " became also applied to diseases of cattle, to lung

diseases among the rest, and the plant being used as a remedy, acquired its

name of " Mullein " and " Bullock's Lungwort. " '

Coles, in 1657, in Adam in Eden, says that:

'Husbandmen of Kent do give it their cattle against the cough of the lungs,

and I, therefore, mention it because cattle are also in some sort to be

provided for in their diseases.'

The name 'Clown's Lung Wort refers to its use as a homely remedy. 'Ag-Leaf'

and 'Ag-Paper' are other names for it. 'Wild Ice Leaf' perhaps refers to the

white look of the leaves. Few English plants have so many local names.

The Latin name Verbascum is considered to be a corruption of barbascum, from

the Latin barba (a beard), in allusion to the shaggy foliage, and was

bestowed on the genus by Linnaeus.

 

Both in Europe and Asia the power of driving away evil spirits was ascribed

to the Mullein. In India it has the reputation among the natives that the St.

John's Wort once had here, being considered a sure safeguard against evil

spirits and magic, and from the ancient classics we learn that it was this

plant which Ulysses took to protect himself against the wiles of Circe.

 

The Cowslip and the Primrose are classed together by our old herbalists as

Petty Mulleins, and are usually credited with much the same properties.

Gerard recommends both the flowers and leaves of the primrose, boiled in

wine, as a remedy for all diseases of the lungs and the juice of the root

itself, snuffed up the nose, for megrim.

 

All the various species of Mullein found in Britain possess similar medicinal

properties, but V. thapsus, the species of most common occurrence, is the one

most employed.

 

For medicinal purposes it is generally collected from wild specimens, but is

worthy of cultivation, not merely from its beauty as an ornamental plant, but

also for its medicinal value, which is undoubted. In most parts of Ireland,

besides growing wild, it is carefully cultivated in gardens, because of a

steady demand for the plant by sufferers from pulmonary consumption.

 

Its cultivation is easy: being a hardy biennial, it only requires sowing in

very ordinary soil and to be kept free from weeds. When growing in gardens,

Mulleins will often be found to be infested with slugs, which can be caught

wholesale by placing in borders slates and boards smeared with margarine on

the underside. Examine in the morning and deposit the catch in a pail of lime

and water.

 

---Parts Used---The leaves and flowers are the parts used medicinally.

 

Fresh Mullein leaves are also used for the purpose of making a homoeopathic

tincture.

 

---Constituents---The leaves are nearly odourless and of a mucilaginous and

bitterish taste. They contain gum as their principal constituent, together

with 1 to 2 per cent of resin, divisible into two parts, one soluble in

ether, the other not; a readily soluble amaroid; a little tannin and a trace

of volatile oil.

 

The flowers contain gum, resin, a yellow colouring principle, a green fatty

matter (a sort of chlorophyll), a glucoside, an acrid, fatty matter; free

acid and phosphoric acid; uncrystallizable sugar; some mineral salts, the

bases of which are potassia and lime, and a small amount of yellowish

volatile oil. They should yield not more than 6 per cent of ash. Their odour

is peculiar and agreeable: their taste mucilaginous.

 

---Medicinal Action and Uses---The Mullein has very markedly demulcent,

emollient and astringent properties, which render it useful in pectoral

complaints and bleeding of the lungs and bowels. The whole plant seems to

possess slightly sedative and narcotic properties.

 

It is considered of much value in phthisis and other wasting diseases,

palliating the cough and staying expectoration, consumptives appearing to

benefit greatly by its use, being given in the form of an infusion, 1 OZ. of

dried, or the corresponding quantity of fresh leaves being boiled for 10

minutes in a pint of milk, and when strained, given warm, thrice daily, with

or without sugar. The taste of the decoction is bland, mucilaginous and

cordial, and forms a pleasant emollient and nutritious medicine for allaying

a cough, or removing the pain and irritation of haemorrhoids. A plain

infusion of 1 OZ. to a pint of boiling water can also be employed, taken in

wineglassful doses frequently.

 

The dried leaves are sometimes smoked in an ordinary tobacco pipe to relieve

the irritation of the respiratory mucus membranes, and will completely

control, it is said, the hacking cough of consumption. They can be employed

with equal benefit when made into cigarettes, for asthma and spasmodic coughs

in general.

 

Fomentations and poultices of the leaves have been found serviceable in

haemorrhoidal complaints.

 

Mullein is said to be of much value in diarrhoea, from its combination of

demulcent with astringent properties, by this combination strengthening the

bowels at the same time. In diarrhcea the ordinary infusion is generally

given, but when any bleeding of the bowels is present, the decoction prepared

with milk is recommended.

 

On the Continent, a sweetened infusion of the flowers strained in order to

separate the rough hairs, is considerably used as a domestic remedy in mild

catarrhs, colic, etc.

 

A conserve of the flowers has also been employed on the Continent against

ringworm, and a distilled water of the flowers was long reputed a cure for

burns and erysipelas.

 

An oil produced by macerating Mullein flowers in olive oil in a corked

bottle, during prolonged exposure to the sun, or by keeping near the fire for

several days, is used as a local application in country districts in Germany

for piles and other mucus membrane inflammation, and also for frost bites and

bruises. Mullein oil is recommended for earache and discharge from the ear,

and for any eczema of the external ear and its canal. Dr. Fernie (Herbal

Simples) states that some of the most brilliant results have been obtained in

suppurative inflammation of the inner ear by a single application of Mullein

oil, and that in acute or chronic cases, two or three drops of this oil

should be made to fall in the ear twice or thrice in the day.

 

Mullein oil is a valuable destroyer of disease germs. The fresh flowers,

steeped for 21 days in olive oil, are said to make an admirable bactericide.

Gerarde tells us that 'Figs do not putrifie at all that are wrapped in the

leaves of Mullein.'

 

An alcoholic tincture is prepared by homoeopathic chemists, from the fresh

herb with spirits of wine, which has proved beneficial for migraine or sick

headache of long standing, with oppression of the ear. From 8 to 10 drops of

the tincture are given as a dose, with cold water, repeated frequently.

 

---Preparation and Dosage---Fluid extract, 1/2 to 1 drachm.

 

Formerly the flowers of several species of Mullein were officinal, but

Mullein no longer has a place in the British Pharmacopoeia, though Verbascum

Flowers were introduced into the 4th Edition of the United States National

Formulary, as one of the ingredients in pectoral remedies, and the leaves, in

fluid extract of Mullein leaves, made with diluted alcohol were directed to

be used as a demulcent, the dose being 1 fluid drachm.

 

In more ancient times, much higher virtues were attributed to this plant.

Culpepper gives us a list of most extraordinary cures performed by its

agency, and Gerard remarks that:

'there be some who think that this herbe being but carryed about one, doth

help the falling sickness, especially the leaves of the plant which have not

yet borne flowers, and gathered when the sun is in Virgo and the moon in

Aries, which thing notwithstanding is vaine and superstitious.'

A decoction of its roots was held to be an alleviation for toothache, and

also good for cramps and convulsions, and an early morning draught of the

distilled water of the flowers to be good for gout.

Mullein juice and powder made from the dried roots rubbed on rough warts was

said to quickly remove them, though it was not recommended as equally

efficacious for smooth warts. A poultice made of the seeds and leaves, boiled

in hot wine, was also considered an excellent means to 'draw forth speedily

thorns or splinters gotten into the flesh.' We also hear of the woolly leaves

being worn in the stockings to promote circulation and keep the feet warm.

 

The flowers impart a yellow colour to boiling water and a rather permanent

green colour with dilute sulphuric acid, the latter colour becoming brown

upon the addition of alkalis. An infusion of the flowers was used by the

Roman ladies to dye their hair a golden colour. Lyte tells us, 'the golden

floures of Mulleyn stiped in lye, causeth the heare to war yellow, being

washed therewithall,' and according to another old authority, Alexander

Trallianus, the ashes of the plant made into a soap will restore hair which

has become grey to its original colour.

 

The seeds are said to intoxicate fish when thrown into the water, and are

used by poachers for that purpose, being slightly narcotic. According to

Rosenthal (Pharmaceutical Journal July, 1902), the seeds of V. sinuatum

(Linn.), which are used in Greece as a fish poison, contain 6 to 13 per cent

of Saponin. Traces of the same substance were found in the seeds of V.

phlomoides (Linn.) and V. thapsiforme (Schrad.), common in the south of

Europe, which have been used for the same purpose. V. pulverulentum of

Madeira (also used as a fish poisoner) and V. phlomoides are employed as

taenicides (expellers of tapeworm).