Horehound: use, properties, and tradition

Published on March 8, 2018 - Medicinal Plants

Marrubio, una pianta da utilizzare per la preparazione di una Tisana espettorante – fluidificante

Marrubium vulgare L., belonging to the Lamiaceae family, is a plant used since ancient times in the treatment of respiratory tract disorders. Over the centuries up to the present day, Horehound has been used primarily as a febrifuge and as a modifier of respiratory mucosa.

It is an annual or perennial herbaceous plant, very common in uncultivated land, densely hairy and characteristic for its foul odor. It has a vigorous white-woolly quadrangular stem, 30-60 cm tall, with numerous opposite, oval, crenate, and wrinkled leaves. The white-pinkish flowers, with a hairy calyx and sepals with 10 lanceolate teeth, are gathered in dense clusters at the axils of the leaves to form a spike; the fruit is a drupe with 4 seeds. The plant emits a strong musky odor; bitter hot acrid taste.

Horehound was the typical depurative plant of Provencal and Occitan folk therapy. Its name derives from the Hebrew Mar = bitter and Rob = juice. The plant was indeed part of the “five bitter herbs” that Jews consumed in preparation for Passover: it symbolized the bitter slavery in Egypt.

The leaves and flowering tops of this plant are used.

The main components are diterpenes, such as marrubiin lactone; and in smaller amounts, pyrrolidine-type alkaloids, flavonoids (apigenin, luteolin, quercetin), small amounts of essential oil, saponins, pectin and mucilage, choline, tannins, and mineral salts (calcium, potassium, and iron).

Horehound has cholagogue and bitter properties. The main cholagogue component is marrubiinic acid (hydrolysis product of marrubiin), while marrubiin (which does not possess cholagogue properties) stimulates bronchial secretion (expectorant action); the saponins then assist this action by liquefying mucus and promoting the elimination of catarrh without drying out the mucous membranes.

It also has antiarrhythmic properties (although at high doses it can cause arrhythmias).

This medicinal plant is effective in cases of loss of appetite, stomachache, and chronic dysentery.

Horehound is also a febrifuge, making it a very important component in the formulation of winter expectorant herbal teas. In the past, it was used in intermittent fevers resistant to treatment with quinine.

Its expectorant virtues are the most interesting: it is used in chronic bronchitis, persistent cough, asthma, pneumonia, and chronic pleurisy.

Both a 2-3% infusion, 2-3 cups per day for asthma, dry cough, and catarrh; and wine (enol), obtained by macerating 60 g of dried plant in a liter of white wine for 15 days, are used. Once filtered, 2-3 small glasses before meals strengthen the stomach, free the liver and spleen from congestion; regulate menstruation.