Mullein

the flower of mullein (Verbasci flos)

Mullein (Verbascum densiflorum) is a tall biennial which makes a rosette of soft, woolly leaves at ground level in the first year and, in the second, a stem up to two metres tall with a dense spike of yellow flowers. It grows on embankments, on ruins, in gravel pits and on dry ground, where the earth is bare.

Only the corollas are gathered, without the calyx, and day by day, because each flower opens for a single day; the gathering goes on through July and August. The flowers are dried quickly, in the shade and at a temperature of up to forty degrees, or they turn brown and lose their value. Dried properly, they stay bright yellow.

An infusion of mullein flowers must be strained well through a fine sieve or gauze before it is drunk, because the fine hairs from the flowers irritate the throat. In Ašič's collection it appears in Mullein Syrup and in Chest Tea.

Use and evidence

The traditional use is connected with irritation of the throat and a dry cough, but the broad claims about pneumonia, asthma, the heart and haemorrhoids are not clinically confirmed. EMA.