Make Mullein Tea From Your Herb Garden

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Mullein leaves make great doll blankets.
Mullein leaves make great doll blankets.
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Mullein, stout and erect, grows up to seven feet tall and has large, pale green spear-shaped leaves covered with a yellowish-white velvety matting, topped wtih a dense spike of yellow sessile flowers with orange stamens.
Mullein, stout and erect, grows up to seven feet tall and has large, pale green spear-shaped leaves covered with a yellowish-white velvety matting, topped wtih a dense spike of yellow sessile flowers with orange stamens.
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In Appalachia, colds are treated with mullein tea, either drank or used as a steam vapor.
In Appalachia, colds are treated with mullein tea, either drank or used as a steam vapor.

Lately, more and more people have begun to understand just how limited — in both variety and nutritional value — our “modern” diets hove become. This realization has sparked a new and widespread interest in the culinary and therapeutic uses of herbs,  those plants which although not well-known today — were, just one short generation ago, honored “guests” on the dinner tables and in the medicine chests of our grandparents’ homes. In this regular feature, MOTHER EARTH NEWS examines the availability, cultivation, and benefits of our “forgotten” vegetable foods and remedies and — we hope — helps prevent the loss of still another bit of ancestral lore.

Mullein Herb

Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) may be known to you by one or more of its 30 common names. (Among them are velvet dock, Aaron’s rod, Adam’s flannel, Jacob’s staff, blanket leaf, cow’s lungwort, candlewick, feltwort, hare’s beard, and flannel flower.)

This Mediterranean native — which can be found in fields, in pastures, and along roadsides all across the U.S. — was well-known to the early Greeks, who made lamp wicks from its dried leaves and to the ancient Romans, who dipped its dried stalk in tallow to produce funeral torches. Pliny noted that “figs do not putrefy at all that are wrapped in mullein leaves”, and Roman ladies reportedly used an infusion of the herb’s flowers to add a golden tinge to their tresses.

If you’d like to try such a hair rinse, boil just 3 to 4 tablespoons of dried mullein blossoms in a pint of water for 20 to 30 minutes, and strain the blooms out when the mixture is cool. After shampooing, pour or brush the rinse through your hair repeatedly until the desired shade is reached.

  • Published on Sep 1, 1980
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