White Horehound
Marrubium vulgare

Other Names: Horehound, Hoarhound, Common Horehound, Wild Horehound, Woolly Horehound, Houndsbene, Marrubium

Habitat: Horehound is a perennial herb native to Europe and cultivated by early settlers. Now found growing in the wild from Maine to South Carolina, Texas, and westward to California and Oregon. Found in dry sandy waste places, along roadsides, and near dwellings, in fields, and in pastures. White horehound is an easily grown plant it prefers well-drained soils and flourishes best in a poor dry soil also requires a warm sunny position, a good companion plant for growing near tomatoes and a good bee plant. White Horehound is bushy and branching, whitish, woolly and soft, growing to 3 feet high. It has square stems and very wrinkled, nearly round opposite, petiolate, serrate and prominently veined leaves. The small whitish two-lipped flowers grow in dense clusters or whorls in the leaf axils and bloom from June to September. Gather the leaves and flowering tops dry for later herb use.

Properties: White Horehound has a very long history of use as an alternative medicine, dating back to and before Dioscorides the Greek physician, and was used as an herb for seasoning food and beverages. It is now cultivated commercially as a medicinal herb. A mild pleasantly flavored medicinal tea is made from the fresh or dried leaves. Used mostly as a strong expectorant and cough remedy the herb is also antiseptic, antispasmodic, cholagogue, diaphoretic, digestive, diuretic, emmenagogue, hepatic, stimulant and tonic. The major constituents responsible for these actions are diterpene lactones Marrubiin and premarrubiin, diterpene alcohols: marruciol, marrubenol, sclareol, peregrinin, dihydroperegrinin, a volatile oil, containing alpha-pinene, sabinene, limonene, camphene, p-cymol, alpha-terpinolene and alkaloids including betonicine and its isomer turicine as well as flavonoids and tanins. Horehound is a very valuable pectoral, expectorant and tonic used in the treatment of bronchitis, asthma, cough and other respiratory ailments, common cold, debility, diarrhea, dysmenorrhea, fever, gastro-intestinal disturbances, hepatitis, sore throat, and women's ailments. It can be safely used by children as well as adults. It is often made into a syrup or candy or cough drops. As a bitter tonic, it increases the appetite and supports stomach functions as well as acting to normalize heart rhythm. Horehound is used externally to promote the healing of wounds. The plant is also said to repels flies.

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Folklore: White Horehound was once regarded as an anti-magical herb and used to repel witches. The herb was much esteemed by the Romans for its medicinal properties, and its Latin name of Marrubium is derived from Maria urbs, an ancient town of Italy. Other authors say its name is derived from the Hebrew marrob (a bitter juice), and state that it was one of the bitter herbs which the Jews were ordered to take for the Feast of Passover. Even used by the ancient Egyptian Priests who called it the 'Seed of Horus,' or the 'Bull's Blood,' and the 'Eye of the Star.'

TRY THESE RECIPES

Infusion or Medicinal tea: To 1 oz. of herb add 1 pint of water, bring to boil, remove from heat, steep 10 min. strain and sweeten, take in ½ cup doses throughout the day.

Syrup or Candy: Gently boil 2 oz. of herb in 1 pint of water for 1 hour, strain, add 2 cups sugar to liquid, boil on low until consistence of thick syrup use as is or pore into forms or mold, let sit till firm.

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