- inhale eucalyptus vapours
If you’re lucky enough to have access to dried Eucalyptus globulus, just boil the crumbled leaves and let them steep for 4-5 hours and strain out the bits of leaf before heating the liquid for inhalation. (Or, add 5-10 drops commercial eucalyptus oil to the steaming water.) Place the bowl at the edge of a table, sit down, bend your head over the bowl and put the towel over your head to form a tent. Breathe the vapours for about 10 minutes, taking care not to get too close to the steam. Your lungs may clear and you’ll get a facial as a bonus.
- Bronchitis double dose
The head-clearing pungency of freshly grated horseradish paired with the acidic aroma of lemon helps to dissolve mucus in the sinuses and bronchial tubes. To make your own cough medicine, grate a peeled horseradish root into a bowl (or cheat and use prepared horseradish) and transfer 2 tablespoons grated horseradish to a small bowl. Add 1/4 cup (60ml) lemon juice and stir well. Take 1/2 teaspoon of the mixture two or three times a day. The expectorant action should set up a cough after each dose, helping to rid your lungs of mucus.
- Loosen mucus with mullein
Mullein (Verbascurn thapsus), a longtime folk remedy for respiratory ailments, contains saponins that loosen phlegm and promote expectoration. It also contains gelatinous mucilage that soothes the mucous membranes. To make mullein tea, steep 2 teaspoons dried mullein leaves in 1 cup (250ml) just-boiled water for 10 minutes. Drink the tea up to three times a day to ease bronchial distress.
- Elecampane the expectorant
Buy elecampane tea or liquid extract, sweeten the tea with honey and drink 1-2 cups (250-500ml) a day to stimulate the lungs’ natural ‘housecleaning’ mechanism. The active principle in elecampane (Inula helenium) is alantolactone, a proven expectorant. Use of elecampane dates back to some of the earliest European settlers in the Americas, who used it to treat the symptoms of asthma, whooping cough, pneumonia and tuberculosis.
- Camomile’s two faces
For an allergy-fighting tea, pour 1 cup (250ml) boiling water over 2-3 teaspoons crushed flower heads of German camomile, steep for 10 minutes, strain and drink three to four times daily. Caution: while camomile is a traditional hay-fever fighter, it can aggravate symptoms in anyone who is allergic to ragweed, a camomile cousin. For everyone else, the azulene content in camomile has anti-inflammatory properties that have led complementary therapists worldwide to prescribe camomile preparations for respiratory tract infections and allergies.
- Remove mould to help quell sniffles
If you have a sudden case of the sniffles that won’t go away and you don’t have allergies (or a cold), you may unknowingly be living with mould. Check for spots in the bathroom or beneath windows subject to condensation, and kill mould instantly with a 50:50 mixture of bleach and water. Spray it directly onto the offensive spots and let it sit. The mould should be stopped in its tracks within minutes, along with (hopefully) your runny nose.
- Nettle and hay fever
If you have access to fresh stinging nettle (it’s a common garden weed), wear gloves when harvesting and washing the leaves (the plant’s not called stinging nettle for nothing). Add 1 cup (120g) tightly packed leaves to 6 cups (1.5 litres) boiling water. Lower the heat and simmer until the water turns green, then strain through a fine sieve into a large teapot. During the hay fever season, drink a cup of nettle tea in the morning and one in the evening, sweetening it with honey, if you like. Studies have yet to definitively confirm the efficacy of European stinging nettle for treating hay fever, but legions of people swear by nettle’s powers to ease runny noses and watery eyes.
Rich in calcium and silica, nettle tea also makes a useful tonic for anaemia and rheumatic problems. It’s thought to be a good detox remedy and has traditionally been used to treat skin conditions such as eczema.