Yet more on horehound

Since the horehound seemed to be effective I decided to start looking up *why*. There's been a lot of work lately on ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology and whether traditional folk cures actually work or not. Unsurprisingly, some of them actually are effective to a certain degree. Horehound was amongst some of the best that I have researched so far.

In the study referenced below the essential oil was distilled from the 'aerial parts' (ie. the leaves and stems) of Marrubium vulgare (horehound) and that was tested on various types of bacteria and fungi in vitro (ie. dropped onto culture plates of the bacteria, etc. and then studied). To distill it down to a sound-byte- Yes. It's very effective against two kinds of bacteria that make your throat sore, plus one kind of fungus that makes people feel sick. Plus, it slows down a few other kinds of bacteria. So, without knowledge of the scientific causes of sickness it would have been useful in quite a few instances to alleviate sore throats. I don't know how technical people want me to get with this... I could go into more detail, but I don't want to bore anyone. Basically, horehound was much more effective against gram+ bacteria than gram-. Also, it's a pretty good source of anti-oxidants, and it reduces inflammation and swelling.




But, it should be extracted with water, not alcohol (ethanol).

If you want to geek out here's some online articles:

http://lipidworld.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1476-511X-10-161
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378874101004159
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0367326X06000815



And, as always, don't mess around with your health. If you have a problem please go see your doctor. This is NOT medical advice.