Did you know that you have tons of cold remedies in your spice cabinet? You do if you have any of these common kitchen herbs/spices: garlic (fresh or powder), ginger (dried or fresh), thyme, sage, turmeric, cinnamon. These herbs and spices along with onions, lemons, apple cider vinegar, honey and some other commonly found herbs like chamomile, catnip (aka catmint), linden and peppermint can really help you out during cold & flu season. Even regular old black tea can come in real handy. The following is adapted from a presentation I did for my local LLL chapter last year. It has more of a focus on children and doesn’t go into herbs that you wouldn’t have in your pantry. In later posts I’ll discuss chamomile, mints, linden and elderflower as well as herbal immunity boosters.
Please remember, though, each medicine has its place and if you or your child isn’t getting better definitely see a regular MD!
Cold fighters from your kitchen pantry
It used to be that I was always unprepared for cold season and then had to run out to Whole Foods for remedies. Now that I’ve acquired a greater knowledge of herbs I can deal with colds & the flu more easily and often with things in my pantry. Many herbs/spices work best as preventatives. Eating them in your food on a regular basis works the best in my opinion. The next step is to use these remedies when you first feel a cold coming on. My experience with herbal remedies is that once you have an established cold herbal remedies may lessen the severity and duration of a cold/flu. Here are some easy cold remedies to try.
Garlic
Garlic has antibiotic and antimicrobial properties and has an affinity for the lungs. According to herbalist Stephen Buhner’s book Herbal Antibiotics, raw garlic kills 100% of bacteria it comes in contact with. Pretty potent!! Most people have it around and its preparation is easy. It works especially well if taken regularly - one to two small cloves a day. Eat more if you start feeling run down. Garlic is only effective when eaten raw. Some people get tummy upset from eating raw garlic. Studies show that encapsulated garlic powder works as well as fresh garlic and doesn’t cause the tummy upset. You can also chop up fresh garlic cloves and make a paste with them and olive oil. This paste can be applied to the soles of the feet and covered with plastic wrap. Put non-slip socks over your feet. I haven’t personally tried this one as I really, really like to eat garlic. Supposedly you’ll be able to smell the garlic on your breath within an hour or so. If you try it, let me know if you get garlic breath!
- Garlic “toast” - This is an easy and pretty tasty way to take garlic. Press with a garlic press or mince (chop very finely) 1 large or 2 small garlic cloves. Let sit for 5 – 10 minutes. This step is important as contact with the air activates the antibiotic compounds in the garlic. Eat as-is on toast or mix with honey and eat on toast. You can also toast crusty bread and rub a fresh garlic clove on the bread. Yum!
- Garlic on Scrambled Eggs - Make scrambled eggs and top with raw pressed or minced garlic. Salsa optional. A yummy standard in my house.
- Garlic honey - This takes 24 hours to make. Stuff a glass jar with unpeeled cloves of garlic. I use an 8-ounce jelly jar. Cover the jar completely with a good quality honey -one that is raw & undiluted. I used pourable honey for this. Let this sit for 12 – 24 hours before use. It lasts about a year. A dose is 1 spoonful.
- Pesto - add extra fresh pressed or minced garlic to pesto sauce or use garlic to top your regular spaghetti sauce. Mix it in to reduce the sharpness.
Thyme
Thyme has antibiotic as well as decongestant properties. If you look on a bottle of Listerine one of the active ingredients is thymol, one of the volatile oils in thyme. Thyme is primarily a respiratory system remedy (coughs, congestion, runny nose) and also is helpful for sore throats. Here are some ways to use thyme.
- Decongestant steam for adults - Take 2TBS – ¼ c thyme and place in a bowl. Pour water that is just off the boil into the bowl, about 2 cups or so. Hang head over the bowl & cover with a towel. Steam for 5 minutes or so. Don’t use a steam if you have asthma!
- Thyme infusion - Use 1 TBS dried thyme per cup of boiling water. You can make this by the cup or make a tea pot full. Steep the herb for 10 - 20 minutes. Drink warm. If you make a pot of tea, strain out the herb and keep the infusion in the fridge, to warm up when needed. See kids dosage chart at the end of this article. An adult dose is ½ - 1 cup 3x per day. This tea tastes pretty good.
- Thyme honey - This takes 6 weeks to make and you need fresh thyme. Place fresh chopped thyme (supermarket thyme is fine) in a glass jar & cover with honey. Let it sit for 6 weeks. You can take this by the spoonful like the garlic honey or mix with warm/hot water for a tea. It’s also very good to use to sweeten thyme infusion.
Onions
Onions, like garlic, have very potent antibacterial properties, especially when raw.
- Onion honey - Finely chop 1 onion, peel and all. Pour honey over to cover. Let sit 12 hours or so, until the onion juices out. A dose is 1 spoonful. My grandmother used this for a cough syrup (with whiskey added!)
Lemons
Lemons have tons of vitamin C, something you need when you’re getting sick. Lemons are very alkalizing to the body, and so promote healing & make the body a bad place for nasty organisms. Lemons are especially good for sore throats and runny noses as well as being an allover body tonic. Hot lemon tea is one of my favorites when I’m feeling a cold coming on.
- Lemon tea - Squeeze 1 lemon into a mug. Add 1 TBS honey. Fill mug with hot/boiling water. Drink while hot then go to bed. Variations: 1) If you feel a cold or the flu coming on, take a hot bath, get into a warm bed, drink this tea & go to sleep. 2) For a sore throat, add honey and lemon. This preciptates the tannins out of the tea - it changes color & the tannins end up in the bottom of the cup!
Ginger
Ginger is very warming and helps to reduce cold fevers (fevers that give you the chills). Ginger also helps the action of other herbs along; it amplifies them.
- Lemon/Ginger tea - To make lemon/ginger tea, per pint of hot water, squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon then add about 1 inch of grated ginger. Let steep 5 – 10 minutes. Sweeten with honey and drink hot. A cinnamon stick can also be added. Plain ginger tea is also great for tummy trouble.
- Ginger Honey - Take fresh ginger, peel it, slice it. Put a layer of ginger slices in a glass jar and enough honey to cover; put in another layer of ginger, then more honey - continue until the jar is not quite full. The honey will thin out as the ginger juices mix with the honey. It’s ready in a few days. Mix with warm water for a warming and circulation promoting tea. It’s also helpful for an upset tummy, especially if you’ve eaten too much. Very tastey in black tea, too, for a warming winter time drink.
Sage
Sage is a great herb that is useful for sore throats, coughs with lots of mucus, and hoarseness. Sage may even work against the bacteria that cause strep throat. Sage dries up secretions, so don’t use if you are nursing! Traditionally, 2 cups of sage tea per day for 7 days was the way to dry up women’s breast milk.
- Sage infusion - Take 1 TBS dried herb per cup of water and prepare as in the thyme infusion. If you’re worried about drinking the tea for a sore throat, you can gargle with it then spit it out.
- Sage honey - Stuff a glass jar full of fresh sage leaves (supermarket sages leaves are fine) and pour honey over to cover. Let sit 6 weeks & take by the spoonful or make tea as instructed for thyme honey.
Diarrhea remedies
A good remedy for diarrhea that you may already have on hand is black tea. Black tea is very tannic and so helps tone the digestive tract, calming it down and stopping the diarrhea. It’s not my favorite remedy for kids, though, due to the caffiene content. It will work in a pinch, though.
One of my favorite diarrhea remedies is one of Rosemary Gladstar’s formulations: blackberry root and slippery elm tea. For this I use a tea made from equal parts blackberry root and slippery elm. Blackberry root is astringent and helps stop the diarrhea while the slippery elm bark coats & soothes the GI tract. You can buy both of these herbs in powder form. You do need to make a tea from them, though. Don’t encapsulate them.
Upset tummy remedies
Ginger tea
Peppermint or spearmint tea
Hops tea (especially if it’s from eating too much)
Dosing chart for teas
3x daily for a mild condition or every ½ - 1 hour for acute cases
Adults ½ - 1 cup
7-11 yrs 2 TBS
4-7 yrs 2 tsp
under 2 ½ - 1 tsp
If your child hates the taste of a tea you can try the following. Remeber that the skin is a very absorptive organ, especially the feet with all their sweat glands, so a warm bath with herbs in it can be an excellent delivery system. Try a hand full of lavender buds for crankiness, too!
- Soak thin cotton socks in the remedy & put on feet. Cover with warm woolen socks. Keep on a few hours or until your kid pulls them off!
- Warm bath with the herbs in a cotton satchel/cheesecloth bag.
- Make a foot soak with the tea. Make a strong tea and put in a dishtub or plastic bucket with warm water. Let your child soak his or her feet in that.
Sources
Rosemary Gladstar – Herbal Remedies for Children’s Health
Susun Weed Class notes
Maude Grieves – A Modern Herbal
Stephen Harrod Buhner - Herbal Antibiotics
Herbal books of interest
Rosemary Gladstar – Family Herbal
Websites
www.learningherbs.com - free ecourse on using herbs for family health
A Warm Winter Welcome To You! I’m Herbalist Deb Fate-Mental and I run Black Toad Herbals here in Mendon, Mass. I grow my own medicinal and culinary herbs in the gardens around my house. Come visit with me and learn a little about herbs and making herbal medicines. You’ll get to know all my green friends from the weedy St. John’s Wort to the old culinary standby Thyme as well as some plants you normally wouldn’t recognize as healing herbs. Did you know all those pesky dandelions people try to poison out of their lawns are really potent medicinals our ancestors brought over from Europe? Indeed, they were one of the first European plants brought here, that’s how important they were! 