English name: Lung-Wort
Family: Boraginaceae
Botanical characteristic: A perennial hairy herb that grows to a height of 35 cm. The leaves are ovate or lanceolate, sessile, entire-margined, with white spots. The flowers grow in inflorescences of pink, later bluish-purple flowers at the end of a branched stem. The calyx is tubularly campanulate. The fruit is a small, dry, deciduous fruit from a two-seeded pistil which breaks into 4 one-seeded parts.
Microscopic drawing:
Distribution: It grows in deciduous and mixed forests, from lowlands to mountain areas on moist calcareous soil.
Drug: Pulmonariae folium
Harvesting method: It blooms from May to July. Undamaged leaves are harvested by hand or with gardening shears, after flowering.
Drying: In a natural way, the leaves of the medicinal lungwort are dried in a thin layer in a dark, ventilated room. When drying with artificial heat in a drying oven, the temperature must not exceed 40 °C.
Active substances: The aerial part of the plant contains mucilages, tannins, flavonoids, allantoin, organic acids such as chlorogenic acid, rosmarinic acid. Of the mineral constituents, the most important is the soluble fraction of silicic acid (silicates).
Uses: In the past, lungwort was used for the treatment of tuberculosis, but this use is now obsolete. Because of its mucilaginous content, the drug can be used as a remedy for dry and irritating coughs, and because of its healing allantoin content for poorly healing wounds.
Selected herbal preparations: JUVAMED LUNGWORT loose herbal tea 1×30 g, HERBALMED HOT DRINK (lungwort, thyme, lungs) cough and bronchial tubes / throat and bronchial tubes 180 g, HERBEX Premium LUNGS AND BRONCHIALS herbal mixture, tea 20×1.5 g, NaturProdukt Drops for children respiratory tract 50 ml, NaturProdukt Syrup for respiratory tract syrup 200 ml.