Quick fix: earache.
Mullein oil is extremely fast in getting that earache to subside.
So your kid has an earache? Or even you?
Way back when, a hundred years ago (and 25 years ago, in places in Finland), they used to sell olive or almond oil by the ounce, in pharmacies, for earaches.
You just put a drop or three into the aching ear and the problem is gone.
And that's all very nice and good, but if you want to stop that earache from recurring - strengthen the mucous membranes of the ear, as it were - you want to make your own mullein flower oil.
The usual way as found in herb books is, "pick single flowers off a large-flowered mullein one by one by one by one, put them into a glass jar, and put that into a sunny window. In a few days (or weeks) you'll have a clear mullein oil".
Now I don't know about you, but I have lots of things to do, and picking single flowers one by one by one by one by one simply isn't one of them.
No, I lop off mullein flowerstalks underneath the lowest flowers /seedpods / flowerbuds, and let them dry, hanging in bundles in a shady spot. Once they're completely dried out (7-10 days) I put on my gloves and pull everything off that flowerstalk - that's what I call "mullein flowers". Then I make a normal herb oil on a waterbath, using the dried mullein flowers (check the salves category for how-tos on herbal oils (and salves)). All parts of mullein (including the flowers) are covered in itchy hairs, so after straining the oil through cheesecloth you better let it run through a coffee filter, too. If you don't, well, your earaches will be gone, but your ears will itch like crazy.
Mullein is a nice anti-inflammatory, and the oil is very good for earaches and for muscle and joint pains. Try it, you'll be glad you did!
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Related entries: Mullein itches - The midnight earache - Earaches in kids - Ech for earaches - Yellow flowers: Mullein
Thanks Katja - it's nice to
Thanks Katja - it's nice to have another remedy in the arsenal.
And thanks Jim - but have you tried the "everything off the flowerstalk" approach in your fresh tincture? I'd be interested in how it would compare to the fresh flowers only tincture.
I haven't seen any bugs in
I haven't seen any bugs in my mulleins - not aphids, not spiders, nothing.
Dunno about the saponins in the seeds, though. They're about as bad as eating soap ... see, fish get stunned by the saponins because these saponins remove the water tension. Humans will get stunned from saponins as soon as we grow gills.
And how high a dose of your fresh herb tincture? Drops? NO problem.
Nope, no black specks on the
Nope, no black specks on the mullein flowers. I don't remember any of the yellow-loving beetles on mullein either; you know, the ones that are abundant on dandelion flowers and SJW, but which move off if you leave your take in the shade for a while.
I don't remember if the red clover is inhabited; by the time the harvesting basket is at home the clover is pretty clean.
And possibly those black
And possibly those black specks have ferocious predators up here, or can't survive our winters, eh? And that Italian guy allergy thing is very interesting, thanks!
Owie. Perhaps the mullein
Owie. Perhaps the mullein flowers will come back? They do if you just chop off the flowerstalk - it takes a few weeks.