Folk Medicine
Latin name: Pulmonariae herba
Usable parts: Everything from the leaves to the inflorescences and the root
Harvest period: The leaves and flowers from March to May, and the root in autumn or spring.
Constituents: Mucilage, tannins, fats, inverted sugars, saponins, silicic acid, phytosterol, resin, allantoin, flavonoids3
Action: Mucilaginous, expectorant, tissue-strengthening, heals wounds 3
Application: By its very name, the lungwort already suggests its usefulness. Renowned as a lung remedy it is used to treat all kinds of respiratory problems. Its dried flowers are mainly consumed as a herbal tea.16
Risk of misidentification: Cynoglossum officinale, Echium
Tips for Domestic Cultivation
Lungwort grows easily when planted in a loamy soil in semi-shade. If it lives, it spreads on its own. Fun fact: its pink flowers turn blue after pollination.4, 15
Home Use / Recipe Idea
Lungwort wine3
The entire plant is used. Submerge two large bunches of lungwort in hot wine and allow to simmer. Sugar can be added as needed. After bottling, two or three small tumblers of the brew are consumed daily to fend off ailments.
3 “Die Kräuter in meinem Garten” by Siegrid Hirsch & Felix Grünberger; 22nd Edition; Freya Verlag Gmbh
4 “Schwester Bernardines große Naturapotheke”; 1983 Artia Prague; All rights of the German edition held by Mosaik Verlag GmbH
15 “Flora Helvetica–Illustrierte Flora der Schweiz” by Konrad Lauber, Gerhart Wagner, Andreas Gygax; 6th Edition, Haupt Verlag
16 “Heilpflanzen für die Gesundheit” by Annekatrin Puhle, Jürgen Trott-Tschepe, Consultant: Birgit Möller (pharmacist); 2013 Franckh-Kosmos Verlag-GmbH & Co.KG, Stuttgart