Coltsfoot

Gender: Feminine

Planet: Venus

Element: Water

 Chakra Colour: Blue

Medicinal Uses: Coltsfoot is best known for its use as a cough remedy. Being both expectorant and antispasmodic in action, it can be used for dry, irritable coughs and even whooping cough. It is often combined with other herbs for maximum effect. Coltsfoot candies are also commercially available. It is perhaps the primary herbal remedy for asthma, for which it is smoked, a practice that dates back to the days of antiquity- even Pliny reports on it. Externally, the leaves have been used as a poultice for insect bites, ulcers, swellings and burns.

Magical Uses: Coltsfoot does not figure prominently in herb magic although it is mentioned in one ancient ritual performed to bring back a lover who has gone astray. Coltsfoot makes an ideal base herb for a visionary smoking mix, although it is inactive by itself.

Other Names:  Ass’s Foot, British Tobacco, Bull’s Foot, Butterbur, Coughwort, Foal’s Foot.

Contraindications:  Medications that can harm the liver (Hepatotoxic drugs): acetaminophin, amiodarone, statin drugs.  Although both flowers and leaves are medicinally active, it is generally recommended that only the leaves be used. Modern studies have found pyrrolizidine alkaloids in both, leaves and flowers, but they are more concentrated in the flowers. Do not use for extended periods of time.

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