Old Time Cold Remedies

Like most people this winter, I’m caught up in listening to all the grim reports about the current flu outbreak. I’ve also been suffering with an upper respiratory infection since the day after Christmas. Whether it started as a common cold or the flu, I’m not sure, but it turned into a nasty case of bronchitis. I’ve been to the doctor, have finished a round of antibiotics and am taking a strong cough remedy, but I still can’t seem to shake this thing. I may be paying my doc another visit.

All of which got me to thinking about our pioneer ancestors and wondering what remedies they favored for cold and flu bugs. My home library contains several books on herbal and home remedies, so I didn’t need to go far for an answer – many actually.

 

Source: Common Medicinal Herbs of the Ozarks, History, Folklore and Uses

By Bob Liebert

Onions: juice of roasted onion for croup

Horehound: cooked into a thick syrup for coughs and colds; horehound candy for children’s coughs and colds

Catnip: for colds and fevers; especially good for children

Basswood: tea of the flowers for head colds; sweating herb for colds and fevers

Skunk oil: rendered fat from a skunk applied externally for chest cold and pneumonia; also might be swallowed for chest congestion (Yuck!)

Vinegar & honey: swallowed for coughs; gargled for sore throat

Turpentine: rags soaked in turpentine applied to chest for congestion; was sometimes taken internally, which could damage kidneys

 

Source: Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie, An Ethnobotanical Guide

By Kelly Kindscher

American licorice: roots steeped into a tea for coughs by Blackfeet Indians

Beebalm: flowers made into tea, used by the Lakotas for fever and colds; whites used it for headaches and fever

Curly-top gumweed: brewed as tea by settlers for treating all types of respiratory illness

Mint: peppermint tea prescribed by doctors for many ailments including colds (I drink it to sooth my throat and calm my cough.)

Purple coneflower: most popular of medicinal plants among settlers, used for colds and almost every other ailment

Seneca snakeroot: Seneca Indians made tea of this root, used to treat coughs, sore throat, colds and snakebite; they taught settlers how to use it

Willow: tea brewed from small branches, used for colds, headache, fever and other ailments; willow was long used in Europe and was likely familiar to many settlers

Yarrow: tea used for coughs, throat irritation and bleeding; also long known for its medicinal properties in Europe

These are but a few of the many cold remedies employed by pioneers. Quoting one of my sources: “In the past, as today, the common cold was the number-one physical complaint. I was given so many cold remedies in the course of my interviewing that if I listed them all I would have a small book.”

~~ Country Folk Medicine, by Elizabeth Janos

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Now, instead of offering a book excerpt, I'd like to share a couple of the latest reader reviews for Dashing Druid. You can read more reviews on Amazon.

Just finished book 3 of the Texas Druids it's an awesome series to read! Got to read it to see!!!

~~Reviewed by mommie85360

I liked this book as much as the first one. It showed how sometimes real people can be extraordinary. In this story, you have two people who have been injured emotionally and fight their attraction toward each other and eventually give in. It brings up not only the race hatred of the Native Americans but also of the Irish. We are a nation built by many races but still have to remember that race did play a big part on how we saw each other. (review excerpt)

~~Reviewed by C. Peters ""Crazy Cat Lady""

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