Great Mullein, Verbascum thapsus

The Geart Mullein grows differently every year. One year the Great Mullein will be over 6 feet tall and the next year it will be a rosette of leaves close to the ground.

It’s August and I am harvesting the seeds this year from a nice mullein patch growing on the western end of the field of corn. These images show various stages of plant growth ranging from early June to August. In August this year I harvested the seeds from the dried brown stalks before they opened and fell to the ground. I did not harvest the leaves or flowers this year.

Phytochemicals in the flowers and leaves include saponins, polysaccharides, mucilage, flavonoids, tannins, iridoid and lignin glycosides, and essential oils. The flowers and leaves can be used in herbal teas.

Pedanius Dioscorides (40-90 AD), considered the father of pharmacognosy, was a Greek physician. He first recommended the Mullein plant over 2,000 years ago for pulmonary diseases. Even the Native American Indians smoked the leaves to treat lung ailments. Edgar Cayce, the father of holistic medicine, suggested mullein leaves as a poultice for varicose veins.

The root, leaves, flowers, and seeds have been used in Naturopathic medicine.  Poultices, salves, and even smoking various constituents. Plant components have been used for warts, boils, carbuncles, hemorrhoids, and chilblains, colds, croup, sunburn, and other skin irritation. The oil from the flowers has been used for catarrh, earaches, frostbite, eczema, and other conditions. Mullein was listed in the National Formulary in the United States and United Kingdom. Various parts of the plant are considered to have anti-inflammatory, antiviral and antimicrobial properties.