Development of throat clearing herbal teas

Genė Puodžiūnienė, Valdimaras Janulis, Arvydas Milašius¹, Vytautas Budnikas¹

Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, ¹Department of Theoretical and Clinical Pharmacology, Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania

Key words: throat clearing herbal tea, liquorice root (Liquiritiae radix), sweet fennel (Foeniculi dulcis fructus), thyme (Thymi herba), pine gemmae (Pini gemmae), elder flower (Sambuci flos).

Summary. Medicinal herbs in tea for throat clearing are used from ancient times. Taking into consideration the bronchial mucus secretion stimulating and antispasmodic, antimicrobial, antiphlogistic and stimulating effect on the ciliated epithelium two new formulations of throat clearing herbal tea were originated. The first formulation consists of liquorice roots, sweet fennel and thyme, and the second one consists of pine gemmae, thyme and elder flowers. The methods for identification and assay of the active substances of the components were adapted. The purity of the mixtures was regulated by the limitation of the loss on drying, total ash, microbial contamination, contamination with radionuclides, heavy metals, pesticides and foreign matter. Expiry date of both throat clearing herbal teas was confirmed to be 2 years.

Correspondence to G. Puodžiūnienė, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, Kaunas University of Medicine, A. Mickevičiaus 9, 44307 Kaunas, Lithuania. E-mail: farmakog@kmu.lt

Received 23 March 2004, accepted 31 May 2004