Development of cough-relieving 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: cough-relieving herbal teas, marshmallow root (Althaeae radix), liquorice root (Liquiritiae radix), lime flower (Tiliae flos), Iceland moss (Lichen islandicus).

Summary. Cough-relieving medicinal herbs in tea are used from ancient times. Mucilage present in them or secretion produced under the influence of the active substances covers the oral and throat mucosa soothing its irritability and relieving dry, tiresome cough. It is known that the mixtures of medicinal herbs (Specias) have a complex influence on the human organism and the rational combination of medicinal herbs can improve their curative action and decrease the undesirable side effects. Having summarized the properties of those medicinal herbs we decided to create two formulations of cough-relieving herbal tea. The first formulation consists of marshmallow roots, liquorice roots and lime flowers, the second – of marshmallow roots, Iceland moss and lime flowers. The methods for identification and assay of the active substances in the compounds were applied. The purity of the mixtures was regulated by limitation of the loss on drying, total ash, microbial contamination, contamination with radionuclides, heavy metals, pesticides and foreign matter. The expiry date of both cough-relieving herbal teas was approved 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 18 May 2005