A soft, silvery-gray wild herb of Southern fields known as rabbit tobacco or life everlasting, dried and brewed into a maple-scented tea for chest colds, coughs, asthma, and the lungs. One of the most distinctly Black Southern of all the bush remedies.
Rabbit tobacco is one of the signature herbs of Black Southern folk medicine — its very name comes from the rural Black and Native communities who knew it as everyday lung medicine. Few remedies are as specifically tied to the Carolinas and Deep South porch-and-field tradition.
Rabbit tobacco is a traditional respiratory and antispasmodic herb. Its flavonoids (including luteolin) and aromatic oils have anti-inflammatory, mild bronchodilating, and expectorant effects that ease coughs, chest tightness, and asthma — historically the dried herb was even smoked to relieve asthma and congestion. The tannins and caffeic acid derivatives add astringent and antimicrobial action that soothes a sore throat and sinus drainage, and the herb has a gentle calming, diaphoretic quality used for nerves and to sweat out a cold. It is a gentle, accessible lung herb deeply rooted in Black Southern practice.
Steep a small handful of the dried flowering tops and leaves in hot water, covered, for 10-15 minutes; strain. Sweeten with honey for a cough. The herb has a pleasant maple-like aroma. Harvest the silvery tops in late summer and fall when they flower.
Free, no account needed to ask.