Hyssop

The Essentials

Aromatic chest herb with a well-documented ability to loosen phlegm. Mentioned in Avicenna's Canon and the Old Testament alike.

Strong tea with honey is the classical winter cough remedy.

Concentrated essential oil (the concentrated aromatic oil of the plant) isn't safe for internal use — stay with the herb.

Hyssop appears in the Old Testament as a ritual purifier, while Dioscorides, Galen, and Avicenna wrote about it as a herb for the chest and digestion. Modern research focuses on its volatile oil (pinocamphone, isopinocamphone) and rosmarinic acid, looking at how they may help loosen phlegm and protect cells from damage.

Known to botanists as Hyssopus officinalis.