Hyssop

Hyssop is a bushy evergreen plant introduced into the warmer parts of the U.S. from Southern Europe. Once widely cultivated for medicinal uses, it is now grown mostly as an ornamental shrub. The plant consists of several square, branched, downy stems which are woody at the bottom and bear opposite, sessile, glabrous to hairy, linear-lanceolate leaves. The rose-colored to bluish-purple flowers grow in successive axillary whorls at the tops of the branches and stems from June to October.

Hyssop has been used effectively as an astringent, carminative, emmenagogue, expectorant, stimulant, stomachic, and tonic. Hyssop is used in essentially the same way as sage, with which it is sometimes combined to make a gargle for sore throat. Hyssop tea can be used for poor digestion, breast and lung problems, coughs due to colds, nose and throat infections, mucous congestion in the intestines, flatulence, scrofula, dropsy, and jaundice. The decoction is said to help relieve inflammations, and it can also be used as a wash for burns, bruises, and skin irritations, and as a gargle for sore throat or chronic catarrh. Apply the crushed leaves directly to bruises or to wounds to cure infection and promote healing.

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