High Mallow
Parts Usually Used
The whole herb
Description of Plant(s) and Culture
High mallow is an annual or perennial; the tapering, whitish root produces a round stem, 2 to 3 feet high, with alternate, light green, downy leaves which are 5 to 7 lobed. The pink or purple axillary flowers have 5 narrow petals and appear from May to October. Another variety: Low mallow (M. rotundifolia) is used the same as high mallow.
Where Found
Found in waste places, rubbish dumps, fields, and along fences and roadsides, as well as cultivated. In Europe, Canada, and Mexico. Native of Europe, naturalized to North America.
Medicinal Properties
Astringent, demulcent, emollient, expectorant, cathartic
Biochemical Information
Mucilage, vitamin C, sugar, minerals, keratin, and coloring matter
Legends, Myths and Stories
” The Chinese eat the leaves raw in salads or boiled like spinach.
Uses
Historically, herbalists brewed this plant into a demulcent tea intended to address coughs, hoarseness, colds, lung catarrh, and inflammation of the larynx, tonsils, or respiratory tract. Traditional practitioners also administered the tea for digestive and urinary complaints, including gastritis, dyspepsia, cystitis, and colon inflammation, as well as employing it as a mild laxative.
Externally, decoctions were historically applied as washes for wounds and sores, while poultices of the herb were used with the intention of soothing local irritations and inflammations. Additionally, traditions recorded the use of leaf enemas aimed at addressing intestinal inflammation.
Bibliography
The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. , Pantheon Books, Knopf Publishing Group, New York, 1994, first edition American Folk Medicine , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973 Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs , by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814) Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R.
, Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, 1973 Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A. , Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 The Nature Doctor: A Manual of Traditional and Complementary Medicine , by Dr. A. , 27 Pine Street (Box 876) New Canaan, CT. 06840-0876. Copyright Verlag A. Vogel, Teufen (AR) Switzerland 1952, 1991