| |  | | Marrubium vulgaris for Worms?
Answered by: Susan Eagles
Question from: Name Not Given
Posted on: February 18, 2005
I have used a leaf of horehound (Marrubium vulgaris) about the size a mouse’s ear for worming puppies until they are old enough to use veterinary dewormers. Have you ever heard of this practice? My mother and I always gathered the expelled worms with a shovel and burned them in the hopes no eggs would escape on the premises. If this an accepted practice, are only roundworms affected? We really like to use as natural a means to care for our animals.
I have not heard of horehound specifically as anti-parasitic, but it is bitter, and bitter herbs are part of the general treatment for worms.
The most difficult part of getting rid of worms is making sure that the environment, including all animals and humans, is treated and worm-free. Otherwise, they quickly repopulate.
Thomas Bartram in, "Bartram’s Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine" (available at Richters) includes the following in his list of anthelmintics (anti-parasitics): aloe, hyssop, garlic, mugwort, pomegranate, pumpkin seeds, rue, southernwood, tansy, thuja, and garden thyme (for hookworm). Most herbalists use a combination of these herbs for a number of days, followed by a purgative herb to expel the dead worms from the bowels.
Garlic is used as both a preventative and in treatment. In treatment, large amounts of garlic cloves are taken internally, or a fresh, peeled clove inserted in the rectum overnight.
For roundworms: mugwort, southernwood, German chamomile, wormwood
For tapeworms: cayenne pepper taken with slippery elm bark powder;
For flukes: Butternut liquid extract or powder; wormwood, wormseed
David Hoffman, in "The New Holistic Herbal" (1992, Element, Inc) notes the following procedure for expelling roundworm and tapeworm: along with the regular diet, eat foods that the worms don’t like for a couple of days: onions, garlic, pickles and salty things; then drink a strong cup of wormwood tea, morning and evening fro three days; on the fourth day, take a cup of senna tea to cleanse the bowels of the dead parasites.
Other purgatives that are used include aloe and rhubarb.
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