Cough irritation, dry throat? Try this homemade cough syrup. So easy you can make your own cough syrup with thyme, sage and honey.
Have you ever had a cold? Your throat is a little scratchy and somehow you constantly feel like you have to cough. You soon get the feeling that you have a lump in your throat.
In the evening, the urge to cough becomes stronger. There is hardly any question of sleeping now.
We all get it at least once a year: coughs, colds, hoarseness. 😥🤧
I'm also sitting here with a cup of homemade herbal tea and typing these lines for you. By the way, ribwort plantain is a great herb for colds of all kinds. You can collect it in summer when hiking and in meadows.
But back to the cough syrup - because what now? Our throats are scratchy, our noses are starting to run and we feel like we've been hit by a train.
Straight to the doctor, buy cough syrup and take medication? Tablets, powders and syrups promise us quick help. However, they can also cost a lot of money. Many of them also have side effects.
Mother Nature has everything we need in store for us. 🌿🤗 I am convinced of this - at least since my training as a qualified herbalist. Today I would like to show you how you can help yourself - with a quick and healthy cough syrup made from thyme and sage.
Attention: This is how long your cold is really contagious!
Table of contents
Why you should make your own cough syrup
Cough syrup from the pharmacy tastes really good in very few cases. Either extremely sweet or very artificial. If you're unlucky, you get the combination of both.
Have you ever read the package insert of a cough syrup you bought? A little tip: It's better not to do that.
Because even supposedly healthy cough syrups contain glucose syrup, Citric acid*glycerol, colorants and co. but they don't have to be. 🙅♀️
Not everyone can tolerate commercially available cough suppressants. Especially if you have a sensitive stomach, you will get a load of stomach ache along with your cough.
So that you can quench your cough in the future without worrying, I recommend that you simply make your own cough syrup. You know exactly what ends up in it and you also get out much cheaper.
Make cough syrup yourself is not as complicated as you might imagine! Nature has everything you need for this. There are many herbs that soothe coughs, help heal an irritated throat and get you back on your feet faster.
DIY juice for coughs and colds is one of my favorite recipes and just one of many very quick and easy to make home remedies. 🥰
Tip: If you are interested in this topic, I can recommend the book The home pharmacy to make yourself really to the heart. You'll find recipes for all kinds of aches and pains. The great thing about it is that you have most of the things you need at home.
You will learn in the book which natural remedies help with migraine, how to fight nail fungus and that there is quick help for every ailment in the kitchen cupboard, on the windowsill or in the pantry.
What effect has a cough syrup
Cough syrups should alleviateheal and our Bronchi soothe. Instead of continuing to burden our bodies with artificial additives, we can support them in a natural way. Namely with natural remedies, herbs and medicinal plants. 🌿
Already many hundreds of years ago, our ancestors relied on homemade cough syrups set. Nature provides everything we need to put an end to coughing.
You don't need artificial flavors, colorings or lots of sugar. I'll show you how you can make your own cough syrup to quickly soothe your cough and remove mucus.
The big advantage of homemade Cough syrup is that you can prepare it fresh at any time if you notice that something is coming on. You can also keep it in the fridge and eat it when you need it. That's why I always have the The most important cold remedies in the cupboard.
If the cough is very stubborn or if you want to help your child with a cold, a DIY cough balm can also help. You can easily make it from oil, wax and essential oils/herbs.
How to mix a homemade cough ointment in 5 minutes!
How the ingredients of your DIY cough syrup work
If you want to make your own cough syrup, you're usually already sick and feeling weak and exhausted. That's why I rely on a DIY cough syrup with just a few ingredients that is quick to prepare.
After all, who is in the mood to try out complicated recipes when you have a sore throat and a cough? Exactly!
These are the ingredients in my homemade cough syrup: thyme, sage, honey and lemon.
Cough syrup with thyme
Thyme was already known to the ancient Egyptians as a medicinal plant. They used thyme for illnesses and for embalming their dead because it had a disinfecting has an effect.
The Greeks smoked their houses with it. And since the Middle Ages, the small medicinal plant is used in our country against cough.
Later thyme also helped against bronchitis, whooping cough and was used for asthma.
Thyme contains valuable essential oils, the expectorant work. The saponins make the herb the perfect ingredient for making your own cough syrup, as they inhibit the growth of bacteria and fungi and strengthen the immune system. 😊
If you make cough syrup with thyme, you are doing something good for your body with its expectorant and antibacterial effect. Thyme also strengthens our immune system. But be careful - don't overdo it. Thyme can also have side effects have!
This tea inhibits inflammation in the body!
Sage in homemade cough syrup
Sage gives our food a spicy and incomparable aroma. I like to sprinkle it on pasta and combine it with olive oil and parmesan - a fantastic meal that is on the table in just a few minutes. Or I like to add it to in polenta patties! But it can do much more.
Sage has been used for several centuries as a Medicinal plant against colds used. 🤧🤗
By the way, its name is program. Sage is derived from the ancient Roman word " Salvia salvatrix". This means something like healing or saving plant.
The sage leaves in cough syrup have anti-inflammatory Properties. The ingredients work antibacterial. Sage also has a fungicidal effect and is ideal for irritated and inflamed throats. Sage is also a great household remedy for anyone who sweats a lot - because it has an antiperspirant effect!
If you add sage to your homemade cough syrup, you can soothe your cough and help your irritated throat to heal.
Make cough syrup yourself with honey
When the throat is scratchy and the cough irritation is great, honey helps. Bee honey is considered a miracle cure for coughs and colds of all kinds.
If it has to be done very quickly: Take a teaspoon of honey and let it melt very slowly in your mouth. Don't swallow it all at once, but in small pieces.
Manuka honey* is a real virus killer. It has a soothing and antibacterial effect and soothes a dry and scratchy throat - like conventional honey to a much greater extent. This leads to reliable relief from irritating coughs and can even prevent them.
Honey is therefore much better for homemade cough syrup than sugar. However, it is important that the Honey first directly before drinking gets into the cough syrup. If you add it to the hot herbal drink, you destroy the enzymes in the honey. It is then no better than sugar.
These effective home remedies for colds you have guaranteed at home!
Lemon
Our body needs all the support it can get right now. If you're lucky, you can get a even ward off worse colds with it. We must now pay particular attention to a healthy diet.
This includes lots of fresh vegetables, fruit and of course plenty of vitamin C.
I add it to the cough syrup in the form of fresh lemon juice because it balances out the sweetness of the honey and at the same time adds a lot of vitamin C to the drink. You can also use other citrus fruits, such as orange or grapefruit.
However, there is a whole range of foods that are far more contain more vitamin C than lemons!
Recipe: Make your own thyme and sage cough syrup
You need quite a lot of herbs in comparatively little water. If this surprises you, you should know that a cough syrup and a tea are not the same thing. A tea is much less intense, so you can easily drink several cups a day.
A Cough syrup is stronger concentratedwhich is why it is consumed in sips.
Some people get a dry throat from sage. If you are one of them, then try a Preparing cough syrup with onion and honey. It doesn't taste as disgusting as it sounds 😁.
You can also simply halve the amount of sage. So instead of 25 grams, use only 12 grams and more thyme.
Thyme cough syrup has one big advantage: it tastes delicious. I prefer to drink it lukewarm.
But now let's get started. Here is a detailed guide with step-by-step instructions. This way, even beginners and all those who have not made natural medicine before will succeed. If you are already familiar with it, you will find the End of the article a short version for the recipe.
Here comes the long version.
Ingredients
- 200 ml tap water
- 50 g thyme
- 25 g sage
- 1/2 lemon
- 6 TBSP. Manuka honey* or conventional honey
Also: pot, bottle with screw cap
1. prepare the herbs
Dry herbs: Clean sage and thyme thoroughly. You can rinse them briefly if they are visibly dirty. But never soak fresh herbs in water - this will wash away the essential oils!
Remove any dry leaves. If you like, you can chop up the herbs. However, this is not a must, they release their essential oils even without being chopped.
Alternatively, you can of course also use dried herbs. The 1:3 rule applies to most herbs. So in this case:
- 50 g fresh thyme = 16 to 17 g dried thyme
- 25 g fresh sage = 8 to 9 g dried sage
2. boil the broth
Bring the tap water to a boil. When it bubbles, turn down the temperature and remove the pot from the stove.
Put thyme and sage in the pot and cover it with the lid. Let the broth brew for 15 minutes.
Very important: Don't forget the lid. Otherwise the essential oils will escape from the herbs and make the room smell good, but they will be missing from your cough syrup!
3. prepare the lemon
Halve the lemon and squeeze one half. You should now get 1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Put it aside.
4. remove the sage
After a total of 15 minutes, you should remove the sage, otherwise the cough syrup will be too bitter. Fish it out of the pot with a fork.
The thyme remains in the pot. Let the cough syrup infuse for an hour.
5. make the cough syrup yourself
Your cough syrup should now be about lukewarm. Under no circumstances should it be over 40°. If you are unsure, grab a kitchen thermometer.
As soon as the temperature is right, lemon and honey can be added to the cough syrup. Both for Manuka honey* as well as lemon: heat destroys the precious ingredients that we absolutely want to preserve!
Vitamin C is extremely sensitive to heat!
6. fill the cough syrup
Now put the cough syrup into the prepared bottles or jars. You must sterilize them well beforehand, so that the cough syrup can be kept longer. How to do this, you can read in this article: "Sterilize bottles and jars properly".
Where should I store the cough syrup?
As I completely avoid sugar in my cough syrup, it doesn't keep for very long. You should use it within 3 days and always store it in the fridge.
It is therefore best to always make small amounts and make new cough syrup as required.
How do I dose correctly?
You can start the treatment immediately after straining.
Depending on the severity of the cold, you take 3-4 tablespoons.
Before I take it, I let it warm up to room temperature so that it doesn't irritate my throat. If you want to warm it up, remember: never take it above 40 °C!
What other herbs can be added to cough syrup?
There are many other really good herbs for colds and coughs. My grandmother always used these and they worked wonderfully for us children:
- Maiwipferl (fresh spruce shoots in spring)
- Ribwort plantain leaves
- Peppermint
- Lime blossoms* (especially for fever - has a diaphoretic effect)
- Chamomile
- Flowers of the mullein
- Lungwort
- Mallow (cheese poplar)
- Coltsfoot
- Red coneflower
And a few more. You can add them all to a tea or directly to the cough syrup.
It's so easy to make your own cough drops
Short version of the recipe
And as promised, here is the short version of the instructions for anyone who is in a hurry or regularly makes home remedies.
Make cough syrup yourself with sage and honey
Ingredients
- 200 ml Tap water
- 50 g Thyme
- 25 g Sage
- 1/2 Lemon
- 6 EL Honey
Equipment
- Pot
- Bottle with screw cap
Anleitung
- Pour boiling water over thyme and sage
- Allow to infuse for at least 15 minutes. Important: With lid!
- Meanwhile squeeze the lemon
- Remove the sage, otherwise it will be too bitter. And let rest again for at least an hour.
- Strain the thyme and then add the honey. Important: The temperature of the brew must be below 40° Celsius before you add the honey. Otherwise, the beneficial properties of the honey will be lost.
- Pour the juice into a sterile, i.e. boiled, container. Bottle with screw cap.
Our conclusion
As you can see, making your own cough syrup is anything but complicated. You have to plan a little time, but you spare your body from a lot of sugar and artificial flavors and colors.
Thyme cough juice also tastes quite delicious. If you have fresh herbs, you should use fresh ones. But dried also have a similar effect.
Get well soon! 🤧🤗
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