Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) is a low, creeping perennial of the daisy family, native to Europe and northern Asia. Its yellow flowers open in early spring, before the leaves, and its soft, woolly leaf is one of the oldest herbs in the European record, described by Greek and Roman writers.
The leaf is mild and earthy. In Australia Coltsfoot is restricted and is not for internal use, so here it is a leaf for milled herb blends, not for the teapot. It is the herb our customers reach for when they are putting a blend together and want a soft, light base.
Cultural use
The Latin name tells the oldest story. Tussilago comes from tussis, a cough, and ago, to drive away, while the English name describes the hoof-shaped leaf. Hippocrates wrote of it, and Dioscorides, Pliny and Galen each described drawing the smoke of the burning leaf into the mouth through a funnel or reed.
In China the flower buds, kuan dong hua, are listed in the Shennong Ben Cao Jing, the classic herbal compiled during the Han dynasty, and the plant has been eaten as a vegetable in many parts of the world.
In Britain, Coltsfoot was the main leaf of the old herbal blends. An 1890 account describes it rubbed together by hand with eyebright, betony, thyme and lavender, the Coltsfoot making up half the mix.
Modern herbal use
In Western herbalism Coltsfoot is classed as a demulcent and an expectorant: one of the soft, mucilage-rich herbs long associated with the chest and the breath. For most of its history it was taken as a tea or syrup as well as burned.
That changed when small amounts of pyrrolizidine alkaloids, compounds linked with harm to the liver, were found in the plant. Coltsfoot is now on the Australian list of plants that cannot be sold as food, which is why we do not offer it as a tea. Today its place is in milled herb blends, and for some people in habit shifting.
Research on Coltsfoot is mostly laboratory and animal work, and reviewers have called for better safety studies, so we describe how it is used, not what it will do.
How it's used
In Australia Coltsfoot is not for internal use, so it is used in one main way.
Milled herb blend. The dried leaf has a long history of being smoked, on its own or as the soft, mild base of a hand-rolled blend with more aromatic herbs such as Mullein, thyme or lavender.
Not as a tea. In Europe the leaf and flower were once brewed as a tea or made into a syrup. Coltsfoot is restricted in Australia, so we do not suggest drinking it.
Coltsfoot is a leaf for occasional use, in small amounts.