Category:Expectorants

An expectorant is a herbal medicine that promotes the clearance of respiratory mucus, by thinning the mucus (mucolytic action), by stimulating the cough reflex on the basis of secretion (reflex expectorant action), or by reducing bronchial smooth-muscle spasm (the antitussive-and-expectorant combination). The Western clinical-herbalist tradition has used the expectorant category for several centuries, with substantial subdivision into stimulating expectorants (which produce more cough), relaxing expectorants (which reduce cough while still clearing mucus), and combined expectorant-antitussives.

The foundational expectorants of the British Herbal Pharmacopoeia and ESCOP traditions include thyme (Thymus vulgaris), the principal Western antitussive-expectorant with thymol-mediated antimicrobial action and substantial controlled-trial evidence for acute bronchitis; mullein (Verbascum thapsus), the Native American and Eclectic expectorant for productive cough; elecampane (Inula helenium), the inulin-and-alantolactone expectorant for chronic bronchial conditions; hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis); white horehound (Marrubium vulgare); licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra; cross-listed under demulcents); lobelia (Lobelia inflata; the Eclectic respiratory antispasmodic-expectorant); ipecac (Cephaelis ipecacuanha; in low dose as expectorant, in high dose as emetic; historical use); bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis; the Native American expectorant with significant toxicity restriction); and pleurisy root (Asclepias tuberosa; the Eclectic pulmonary expectorant). The Ayurvedic vasaka (Adhatoda vasica) is the principal Indian expectorant.

The pharmaceutical expectorant guaifenesin (cross-listed at expectorants under the broader pharmaceutical-class umbrella) was originally isolated from guaiac wood (Guaiacum officinale), a traditional herbal medicine of the Caribbean; the herbal and pharmaceutical traditions are continuous in this case.

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris), mullein (Verbascum thapsus), elecampane (Inula helenium), hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis), white horehound (Marrubium vulgare), licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), lobelia (Lobelia inflata), ipecac (Cephaelis ipecacuanha), bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), pleurisy root (Asclepias tuberosa), vasaka (Adhatoda vasica), guaiac (Guaiacum officinale), grindelia (Grindelia robusta), yerba santa (Eriodictyon californicum), wild cherry (Prunus serotina; for cough), and the TCM expectorants Jie Geng (platycodon, Platycodon grandiflorus), Qian Hu (Peucedanum praeruptorum), and Xing Ren (apricot kernel, Prunus armeniaca; restricted, cyanogenic).

The boundary of this category is "herb whose principal or important action is promotion of respiratory mucus clearance." Several expectorant herbs have additional and overlapping respiratory actions (demulcent, bronchodilator, antitussive) and are cross-listed where appropriate. The pharmaceutical expectorants (guaifenesin, the inhaled mucolytics dornase alfa and hypertonic saline; described under mucolytics and the broader pharmaceutical expectorants umbrella) are listed under their primary umbrellas.

This category page is an encyclopedia article about its subject. The actual index of herbs belonging to the category is generated automatically by the wiki engine, from category-membership declarations on the individual herb pages, and appears at the foot of the page below the references.