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What is it?

The roots of Marshmallow, a plant that gets its name from its liking to grow in marshy, watery soil. Everything about marshmallow is the opposite of dry or brittle, it is marvellously soft, moist and pliable.
I like the surprise on my young patients faces when I tell them I am going to put some Marshmallow extract into their medicine. It is a fact that Marshmallow is the same plant that a long time ago was used to make the popular confectionary that took its name.

How has it been used?

The uses of Marshmallow have been carefully described in European herbal literature for over 2000 years. Its soothing and healing effects have been an integral part of treatment for conditions such as gastritis, peptic ulcers, gastro-oesophageal reflux, hiatal hernias, cystitis, renal colic from kidney stones, painful coughs and bronchial spasm and tension.

Poultices or ointments of Marshmallow have been applied externally to new open wounds as well as over boils, abscesses, ulcers and old wounds to draw unwanted matter to the surface to be expelled from the body.

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Personal experiences

Marshmallow helps people who have too much ‘dryness’. This might show up as a dry skin or tongue or sometimes the dryness is present in the symptoms themselves, a cough that has no practical use, broken or cracked skin, food that is not digested because of a lack of stomach 'juice'. Over time Marshmallow has an uncanny ability to bring ‘moisture’ back into such dry conditions.

Heat or boiling damages the healing constituents in Marshmallow so the best way to use it is as a tincture or a cold infusion. A cold infusion means putting the cut or ground up Marshmallow root in some cool, clean water and leaving it to soak for a good period of time, ideally overnight. The resulting ‘tea’ is remarkably slippery and not something people might easily be able to drink without some practice but if a condition is critically dry then this method is particularly effective.

Marshmallow combines perfectly with Licorice for any kind of dry or depleted condition, with Elecampane for weak lungs and old coughs and with Wild Cherry for dry and exhausting coughs.

External Treatments

I use a lot of Marshmallow extract in creams that we make ourselves for people with dry or damaged skin but if the skin is badly damaged or open you can get great healing from the poultice.

Poultices are made by mashing the herb and soaking it in enough water to moisten the herb into a pliable 'putty'. You then place the whole product, herb and water combined, on to a cloth which is then placed directly over the affected wound or skin problem and then you cover that further with a towel or cloth to hold everything in place. This may be left on as long as necessary, even overnight if it can be bandaged in place.

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Excerpt from Felter & Lloyd's Kings Dispensatory from 1898

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