How I Make My Own Cough Mixture

Coughs come in many shapes and types. There is the dry cough, the ‘phlegmy cough’, the cough caused by asthma, and the summer hay fever cough. And then the worst type, the cough that won’t go away and keeps you awake at night. If we go to the local pharmacist you can find a cough mixture for just about all of the most common coughs. But what if the pharmacist is shut for good, what can we do to self-treat that cough? I’ll outline some recipes here that can help you with some of the most common types of coughs that are easy to make up at home and effective.

1. Basic Cough Formula:

If we start with a basic cough mixture, we can add a variety of other ingredients to treat the various cough types.

Honey is the key ingredient in all of these homegrown cough mixtures. Honey is a natural cough suppressant. It acts as a liner for your throat and a study has shown it to be as good a cough suppressant as the drug dextromethorphan, which is commonly used in manufactured cold and flu products. Honey also has antibacterial properties, so if you do have an infection it can also help with that.

If you don’t have honey to hand, you can use other sugary substances like molasses or brown sugar.

IMPORTANT: Before continuing, it’s important to note that you should avoid the use of honey in children under 12 months old as they can get infant botulism.

Ingredients:

1 cup of honey (alternatives are molasses and brown sugar)
1/2 cup water
Glass containers with lids (as many as you need for the different cough mixtures)

Boil the water in a pan. Warm the honey in a pan. Combine the two to make the base. You can play around with the amounts. Make sure it isn’t too runny, as you’ll be adding more liquid when you make the cough mixtures.

Warm-up, mixing as you go to create your cough syrup base.

Once cooled, add the syrup to a sterilized glass container with a lid.

2. The Soothing Cough Mixture: Honey And Lemon:

This recipe is ideal for bedtime soothing to help with sleep and can be used with anyone over 2 years old.

Ingredients

Basic cough mixture
Lemon zest – from 2 lemons
Several teaspoons lemon juice (to your taste)
¼ cup peeled and sliced ginger or ¼ teaspoon ground ginger

In a small amount of water boil up the ginger and lemon zest for a few minutes. Strain this mixture to remove the bits. Add this strained water and the lemon juice to the basic cough mixture and mix.

3. The Expectorant (And Inflammatory Respiratory Disease) Cough Mixture: Licorice Root

This one is for that phlegmy cough. Licorice root acts as an expectorant and breaks up mucus. Licorice contains a chemical known as glycyrrhizin. As well as giving licorice its sweetness, glycyrrhizin also acts as an anti-inflammatory and is good for inflammatory respiratory diseases as this study shows.

Ingredients:

Basic cough mixture
1 tablespoon dried licorice root
1/4 cup water

Boil the licorice root in the water and leave it to stand for about 15 minutes. Strain the licorice water. Add to the honey mixture and mix. Alternatively, you can make a tea from the licorice root by boiling up the dried root in some water – after boiling and leaving it to steep for 15 minutes, strain the water and drink like a tea.

4. The Cough With A Sore Throat Cough Mixture:

Thyme is the key ingredient of this cough syrup. Thyme has many healing properties including giving your immune system a boost as it is full of vitamin C. So this cough remedy is particularly good if the cough comes with a cold. It also has thymol, which is an antiseptic so it’s really good for a sore throat.

Remember – coughing isn’t always bad. It’s the body’s mechanism for clearing the airways, so you only need to suppress it when it becomes very irritating stops you from sleeping or starts to hurt.

Ingredients:

Basic cough mixture
Sprig of fresh thyme (or some dried thyme)
1/4 cup water

Pick off the leaves from the sprig of thyme and place them in a pestle and mortar. Lightly bruise the thyme to release the active ingredients. Add boiling water to the thyme and leave to steep for about 15 minutes. Decant the water or strain into the basic cough mixture and mix.