Application
Dog's tongue is one of the oldest known medicinal plants. It is described on 7000-year-old Assyrian clay tablets. The name is Greek, kynoglosson means dog's tongue. The name refers to the leaves' resemblance to dog's tongues. In ancient times, the plant was used, among other things, against poisonous bites, burns and baldness.
In medieval monastic medicine, the boiled root was used against boils and hemorrhoids. It was also believed that dog's tongue could make hair grow on bald heads.
Dog's tongue was included in the so-called cynogloss cough pills, which were included in the Danish pharmacopoeia until 1963. Due to the plant's foul odor, it has been used to repel mice and rats.
The root provides a red dye for yarn and fabric.
Ingredients
Essential oil, tannin and the alkaloids cynoglossin and consolidin. This alkaloid has a central paralyzing effect on humans, but the plant's toxicity disappears during storage.
Cynoglossum officinale L.
Photo of page in Joachim Burser's herbarium.
