Old Fashioned Homemade Natural Cough Remedy With Lemon

Over the holidays there was a terrible coughing cold going around and unfortunately me and Sarah ended up catching it.  With all of the varieties of potions and remedies you can buy at the store today, I got to thinking and wondered if there were any old fashioned homemade cough syrup remedies that were natural that you could just make at home.  I mean, what did people do before there were drug stores?  Just tough it out?  Well, to my surprise, there are a few things that you can try!  I ran across a few cough cures on the internet and tried making my own.  Of the homemade cough remedies that I found that were natural, there were cough syrups that had to do with honey and lemon, others that dealt with honey and onion, and also some that were more of a hot “tea” like brew of different things.  For me, I think that the hot “tea” seemed to work the best.

You might think to yourself, how can you call this tea if there are no tea leaves?  I had the same question while watching Survivorman when he boiled pine needles in a can and voila!  Hot pine needle tea.  Anyways, I tried to think of all of the natural items that would be a boost to the immune system, that could break up mucus, and also soothe your throat and these are the items I came up with that seems to work the best.

Hot Homemade Lemon Cough Remedy “Tea”

3 cups water

1 medium sliced lemon, with rind

2 medium sliced oranges, with rind

4 gloves garlic, smashed

1/4 onion, chopped

2 inch sliced fresh ginger root

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

agave nectar (instead of honey since it’s vegan)

Directions

1)  Bring water to a boil.

2)  Add all ingredients except agave nectar, turn heat to medium and boil for 15-20 minutes.

3)  Strain through a fine mesh strainer.  I also take a spoon and smash pulp to extract as much juice as possible from all ingredients.

4)  Add 1 cup of the hot tea to a mug and add agave nectar to taste.

With all of the thousands of phytochemicals and amazing substances found in plants, there’s no doubt that this brew will help to some extent.  I’ve found that this mixture of ingredients clears congestion very well, soothes a sore throat, and actually suppresses coughs to a minimum.  Garlic is a strong antimicrobial, lemon and oranges have a large amount of antioxidants as well as other strong chemicals, fresh ginger and cinnamon are thought to boost the immune system and aid in digestion, and the agave nectar (honey substitute), well it makes the brew taste good and covers some of the stronger flavors.

If you want a homemade cough remedy that has worked for me time and time again then this is the recipe I always use at the first sign of a sore throat or cough.  Good luck!

Tags: homemade natural cough remedy