Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Gordolobo is a Mexican herbal tea plant, Gnaphalium oxyphyllum, also called Mexican cudweed. The dried flowering tops are brewed and drunk for coughs and chest colds. Human evidence for that use is very thin.
One warning comes before anything else. "Gordolobo" is a market name, not a single plant. Teas sold under it have at times held Senecio species, which are hepatotoxic (harmful to the liver).
Those mix-ups have caused severe liver injury in Mexico and the southwestern United States, including deaths in young children. Buy only from a seller who prints the Latin plant name on the label. Long traditional use is not proof that a remedy works, and it is not proof that it is safe.
In Spain and parts of Latin America the same word is used for mullein (Verbascum). So two shoppers using the word "gordolobo" may not be talking about the same plant at all.
Nobody has shown in people how gordolobo works, or that it works at all.
Lab work on Gnaphalium species points to flavonoids, plant pigments with antioxidant action in test tubes. In cell studies these slow some inflammation signals. Whether that happens in a human airway is not known.
In animal tissue baths, extracts of related Gnaphalium plants relaxed windpipe muscle. That is a long way from easing a real cough in a person.
A warm drink on its own soothes a raw throat and thins mucus. Much of the comfort people report may come from the hot liquid, not from the herb.
Tradition also called the tea a mild water pill (diuretic) and a sweat-promoter. Neither claim has been tested in people.
Loose dried flowering tops, sold by weight in Mexican markets and herb shops, are the most common form.
You may also see: - teabags, often blended with other cough herbs - cough syrups that list gordolobo among several plants - alcohol tinctures and liquid extracts - capsules of dried powdered herb, which are less usual
There is no essential oil of gordolobo in normal trade. Treat any product sold as one with suspicion.
Loose herb and market bundles carry the highest risk of the wrong plant. Packaged products that print "Gnaphalium oxyphyllum" on the label are easier to check.
Gordolobo has a long place in Mexican home medicine and in mestizo and Nahua healing practice.
Written records go back to the colonial era, and the plant stayed common in herb markets through the twentieth century. Healers brewed the flowering tops as a tea for cough, chest colds, sore throat, bronchitis and fever.
It was often mixed with other chest herbs, honey or lime. Some traditions also used it as a wash for sores.
The herb travelled north with Mexican communities and is still sold widely in the United States. That spread is also how the Senecio mix-up reached American households in the 1970s.
Stop and get urgent medical help if you notice signs of liver damage: - yellow skin or yellow eyes - dark urine or pale stools - pain or swelling in the upper right belly - deep, lasting tiredness or confusion
Go to a doctor the same day if a child has drunk a herbal tea of unknown plant origin.
See a doctor rather than continuing the tea if: - a cough lasts more than three weeks - you cough up blood - you are short of breath or wheezing - a fever lasts more than three days - you develop a rash, swollen lips or trouble breathing after drinking it
In the United States gordolobo is sold as a herbal tea or dietary supplement. It is not approved by the FDA to treat any illness. In Mexico it is sold openly as a traditional herbal remedy. European rules cap pyrrolizidine alkaloids in herbal teas, which limits what can be sold there.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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