Coltsfoot is native to Europe, Asia, and North America. The medicinally useful material used to come mainly from wild collections in Italy and the Balkans, but today it is more common to deal in drug material from the cultivation of the genetically equivalent variety Tussilago farfara “Vienna”.
Coltsfoot as a medicine
In herbal medicine today, one uses mainly the dried leaves of coltsfoot (Farfarae folium). In the past, the herb, flower heads and root were also important.
Coltsfoot: typical characteristics
Coltsfoot is a perennial herb, up to 30 cm high, which blooms between February and April. The leaves show a typical horseshoe shape, they are green on top and silvery underneath. Even before the leaves appear the bright yellow flower heads with narrow ray florets, somewhat reminiscent of dandelion flowers.
The drug material is characterized by thin, lobed leaves about 20 cm in size. The leaves are hairy on the underside, only young leaves also bear hairs on the upper side. Furthermore, the petioles are part of the drug. Coltsfoot does not emit any particular odor. The taste of coltsfoot leaves is faintly mucilaginous and sweetish.
