In acute phases this can be life threatening, and as one would expect, folk medicine has over the centuries developed a large and miscellaneous range of remedies. One plant remedy stands out in recent times as being used in folk medicine on both sides of the Atlantic. This is the thornapple (Datura stramonium), also known in North America as Jamestown weed or Jimson Weed. In Britain, the dried leaves were smoked as a treatment for asthma (e.g., by the fishermen of the North Norfolk coast; T.E., pers. com., 1988). The plant is not native to Britain but turns up as a weed of recently disturbed land. Clearly the remedy was imported from North America, but it is unusual in that it was adopted not only by medical herbalists but by the folk tradition as well. Going back farther in time it becomes increasingly difficult to separate asthma remedies from those of bronchitis; in folk medicine the two complaints seem to have been linked together. For example, coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) was recommended by Pliny for the treatment of bronchitis and has continued in herbal and in folk medicine to be used for coughs ever since. This use has extended to asthma in the Scottish Highlands (Beith 1995: 212) and in England (Prince 1991: 11). In the English early twentieth-century use of honeysuckle for treating asthma (Miss N., Hampshire, pers. com., 1990) we have an early example of the now-popular complementary medicine of aromatherapy (Miss N., Hampshire, pers. com., 1980). A romantic-sounding remedy was recorded in the 1950s by Beith from Inverness-shire in Scotland. The sufferer had to row alone across a lake and back before sunrise (Beith 1995: 135). Also in the Scottish Highlands, dogfish oil was given to asthma sufferers (Beith 1995: 174). In some parts of Scotland, the skin of a hare, placed over the chest during sleep, was apparently used to ward off asthma attacks (Souter 1995: 136). Bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) was recommended in the Isle of Lewis (Beith 1995: 207). An infusion of bramble root (Rubus fruticosus) and pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium), wine made from elder berries (Sambucus nigra), snuff made from the dried leaves of ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), an infusion of horehound (Marrubium vulgare) and a decoction of the roots and bark of the sloe (Prunus spinosa) have all been used in the Scottish Highlands for treating asthma (Beith 1995: 215, 221, 223, 232, 242).The story of a lifesaving poultice made from hot, cooked potatoes was told by a lady now in her nineties who has lived all her life in Norfolk, England (Hatfield 1994: 75).
In North American folk medicine the remedies used for asthma reflect those in Britain. The Inverness-shire method to relax the patient is echoed in a remedy from Rochester: the patient is advised to walk alone three times round the house at midnight when the moon is waning (Black 1883: 125). There are records for the use of oil from a goose and of the fat from a chicken, reminiscent of the Scottish use of dogfish oil, while the skin of a muskrat worn against the lungs echoes the British use of hareskin (Meyer 1985: 31). Among a large collection (almost eighty) of different asthma remedies in the UCLA Folk Medicine Archive there are several bizarre ones, such as a stew containing badger and jackdaw (Bourke 1894: 120). Miscellaneous remedies include drinking goat's milk (UCLA Folklore Archives 6_5263), swallowing a teaspoonful of sea sand (UCLA Folklore Archives 24_6175), or eating bees' honey and sulphur (Welsch 1966: 360). A good example of transference comes from the African American tradition. Three nights in succession, the patient must find a frog by moonlight and spit into its throat (UCLA Folklore Archives 24_6176). Another transference remedy is to sleep with a chihuahua (UCLA Folklore Archives 1_6828). Some of the remedies are clearly related to the observation, or the hope, that children often "grow out of" asthma. Some of the child's hair is cut off and placed into a hole in a tree bored above the child's head. When he or she grows above the hole, the asthma will be cured (see e.g. Puckett 1981: 312). Ash, birch, willow, sugar maple, and hickory all feature in versions of this remedy. Amulets worn to prevent or to cure asthma include amber beads (Brown 1952_1964, 6: 119). Among plant remedies used, the smoking of jimson weed has already been mentioned (UCLA Folklore Archives 1-5263). Other plants native to North America but not to Britain used in asthma treatment include Aloe vera, bloodroot, skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) and licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), as well as so-called asthma weed (Lobelia inflata) (Meyer 1985: 32- 35). This plant became celebrated for its fame in treating a wide range of conditions, after it was promoted by Samuel Thomson. However, long before that it was known to and used by the Native Americans (Grieve 1931: 495). Cottonseed water was a remedy from the African tradition (UCLA Folklore Archives 21_5263). Boiled chestnut leaves (Castanea sp.) have also been used (Browne 1958: 32). Plants common to both Britain and North America that were used in American folk remedies for asthma include daisy (Bellis perennis), elecampane (Inula helenium), wild plum (Prunus spinosa), elder (Sambucus nigra), mullein (Verbascum thapsus), wild cherry (Prunus sp.), and horehound (Marrubium vulgare) (Meyer 1985: 31-35). In the Native American tradition, willow bark (Salix lucida) was smoked for asthma (Speck 1917: 309). Among the Kwakiutl a recommendation for asthma was to eat part of the heart of a wolf (Boas 1932: 184).
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