Healing Herbs You Can Smoke
Most people are well aware of medicinal herbs and know they can be eaten, steeped as tea, and turned into tinctures and salves. Did you know that you can also smoke many herbs?
When these herbs are heated to the point of combustion, they can break the blood-brain barrier in less than 10 seconds. This makes smoking the best and fastest way to seek relief when you’re struggling with pain or having issues with mucus building up in your lungs.
Preparing Your Herbal Mixture for Smoking
You can smoke most herbs as is, once they’re dried. However, most people prefer to create a blend of herbs to get the most out of them. In some cases, herbs won’t release certain healing properties until they’re burned, so this may be the best way to use some of them.
To create your own smoking blend, which can be smoked in a rolling paper or a pipe, you want to start out by identifying your need. Are you trying to stop the pain? Beat a lung infection? Boost immunity? Once you know what you’re trying to achieve, you can select the herbs to work with that.
You’ll need a base herb, which should help your remedy work well, but not have a terribly strong flavor. Mullein is an excellent base herb. You’ll want roughly 40-50% of the mixture to be the base.
From there, you add more specific herbs to make up another 40-45% of the mix, such as skullcap and St. John’s Wort to ease anxiety. This could be added to mullein as the base. You now have a perfectly usable herbal smoking blend. However, not all herbs taste great, as we well know, so you may want to add something for flavor, as well. You can try something refreshing like peppermint, calming like lavender, or anise to help with digestion, depending on what your purpose is. You can use up to 5% of flavoring herbs in the mixture.
Some people also like to add some astringent herbs to cut through everything and keep your lungs healthy. These should make up no more than 15% of the total amount of herbs in the mixture.
Keep in mind that over-dried herbs will be unpleasant to smoke, so you can just spritz them lightly with water and rub the leaves together to moisten them ever so slightly. The end result is a much more enjoyable puff. Another option is to add a piece of citrus peel to the container when you package the mix. These will help rehydrate the herbs somewhat, but will also lend a pleasant flavor to them.
Herbal smoking mixtures may be used in a pipe or paper.
Bergamot
It’s also used to prevent nicotine cravings if you’re trying to quit smoking. The herb will also give you a nice immune boost.
Coltsfoot
You should avoid using too much of this herb in a smoking blend since it can cause some pretty heavy-duty coughing, but small amounts are fine. It’s an expectorant, so works well in cases where a cough is unproductive. This herb is quite mild.
Hyssop
However, hyssop is also helpful in treating anxiety, provoking sweating, and increasing focus and concentration.
Korean Ginseng
If you tend to stress out often or suffer from high anxiety, you can end up with adrenal fatigue and Korean ginseng is ideal for treating this. It can also give you more energy and may even help prevent lung cancer.
Mugwort
It blends very well with other herbs on this list and will help you feel more relaxed when you smoke it.
Mullein
Since it is flavorless, it works well as the base for a herbal remedy.
Skullcap
It can be mixed with other herbs for a more powerful effect.
Uva-Ursi
White Horehound
Wormwood
Once you’ve chosen your herbs from this list, you can mix up your favorites and create your very own blends. You may be surprised at how many wonderful combinations you can come up with. If you’ve only used herbs in salves, teas, and tinctures up until now, it may be time to take things to the next level.
You may also like:
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34 Comments
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Good to know this information, thanks!!
I love this article. I think you should write a book on just this subject. It’s a new and unique topic and it addresses many home remedy issues in a very pleasant fun way.
Hi Cindy,
Thank you so much for your comment.
We are glad to hear that you loved our article.
God bless!
Can you talk about herbs useful for thyroid problem including nodules
Where can I find the stuff to make homemade cigarettes? I would love to try this and to make some for my son-in-law who has tried to quit smoking.
Hi Alisha,
Thank you for your interest in our work.
You can buy most of the dried herbs and some herbal smoking blends from:
https://mountainroseherbs.com/. You can find the rolling paper/pipe on Amazon or Etsy.
God bless!
Well done. Upon your prompting I have just rolled a Mullein-Hyssop-Sassafras cigar, enhanced with home-grown tobacco and with flower buds as the ‘binder’. I am surprised at how effective it is. Strikes me that properly presented, no “smoker’ would resist this.
Hi Mark,
Thank you for your comment.
That sounds like a very good herbal smoking blend.
I am glad to hear it was effective.
God bless!
Where do you recommend getting the dry herbs from? Thanks
Hi Jim,
Thank you for your interest in our work.
You can buy most of the dried herbs and some herbal smoking blends from:
https://mountainroseherbs.com/
God bless!
So which herbs can be smoked for severe arthritis pain?
Hi Penny,
Wormwood is used for a wide variety of ailments, including pain from muscle cramps. You can also smoke wormwood to get rid of headaches, overall pain, and arthritis pain.
God bless!
WOW! Just WOW! And, thank you!
Hi Glinda,
Thank you for your comment.
We are glad to hear that you liked our article.
God bless!
Do you sell herbs that can be smoked?
Hi Alvin,
Thank you for your interest in our work.
I’m sorry about this. We don’t sell the herbs but you can buy most of the dried herbs and some herbal smoking blends from:
https://mountainroseherbs.com/
God bless!
If these herbs can be smoked then maybe there is a way to make insence or they perhaps theycould be difused
I had no idea!! Thank you!!
I thought any kind of smoking would be bad for your lungs. This is a revelation if it’s true. I smoke about 5 tobacco roll ups a week and have been trying to stop but I enjoy the smoke and it seems to destress me a bit. Could this be the healthy alternative I’ve needed for most of my life?
Hi Amanda,
Yes, definitely these herbs will be a healthier alternative for smoking.
God bless!
I love the idea of smoking herbs for your health but I thought that any kind of smoke inhalation was bad for your lungs.
Hi Saundra,
We recommend that you consult with a qualified healthcare practitioner before using herbal products, particularly if you are pregnant, nursing, or on any medications.
However, herbs in general, and especially Mullein are fine medicine for the lungs, even when you smoke them. It soothes inflamed or infected lungs and prevents coughing until infection or inflammation is broken. Then it aids in expectoration, helping to break up congestion and promote “effective” coughing.
God bless!
I would love to know which herbs to smoke for chronic pain. I am not a smoker but am willing to try if it will help diminish the pain and let me live an even almost-normal life & let me sleep!
Hi Penny,
Wormwood is used for a wide variety of ailments, including pain from muscle cramps. You can also smoke wormwood to get rid of headaches, overall pain, and arthritis pain.
God bless!
Thank you for the info. Is it smoked ‘straight’ or mixed with something as a carrier?
so your sure that smoking the herbs won’t cause lung damage? I gave up smoking 40 years ago.
IS THE HERBAL SMOKING BLEND THEY HAVE ON MOUNTAINROSEHERBS GOOD FOR YOU IF YOU HAVE COPD.
Love the article. How about any of the mint family as an additive or Evening Primrose leaves/blossoms ?
Thanks for all you do.
Forgot to ask about adding Plantain to Mullein.
Any answers to my comments ???
In regards to making your own cigarette – do you just roll it like you would if you made your own ie: cigarette roller? or would it be more like (for lack of a better word) a joint? Also, approx how much herb mixture would you use? Everything is sold by ounces or pounds … how much do you need to make a cigarette? Just trying to figure out the cost,,,,, Thanks!
Wondering if herbs would be effective if used in a vaporizer rather than smoked. Have you any idea if using a vaporizer would be effective?
1. Mugwort is not hallucinogenic. Not even mildly, and by hallucinogenic, do you mean psychedelic, disasociative, or deleriant? Mugwort is very mildy psychoactive-NOT psychedelic. Psychoactive, meaning it effects the brain (albeit VERY mildly, most people would not even notice the effects) it produces very mild relaxation and calming effects. 2. No one smokes ginseng. It just doesnt happen, the active chemicals in ginseng are destroyed by the high temperatures caused by a flame. Its just not a thing, and never has been. Stick to making ginseng into a tea. 3. Knicknick was not smoked for medicinal benefits. If you want to use kniknick for medicinal benefits, use it as a tea, tea, tincture, or extract capsule. Natuve americans smoked uvaursi as a tobacco substitute, nothing more. You missed a few herbs on the list. Blue lotus flower, Klip Dagga, KANNA(this one rules), White sage, hemp flowers, Wild lettuce, passion flower, paste of the coca leaf (smoke crack hail satan),(Heimia Salicifolia) Sun opener herb, spearmint is quite nice and soothing, lavender, lemongrass, salvia divinorum, many more I cant think of right now. Nice article though, if you become a little more involved and dedicated to the craft, with your buisness at your disposal, you could do some cool stuff. Become immersed and create strong products that actually have an effect, and you could have quite a thriving buisness. There are too many half assed herbalists who make very weak tinctures and extraxts, using such a tiny amount of herb to alcohol, you have to drink three whole bottles of expensive tincture to even feel an effect.. and that effect is more likely to be from the alcohol than the herb. My medicine garden is currently growing, and I like to put no less than one whole plant into one one ounce bottle of tincture. For instance, if Im making a wild dagga tincture, I will use a whole 6 foot plant, chopped to bits.. flowers, leaves, roots and all. Macerate the entire plant into a fifth of vodka for three weeks, agitating daily, then I evaporate much of the vodka after straining the plant, until I am left with one ounce of tincture. That is medicine. That is a tincture worth twenty bucks. Three drops of this is more than enough. I realize many of the people selling tinctures on etsy use only a super tiny anount of medicinal plant matter in their tinctures. Like the amount that I would use to make a cup of tea, for twenty bucks. That is a scam. Why not create an effective product? Okay, Im sorry, that bit was not directed at you, the author. I am only complaining about the things I have seen lol. Sorry, thanks.
Carry on.
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