(From the Hebrew terms mar rob, a bitter juice). Horehound; mauromarson; which rather means the black sort. It is also a name for the cardiaca, leonurus cardiaca Lin. Sp. Pl. 817, and some other plants.

Marrubium album; prasium album. Common white horehound, marrubium vulgare Lin. Sp. Pl. 816, is a hoary plant, with square stalks, and roundish unwrinkled leaves, set in pairs on long pedicles, from the bosoms of which arise thick clusters of whitish la-biated flowers, in striated cups, whose divisions terminate in sharp points or prickles. It is perennial, grows wild in cultivated grounds, and flowers in June.

The leaves have a slight aromatic, but not at first an agreeable smell; their taste is bitter, penetrating, diffusive, and durable in the mouth: in large doses they prove laxative. This plant is said to be an useful aperient and corroborant, in humoral asthmas, pulmonary consumptions, cachexies, menstrual suppressions, scirrhous affections of the liver, jaundice, and several other chronic disorders. The ancients had an high opinion of its efficacy, particularly in pulmonic and visceral obstructions; and, amongst the common people, horehound tea in coughs and asthmas is a common remedy. Dr. Cullcn disputes its virtues as a pectoral, as well as a de-obstruent, and thinks the authorities of Forrestus, Zacu-tus, Lusitanus, and Chomel, very insufficient. A drachm of the dried leaves in powder, two or three ounces of the expressed juice, or an infusion of half a handful of fresh leaves, are commonly directed as a dose. See Boicinenga.

The dry herb gives out its virtues both to water and to spirit. The expressed juice, gently inspissated to an extract, is the best preparation: the dose is from gr. x. to 3 ss.

Marrubium aquaticum,/i/co/;us Europaeus Lin. Sp. Pl. 30, water horehound, found on the sides of brooks, but inferior in virtue to the white.

Marrubium nigrum foetidum. See Ballotte.

Marrubium verticillatum,marrubiu Hispanicum Lin. Sp. Pl. 816; Galen's mad wort; the base horehound. These species are usually neglected. See Lewis's Materia Medica; Neumann's Chemical Works.