Bechico

See also: herbal tea for cough; bromexina; expectorant

Definition

The adjective bechico is reserved for all those medicaments, natural or synthetic, useful in the treatment of cough.

Natural Bechici

In the group of natural bechici include the marsh root, mallow flowers, plantain leaves, island lichen, coltsfoot leaves and linden flowers.

These are mucilaginous drugs, with a protective effect on the pharyngeal and tracheobronchial mucosa, useful above all for dry cough. Thanks to the fair solubility in water of the mucilages, these plants are generally taken in the form of an infusion.

Also numerous drugs with essential oils are considered bechiche, which due to the strong expectorant and demulcent effect, find employment against the fat cough. Among these we remember the essential oil of anise, mint, thyme, fennel and eucalyptus.

Opioid and Opiate

The last category of natural cough remedies is represented by the opiates obtained from the condensed latex of the immature capsules of Papaver somniferum .

Among the numerous alkaloids present, codeine is the one endowed with the greatest antitussive activity, which carries out activating the opioid receptors of the cough center and raising the threshold of onset of this annoying reflex. To limit the side effects of opium powder, in which morphine is also present, synthetic bechici (dextromethorphan, hydrocodone and hydromorphone) have been studied.