The drug consists of coltsfoot plant that grows as small, cabbage-like and perennial with horizontal rhizome.
It blooms at the end of winter and beginning of spring until leaves sprout.
Dry coltsfoot leaf is fragile, dark green at the front and white at the back because of its numerous long fibers. It has bitter, mucilaginous taste and particular smell.
Leaves contain plenty of mucilage, around 8%, which through hydrolysis releases fructosis, galactose, glucose, xylose and uronic acid, contains bitter substances (glycoside tussilaginis), flobatanine, gallic acid, inulin and phytosterol.
Coltsfoot leaf is very old medication used in popular and science medicine for treatment of respiratory organs above all.
Due to its chemical composition, coltsfoot is categorized into lung teas, as cough remedy (its name is derived from Latin name tussis – cough).
Coltsfoot is also widely used as exceptional medication for soothing and relieving asthma attack as well as for treatment of that disease.