This is a mix of herbs suggested by Sue Hawkey, a herbalist in Bath, England. It’s ideal for detoxing the system when you need help getting over an addiction; it’s been used for helping heroin addicts, so it should also be pretty good for anyone needing a little herbal help to give up smoking.

• Camomile - a great relaxant and good for the stomach, which helps if you’re tense. It reduces inflammation and it’s a tissue healer - inhale the azulenes given off in the steam to soothe the inflamed mucous membranes of the nose, throat and chest.
• Skullcap - skutellaria - improves functioning of nervous system; calming effect- it’s good if you're frazzled .
• Yarrow - tones the blood vessels and helps you purge toxins by sweating them out.
• Peppermint - calming, good for the stomach, clears the head, relaxing - and it tastes nice!
• Elderflower - decongestant, soothing to the mucous membranes; helps to clear out the mucous and catarrh that settles in the lungs of most smokers.
• Ground Ivy - also decongestant and helps clear out mucous and catarrh.
• Liquorice - this is an adrenal tonic, so it will perk you up and stop you missing the ‘hit’ of the nicotine quite so much. It’s also demulcent - soothing on the throat - so if you have a smokers cough, this will help. You can get liquorice root as sticks, that you can chew if you want to have something in your fingers and your mouth - good if you’re used to cigarettes as a ‘prop’ - and you can use chunks of liquorice root in the tea, but you can also get ground liquorice root and that certainly mixes with the other ingredients more easily.

You can get these herbs dried from most wholefood or healthfood stores. Either mix up equal quantities of the herbs each time, or get a nice, big jar and add equal quantities of the herbs, then mix well. Use two or three tablespoons of the mix to make this like a loose leaf tea; I like to use a cafetiere as it strains all the herbs nicely. Leave it to stand (infuse) for 10 minutes or so. If you find it too strong or bitter, add some honey, but not sugar. Persist - you’ll get used to the taste! Apart from the skullcap, these are all herbs you can take frequently (camomile and peppermint are both diuretic, so last thing at night may not be the best time). Try to drink plenty of water because the toxins will flush out of your system much more quickly with lots of water flushing them out!

An alternative mixture is: yarrow, elderflower, scullcap, peppermint, catnip (like yarrow, it helps you sweat out toxins), camomile (2 parts), hops (1/4 part - these are very relaxing and a liver tonic too, so they help support the liver and purge toxins from the blood). Follow up later with burdock and yellow dock for purging and flushing through any leftover toxins.