BreathiZen® Ingredients, Explained in Plain English

BreathiZen® contains nine things. Three are botanical actives that give the spray its purpose. Six are supporting ingredients that make it a stable, pleasant liquid. Here's each one, with the research linked and its limits spelled out.

Mullein leaf extract

Verbascum thapsus is a tall, fuzzy-leaved plant you've probably seen growing along roadsides. It has one of the longest track records of any respiratory herb: healers in Europe, Turkey and Native American communities all used it for coughs and chest congestion, apparently without borrowing from one another.

Scientists who've analysed the leaf find saponins — often cited as the reason for its traditional role as an expectorant — alongside verbascoside, flavonoids and iridoid glycosides, several of which show antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity in lab settings.

What hasn't been shown: there's no placebo-controlled human trial of mullein taken by mouth for cough or mucus. Its support is historical and laboratory-based.

Sources: Turker & Camper, J Ethnopharmacol 2002 · Verbascum review, Biology 2021

Ginger root extract

Ginger is the ingredient with the most interesting airway science. Researchers at Columbia University exposed strips of human airway muscle to ginger and found they relaxed — an effect traced to specific compounds (6-gingerol, 8-gingerol and 6-shogaol) blocking two enzymes that help keep airways tight. Those compounds even enhanced a common airway-opening drug rather than interfering with it.

What hasn't been shown: this was lab tissue, not a person. When you swallow ginger, your body breaks those compounds down quickly, and no human trial has yet found oral ginger changes breathing.

Sources: Townsend et al. 2013 · Townsend et al. 2014

Organic lemon extract

Lemon gives BreathiZen® its fresh, citrusy taste. That's genuinely important — the best formula in the world does nothing if it sits in a cupboard because it tastes bad.

You may see lemon linked to vitamin C and lung health. Large population studies have found that people who eat more vitamin C tend to have slightly better lung function. But that's about diet over many years, not the small amount of lemon in a spray, so we don't claim it here.

Source: Grievink et al., Thorax 1998

The six supporting ingredients

• Purified water — the base of the spray.
• Glycerin — keeps the plant extracts evenly mixed and gives a smooth feel.
• Natural flavors — round out the lemon taste.
• Citric acid — keeps the pH stable so the extracts stay in solution.
• Potassium sorbate & sodium benzoate — common food preservatives that keep a water-based liquid safe on your shelf for months.

⚠️ These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. BreathiZen® is a dietary supplement and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Talk to your doctor before starting any supplement.