Feverfew Or Featherfew

Tanacetum parthenium

HRB-0117Entry “FEVERFEW OR FEATHERFEW” in the 1850 textIn Culpeper’s 1652 first edition

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Old claims, quoted verbatim: not medical advice. A warning sits above the claims and never hides them; no warning does not mean safe, only that no source here has flagged the plant.

Substance of concernEFSA: Camphor, parthenolideEFSA’s list of substances, not a danger rating. Checked 26 October 2026.

Historical correspondence. Ruled by Venus, by Culpeper. A traditional astrological assignment, kept apart from the modern evidence; it is not a finding.

Culpeper’s claims about it: 9, under 9 headings

  1. The decoction thereof made with some sugar, or honey put thereto, is used by many with good success to help the cough and stuffing of the chest, by colds, as also to cleanse the reins and bladder, and helps to expel the stone in them.
    QUO-000360Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  2. CholicCLM-000462
    The herb bruised and heated on a tile, with some wine to moisten it, or fried with a little wine and oil in a frying-pan, and applied warm outwardly to the places, helps the wind and cholic in the lower part of the belly.
    QUO-000391Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  3. ColdsCLM-000489
    The decoction thereof made with some sugar, or honey put thereto, is used by many with good success to help the cough and stuffing of the chest, by colds, as also to cleanse the reins and bladder, and helps to expel the stone in them.
    QUO-000360Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  4. CoughsCLM-000562
    The decoction thereof made with some sugar, or honey put thereto, is used by many with good success to help the cough and stuffing of the chest, by colds, as also to cleanse the reins and bladder, and helps to expel the stone in them.
    QUO-000360Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  5. HeadCLM-0023231850 index, p. 72
    It is very effectual for all pains in the head coming of a cold cause, the herb being bruised and applied to the crown of the head:
    QUO-001426Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  6. InflammationsCLM-000907
    it is chiefly used for the disease of the mother, whether it be the strangling or rising of the mother, or hardness, or inflammation of the same, applied outwardly thereunto.
    QUO-000696Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  7. MelancholyCLM-001314
    The powder of the herb taken in wine, with some Oxymel, purges both choler and phlegm, and is available for those that are short winded, and are troubled with melancholy and heaviness, or sadness of spirits.
    QUO-000894Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  8. StoneCLM-001702
    The decoction thereof made with some sugar, or honey put thereto, is used by many with good success to help the cough and stuffing of the chest, by colds, as also to cleanse the reins and bladder, and helps to expel the stone in them.
    QUO-000360Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  9. Womb (diseases of)CLM-0024611850 index, pp. 72, 365
    Venus commands this herb, and has commended it to succour her sisters (women) and to be a general strengthener of their wombs, and remedy such infirmities as a careless midwife hath there caused if they will but be pleased to make use of her herb boiled in white wine, and drink the decoction;
    QUO-001458Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance

Source

Nicholas Culpeper, The Complete Herbal, a new edition (London: Thomas Kelly, 1850). Project Gutenberg eBook #49513. SRC-CUL-1850

Quotations are verbatim from the 1850 text, line breaks joined. Modern research and the European regulator’s verdict on each claim are on the Concordance page, kept apart from this historical record.