Ivy

Hedera helix

HRB-0163Entry “IVY” in the 1850 textIn Culpeper’s 1652 first edition

Open in the Concordance

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 concernThe berries are poisonous. The EMA accepts ivy leaf as an expectorant for a productive cough (well-established use).EFSA: alpha-hederinEFSA’s list of substances, not a danger rating. Checked 26 October 2026.

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

Culpeper’s claims about it: 10, under 10 headings, 1 where he says it harms or causes

  1. Bleeding (to stay)CLM-000168
    and taken before one be set to drink hard, preserves from drunkenness, and helps those that spit blood;
    QUO-000145Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  2. Bloody FluxCLM-000230
    A pugil of the flowers, which may be about a dram, (saith Dioscorides) drank twice a day in red wine, helps the lask, and bloody flux.
    QUO-000198Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  3. Brain (to strengthen)CLM-000333
    The juice of the berries or leaves snuffed up into the nose, purges the head and brain of thin rheum that makes defluxions into the eyes and nose, and curing the ulcers and stench therein;
    QUO-000290Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  4. Head — AcheCLM-0023291850 index, p. 99
    The same applied with some Rosewater, and oil of Roses, to the temples and forehead, eases the head-ache, though it be of long continuance.
    QUO-001429Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  5. JaundiceCLM-001029
    Pliny saith, the yellow berries are good against the jaundice;
    QUO-000771Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  6. StoneCLM-001714
    They being taken in wine, do certainly help to break the stone, provoke urine, and women’s courses.
    QUO-001109Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  7. SurfeitsCLM-001761
    for if one hath got a surfeit by drinking of wine, his speediest cure is to drink a draught of the same wine wherein a handful of Ivy leaves, being first bruised, have been boiled.
    QUO-001129Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  8. UlcersCLM-001966
    The fresh leaves boiled in wine, and old filthy ulcers hard to be cured washed therewith, do wonderfully help to cleanse them.
    QUO-001242Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  9. WormsCLM-002114
    and that the white berries being taken inwardly, or applied outwardly, kills the worms in the belly.
    QUO-001324Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  10. WoundsCLM-002201
    It also quickly heals green wounds, and is effectual to heal all burnings and scaldings, and all kinds of exulcerations coming thereby, or by salt phlegm or humours in other parts of the body.
    QUO-001373Papers 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.