Sopewort, Or Bruisewort

Saponaria officinalis

HRB-0275Entry “SOPEWORT, OR BRUISEWORT” 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 concernLarge amounts bring nausea, vomiting, belly pain and diarrhoea; the root and seeds are the strongest.EFSA: saponariosideEFSA’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: 3, under 3 headings

  1. GravelCLM-000829
    Some make great boast thereof, that it is diuretical to provoke urine, and thereby to expel gravel and the stone in the reins or kidneys, and do also account it singularly good to void hydropical waters:
    QUO-000644Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  2. StoneCLM-001745
    Some make great boast thereof, that it is diuretical to provoke urine, and thereby to expel gravel and the stone in the reins or kidneys, and do also account it singularly good to void hydropical waters:
    QUO-000644Papers and the EMA’s verdict, in the Concordance
  3. Venereal DiseaseCLM-0024441850 index, p. 244

    Listed in the 1850 index; the herbal entry has no sentence naming this complaint. No quotation is recorded.

    Papers 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.