Ash leaf
Common ash, weeping ash; Folkard’s ‘Venus of the forest’ and ‘husbandman’s tree’; Fraxinus excelsior L., with the narrow-leaved Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl; in pharmacy Fraxini folium
- Known today as
- Fraxinus excelsior, a tall tree of the olive family Oleaceae, with light-grey bark and large compound leaves of four to eight pairs of lance-shaped, sharply toothed leaflets tipped by a single one. Its flowers, without petals or sepals, open before the leaves, and its winged seeds, the ‘keys,’ hang in great clusters until the next spring. Grieve calls its wood the toughest and most elastic of English timbers, surpassing every European tree in that quality. The drug is the dried leaf.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- rutin, ursolic acid
- Earliest authority here
- Culpeper, The Complete Herbal (1653) (1616–1654)
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online · GBIF · Wikidata
Caution. Not where a reduced fluid intake is advised, as in severe heart or kidney disease, nor under eighteen; plenty of fluid is needed for the urinary use. Joint pain with swelling, redness, or fever should be examined by a doctor, as should fever, painful urination, spasms, or blood in the urine.
Ash leaf: what was it used for?
A leaf for the joints and the kidneys. Grieve gives the leaves as diuretic, diaphoretic, and purgative, used in her day for their laxative action “especially in the treatment of gouty and rheumatic complaints, proving a useful substitute for Senna, having a less griping effect.” Culpeper found the distilled water of the leaves, taken fasting each morning, good for dropsy and “to abate the greatness of those that are too gross or fat,” and their decoction in white wine good to break the stone and cure jaundice.
Ash leaf: what does modern science say?
The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the leaf of either ash as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for the relief of minor joint pain and to increase the amount of urine to flush the urinary tract in minor urinary complaints (monograph of 2012). Its assessment report finds flavonoids, about 1.4 per cent, rutin among them, and triterpenes including ursolic acid, and found no relevant clinical research: the effectiveness of the traditional uses “is not documented,” though some seemed plausible from the leaf’s chemistry.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- rutin ChEMBLamong the flavonoids, about 1.4 per cent of the leaf
- ursolic acid ChEMBLamong the triterpenes
- Mechanism
- Not established in the sources read for this entry.
- Standing
- European Union herbal monograph (2012): traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for minor joint pain and to flush the urinary tract in minor urinary complaints.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. European Union herbal monograph on Fraxini folium (Ash Leaf). EMA/HMPC/239271/2011, 27 March 2012. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Fraxini folium. EMA/HMPC/239269/2011, 27 March 2012. Read in part · the text read
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Ash leaf: what lore surrounds it?
The ash, Folkard writes, was sacred to the Greeks, Romans, and Scandinavians, and in the Edda the mystic ash Yggdrasill shaded the holiest seat of the gods; by old Norse tradition man was first formed from its wood. Chiron brought an ash branch to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, from which was made the lance that became the spear of Achilles. Grieve records the charm for warts: prick each wart with a new pin thrust into the tree, leave the pins there, and say “Ashen tree, ashen tree, Pray buy these warts of me.” A ruptured child passed through a split sapling was supposed to be cured.
Ash leaf: what did the older authorities say?
- Culpeper, The Complete Herbal (1653)
- Governed by the Sun. Of all the virtues claimed for the ash he excepted only one, that its tops and leaves are good against the bites of serpents and vipers, a belief he traced to Gerard or Pliny, who held that an adder ringed with ash leaves “will sooner run through the fire than through the leaves: The contrary to which is the truth, as both my eyes are witnesses.”
Sources
- Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Ash.” As published on botanical.com. Read in full · the text read
- Culpeper, N. The Complete Herbal, “Ash Tree.” Project Gutenberg, 49513. Read in part · the text read
- Folkard, R. (1884). Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics, “Ash.” Project Gutenberg, 44638. Read in part · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. European Union herbal monograph on Fraxini folium (Ash Leaf). EMA/HMPC/239271/2011, 27 March 2012. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Fraxini folium. EMA/HMPC/239269/2011, 27 March 2012. Read in part · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 5 cited: 2 read in full, 3 read in part.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
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Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published October 17, 2026
- Chicago
“Ash leaf.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 17, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/ash-leaf.
- MLA
“Ash leaf.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 17 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/ash-leaf. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Ash leaf. (2026, October 17). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/ash-leaf
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See Also
Sharing rutin, ursolic acid
Eschscholzia californica · Ruta graveolens · Potentilla reptans · Viola tricolor · Glechoma hederacea
Also in Nicholas Culpeper
Barberry in Nicholas Culpeper · Asarabacca in Nicholas Culpeper · Bean pod in Nicholas Culpeper · The amulet herbs in Nicholas Culpeper · everything Nicholas Culpeper names →
Drawing on the same sources: Grieve, Culpeper, Folkard
Nearby in the alphabet
Ashwagandha · The aspergillum (or perforated ball on a handle, with which holy water is sprinkled) · Asafoetida (“devil’s dung) · Aster (Aster amellus) · Arthritica (named for its use against gout (note XLIX)) · Aurum potabile (Gold dissolved or suspended in liquid for drinking) · Arnica
Historical description, not medical advice.
