# Boldo (Peumus boldus)

*Boldu, boldus; *Boldoa fragrans*; *Peumus boldus* Molina; in pharmacy *Boldi folium**

**Known today as.** *Peumus boldus*, an evergreen shrub of the fields of the Chilean Andes, whose yellowish-green fruit is eaten, whose bark tanned leather, and whose wood made charcoal, by Grieve’s account. The leaves, the part used, are opposite, stalkless, about two inches long, leathery and red-brown when dried, dotted with small glands, with a smell that when crushed is “very strongly disagreeable, not unlike oil of Chenopodium (wormseed).”

Kind: Plant  
Toxic: yes

> **Caution.** Not for people with obstruction of the bile duct, cholangitis, liver disease, gallstones, or other biliary disorders, nor for anyone under eighteen, nor in pregnancy or breast-feeding, which the European agency does not recommend in view of the preclinical safety data. Anaphylaxis has been reported. Grieve recorded that boldine in toxic doses causes great excitement, cramps, and convulsions ending in death from paralysis of the breathing.

## What was it used for?

A remedy of the liver and the urinary passages. Grieve calls it tonic, antiseptic, and stimulant, “Useful in chronic hepatic torpor,” the oil useful in genito-urinary inflammation, and the plant “long been recognized in South America as a valuable cure for gonorrhoea”; its alkaloid boldine was used in veterinary practice for jaundice, and the tincture as a diuretic.

## What does modern science say?

The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the leaf as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for the symptomatic relief of dyspepsia and mild spasmodic disorders of the gut (monograph of 2016). Its assessment report finds 0.25 to 0.7 per cent isoquinoline alkaloids, boldine usually chief among them, and 2 to 2.6 per cent volatile oil whose major constituents include ascaridole, 1,8-cineole, and p-cymene.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **boldine**: usually chief of the isoquinoline alkaloids, 0.25 to 0.7 per cent
- **ascaridole**: in the volatile oil
- **1,8-cineole**: in the volatile oil
- **p-cymene**: in the volatile oil

**Mechanism.** Not established in the sources read for this entry.

**Standing.** European Union herbal monograph (2016): traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for dyspepsia and mild spasmodic disorders of the gut.

## What lore surrounds it?

The leaves’ oil, Grieve notes, is chemically related to the oil of wormseed, and the Australian *Monimia rotundifolia* yields one similar enough to be substituted for it.

## Sources

- Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Boldo.” As published on botanical.com.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Boldi folium (Boldo Leaf)*. EMA/HMPC/453725/2016, 22 November 2016.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Boldi folium*. EMA/HMPC/453726/2016, 22 November 2016.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Boldi folium (Boldo Leaf)*. EMA/HMPC/453725/2016, 22 November 2016.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Boldi folium*. EMA/HMPC/453726/2016, 22 November 2016.
- Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Boldo.” As published on botanical.com.

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*Boldo.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-16. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/boldo

Historical description, not medical advice.