Borage

Statema, B. C. P.

Plant

Borage

Boragine

Known today as: Borago officinalis.
Kind: Plant, in 1 older authority
Constituents: gamma-linolenic acid, amabiline, thesinine, and 1 more
Poisoning: Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (veno-occlusive disease)
Earliest authority here: The medieval herbalists
Qualities: Hot and moist (Galenic tradition). What the degrees mean
In other databases: Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
In the Canale glossary: On the Manner of Discerning and Healing the Bewitched, Appendix A: Treatise One, Part Three, Chapters 2–3: Purgative and Preparative Medicines

Revised October 1, 2026: Lore added from texts read in full. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.

Caution. Hazardous in some form or dose; see the modern assessment below.

Borage: what did Canale use it for?

Juice, water, syrup, and flowers in the preparatives, a “cordial” to cheer the melancholic (chs. 3–4, 7).

Borage: how is it taken as a tea?

An ounce of leaves to a pint of boiling water, taken in wineglassful doses.

All the herbal teas of the database. Historical directions, not medical advice.

Borage: what does modern science say?

The plant contains liver-toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids, and products made from it are best avoided.

Borage: is it poisonous?

Yes, in some form or dose. Its poisoning is pyrrolizidine alkaloids (veno-occlusive disease): Weeks to months of use. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

gamma-linolenic acid ChEMBL20–25 per cent of the seed oil
amabilinea pyrrolizidine alkaloid of the leaf and flower
thesinine
mucilage

Mechanism

The leaf is cooling by its mucilage and potassium salts and nothing else; the cheer it gave the melancholic was the wine it was floated in. The seed oil’s gamma-linolenic acid feeds anti-inflammatory prostaglandins and is given for eczema, with meta-analyses finding no benefit. The leaf’s pyrrolizidine alkaloids are low but real.

Toxic dose

The leaf and flower should not be taken daily on account of the alkaloids; the seed oil is free of them.

Syndrome

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (veno-occlusive disease)

Standing

No EMA monograph for the leaf; the seed oil is sold as a supplement, and a Cochrane review (2013) found it no better than placebo for eczema.

Bamford, J. T. M., et al. (2013). “Oral evening primrose oil and borage oil for eczema.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 4. Verified against its record · doi:10.1002/14651858.cd004416.pub2
Dodson, C. D., and Stermitz, F. R. (1986). “Pyrrolizidine alkaloids from borage.” Journal of Natural Products 49. Verified against its record · doi:10.1021/np50046a045

The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.

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.

What Medicine Makes of It

Melancholy and the DemonThe black bile, the devil’s bath, and depression.

Borage: what lore surrounds it?

“In former days, Borage (Borago officinalis) was noted as one of the four ‘cordial flowers’ most deserving of esteem for cheering the spirits—the other three being the Rose, Violet, and Alkanet.” Folkard gives the old Latin rhyme “Ego Borago gaudia semper ago,” and says all the old herbalists agree with Pliny “that when put into wine the leaves and flowers of Borage make men and women glad and merry, driving away all sadness, dulness, and melancholy.” The “cool tankard” of our forefathers was “young shoots and blossoms of Borage mingled with wine, water, lemon, and sugar,” and astrologers made it “one of Jupiter's cordials.”

Thiselton-Dyer records the Cingalese notion “that the vervain and borage will only thrive near man's dwellings,” and Burton's frontispiece verse, “Borage and hellebore fill two scenes, Sovereign plants to purge the veins Of melancholy, and cheer the heart Of those black fumes which make it smart.”

Grieve gives the derivations: Borago as a corruption of “corago, from cor, the heart, and ago, I bring, because of its cordial effect,” or from the Low Latin burra, a flock of wool, for its hairy coat, or Henslow's Celtic barrach, “a man of courage.” She quotes Gerarde's old verse, “Ego Borago” … “Gaudia semper ago,” and the syrup of the flowers that “comforteth the heart, purgeth melancholy and quieteth the phrenticke and lunaticke person,” adds that “according to Dioscorides and Pliny, Borage was the famous Nepenthe of Homer,” and Evelyn's “Sprigs of Borage are of known virtue to revive the hypochrondriac and cheer the hard student.”

Used in These Compounds

Borage is an ingredient of 1 compound medicine in the database. For Club members. Create a free account or sign in.

Borage: what did the older authorities say?

The medieval herbalists: “Ego borago gaudia semper ago”: “I, borage, always bring gladness.” Some identified it with the gladdening herb of Pliny.

Sources

[28] Culpeper, N. (1653). Pharmacopœia Londinensis, or, The London Dispensatory [the Royal College of Physicians’ pharmacopoeia in English, with Culpeper’s commentary]. London: Peter Cole. Text Creation Partnership edition A35381. Read in part · the text read
[33] Drugs and Lactation Database (LactMed). Borage. Bethesda (MD): National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; updated 15 February 2021. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK501790. Book, seen in reviews

Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Borage.” As published on botanical.com.
Folkard, R. (1884). Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics, “Borage.” Project Gutenberg #44638. Primary text
Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (1889). The Folk-lore of Plants. Project Gutenberg #10118. Read in part · the text read
Grieve, M. (1931). A Modern Herbal, “Borage.” botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/b/borage66.html Standard reference work

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
Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full

Sources

8 cited: 2 read in part, 2 verified against its record, 1 primary text, 1 standard reference work, 1 book, seen in reviews, 1 not yet checked. 1 with the abstract on file.

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.

Cite This Entry

Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026

Chicago: “Borage.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 1, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/borage.
MLA: “Borage.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/borage. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Borage. (2026, October 1). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/borage

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