# Clary, garden (Salvia sclarea)

**Sclarea hortense**

**Known today as.** Clary sage, *Salvia sclarea*.

Kind: Plant

## What did Canale use it for?

In the oil for the bewitched; among the amulets (chs. 9–10).

## What does modern science say?

Aromatic; its oil is used in perfumery.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **linalyl acetate**: up to 75 per cent of the oil
- **linalool**: 
- **sclareol**: a diterpene of the flower, the base of ambergris substitutes

**Mechanism.** Clary oil is a sedative in the sense that its inhalation lowered cortisol and blood pressure in small trials; sclareol is the industrial starting point for synthetic ambergris. The seed’s mucilage, placed in the eye, gathers grit, which is the “clear eye” of the name.

**Dose.** Safe at perfumery doses; the oil is not thujone-bearing like common sage and lacks its convulsant risk.

**Standing.** No monograph; a perfumery material with small aromatherapy trials.

## What lore surrounds it?

Its English name, “clear eye,” and its epithet *sclarea* both point to its old use as an eyewash for irritated and clouded eyes, a use well attested across the herbals.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pliny.** Of horminum: it resembles cumin in its seed and the leek in other respects, grows some nine inches high, and is of two kinds, the darker-seeded “in request as an aphrodisiac, and for the cure of argema and albugo in the eyes.”

## Sources

- NC State Extension, *Salvia sclarea*.
- Pliny the Elder, *Natural History* 22.76, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library.
- Seol, G. H., et al. (2013). “Randomized controlled trial for *Salvia sclarea* or *Lavandula angustifolia*: differential effects on blood pressure in female patients with urinary incontinence undergoing urodynamic examination.” *Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine* 19.

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*Clary, garden.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/clary-garden

Historical description, not medical advice.