# Dill (Anethum graveolens)

**Aneto**

**Known today as.** *Anethum graveolens*.

Kind: Plant

## What did Canale use it for?

A decoction of dill with almond oil and rancid butter as a gentle vomit; its flowers and seeds likewise; in baths for cold complexions; blessed, in the oil of Treatise Two (chs. 5, 7, 9).

## What does modern science say?

Dill is a carminative.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **carvone**: 40–60 per cent of the fruit oil
- **limonene**: 
- **dillapiole**: in the fruit
- **alpha-phellandrene**: in the leaf

**Mechanism.** Carvone relaxes gut smooth muscle, which is the carminative of gripe water; the oil is mildly antibacterial. Dill with rancid butter vomits by the butter, not the dill.

**Dose.** Safe in food amounts; dillapiole is related to the hepatotoxic apiole of parsley and limits the oil.

**Standing.** The fruit is in the German tradition (Commission E) for dyspepsia; gripe water held dill oil until the twentieth century.

## What lore surrounds it?

Folkard has the name “by some supposed to have derived its name from the old Norse word dilla, dull; the seeds being used as a carminative to cause infants to sleep.” Boiled in wine and drunk “the plant was reputed to excite the passions,” and it “was formerly highly appreciated as a plant that counteracted the powers of witches and sorcerers,” with the rhyme “The Vervain and the Dill, That hindereth witches of their will.” Astrologers assigned it to Mercury.

Thiselton-Dyer confirms that “dill and flax were worn as talismans against sorcery.”

## What did the older authorities say?

**Matthew 23:23.** The Pharisees tithe “mint and anise and cummin”; the Greek *anethon* is dill.

## Sources

- Folkard, R. (1884). *Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics*, “Dill.” Project Gutenberg #44638.
- Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (1889). *The Folk-lore of Plants*. Project Gutenberg #10118.
- Blumenthal, M., ed. (1998). *The Complete German Commission E Monographs*, “Dill seed.”
- Jana, S., and Shekhawat, G. S. (2010). “*Anethum graveolens*: an Indian traditional medicinal herb and spice.” *Pharmacognosy Reviews* 4.

---

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

Historical description, not medical advice.