Epithymum

Statema, B. C. P.

Plant

Epithymum

Epitimo

Known today as: Dodder growing on thyme, Cuscuta epithymum, a parasitic plant.
Kind: Plant, in 1 older authority
Constituents: kaempferol and quercetin glycosides, cuscutin, the host’s compounds
Earliest authority here: Pliny (AD 23/24–79)
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: An older authority added from a text read in full. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.

Epithymum: what did Canale use it for?

One of the first purges, for melancholy (ch. 2; see note XXIX).

Epithymum: what does modern science say?

Dodder was traditionally used as a purge and for urinary complaints, but modern studies have not confirmed a laxative action; its reputation as a purger of “black bile” belongs to humoral medicine.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

kaempferol and quercetin glycosides
cuscutin ChEMBL
the host’s compoundsdodder takes up the thyme it grows on

Mechanism

Epithymum is the dodder (Cuscuta epithymum) parasitic on thyme, which the Arabs and Galenists made the specific purge of black bile; it is a mild laxative at best, and the melancholy it purged does not exist as a humour. The Chinese dodder seed (C. chinensis, tu si zi) is a tonic in that pharmacopoeia.

Toxic dose

No toxicity recorded.

Standing

No monograph; obsolete in Europe since the eighteenth century.

Donnapee, S., et al. (2014). “Cuscuta chinensis Lam.: a systematic review on ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry and pharmacology.” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 157. Verified against its record · doi:10.1016/j.jep.2014.09.032

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.

Epithymum: what lore surrounds it?

Dodder carries a rich folklore of its own. Its folk names in English and American tradition include love vine, angel hair, witches’ shoelaces, devil’s-gut, and strangle-weed. In the Missouri River country and the old South, a young woman would toss a strand over her shoulder onto a neighboring plant: if it took hold and grew within a few days, her suitor was judged faithful, a test held more reliable than pulling petals. Medieval Byzantine farming texts, oddly, associated the plant with lions.

Epithymum: what did the older authorities say?

Pliny: Gives juice of epithymum, with cotyledon, axle-grease, and leaves of batrachion, for chilblains, and epithymum “used as a liniment, with vinegar” for pains and indurations of the sinews.

Sources

[23] Chabra, A., Monadi, T., Azadbakht, M., & Haerizadeh, S. I. (2019). Ethnopharmacology of Cuscuta epithymum: a comprehensive review on ethnobotany, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicity. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 231: 555–569. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2018.10.016 Verified against its record · doi:10.1016/j.jep.2018.10.016
[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

Native Plant Society of Texas, on dodder. Book, not indexed
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 26.66, 26.81, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library. Primary text

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

5 cited: 1 read in part, 2 verified against its record, 1 primary text, 1 book, not indexed. 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: “Epithymum.” 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/epithymum.
MLA: “Epithymum.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/epithymum. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Epithymum. (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/epithymum

Download for Zotero, EndNote, or Mendeley: BibTeX · RIS

Club members keep entries on a shelf with private notes, print the plates as cards, and receive an entry by email each week. Create a free account before January 1, 2027 and all of it is yours for good. About the Club