Eyebright

Statema, B. C. P.

Plant

Eyebright

Euphrasia, “gladness”

Known today as: Euphrasia officinalis and relatives.
Kind: Plant, in 1 older authority
Constituents: aucubin, euphroside, tannins, and 1 more
Earliest authority here: Milton
In other databases: Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search

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

Eyebright: what was it used for?

For weak and sore eyes, as a wash or drunk: its flower, marked like a bloodshot eye, was read as a sign of its use.

Eyebright: what does modern science say?

No proven benefit, and unsterile eyewashes are unsafe.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

Mechanism

Astringent and mildly anti-inflammatory by its tannins and iridoids; an open study of eyebright drops (Stoss, 2000) reported improvement in conjunctivitis without a control, and the EMA found the evidence too thin for a monograph.

Toxic dose

Safe as tea; home-made eye washes are a risk of infection, not of the plant.

Standing

No EMA monograph, after assessment; the signature of the flower is its only credential for the eye.

Stoss, M., et al. (2000). “Prospective cohort trial of Euphrasia single-dose eye drops in conjunctivitis.” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 6. Verified against its record · doi:10.1089/acm.2000.6.499
Paduch, R., et al. (2014). “Assessment of eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis L.) extract activity in relation to human corneal cells.” Balkan Medical Journal 31. Verified against its record · doi:10.5152/balkanmedj.2014.8377

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.

Eyebright: what lore surrounds it?

Folkard: eyebright “was formerly called Euphrosyne, after one of the Graces,” and “according to Coles, it obtained the name of Eyebright from its being employed by the linnet to clear its sight.” Arnoldus “affirms that the plant restored sight to people who had been blind a long while,” Gerarde gives it “beaten into pouder” with fennel-seed, mace and sugar, and Spenser wrote, “Yet Euphrasie may not be left unsung, That gives dim eyes to wander leagues around.”

Grieve says the plant “seems to have been unnoticed by the ancients and no mention of it is made by Dioscorides, Pliny, Galen or even by the Arabian physicians,” but in the fourteenth century “was supposed to cure ‘all evils of the eye.’” Markham's Countrie Farm of 1616 advises, “Drinke everie morning a small draught of Eyebright wine,” and “in Queen Elizabeth's time there was a kind of ale called ‘Eyebright Ale.’” The French call it Casse-lunette, the Germans Augentröst, “consolation of the eyes,” and the belief rests, she thinks, on the doctrine of signatures, since “the purple and yellow spots and stripes which are upon the flowers of the Eyebright doth very much resemble the diseases of the eye, as bloodshot.”

Eyebright: what did the older authorities say?

Milton: The archangel Michael clears Adam’s sight before showing him the future: he “purged with euphrasy and rue / The visual nerve, for he had much to see.”

Sources

Milton, J. (1667). Paradise Lost XI. Book, seen in reviews
Folkard, R. (1884). Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics, “Eyebright.” Project Gutenberg #44638. Primary text
Grieve, M. (1931). A Modern Herbal, “Eyebright.” botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/e/eyebri20.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

5 cited: 2 verified against its record, 1 primary text, 1 standard reference work, 1 book, seen in reviews. 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: “Eyebright.” 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/eyebright.
MLA: “Eyebright.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/eyebright. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Eyebright. (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/eyebright

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Eyebright

Eyebright: what was it used for?

Eyebright: what does modern science say?

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Eyebright: what lore surrounds it?

Eyebright: what did the older authorities say?

Sources

Verification

Cite This Entry

See Also

Sharing aucubin, tannins, flavonoids

Drawing on the same sources: Folkard, Grieve

Nearby in the alphabet