Feverfew
Parthenium
- Known today as
- Tanacetum parthenium.
- Kind
- Plant, in 2 older authorities
- Constituents
- parthenolide
- Earliest authority here
- Dioscorides (c. AD 40–90)
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
Revised October 1, 2026: Tradition, lore, modern assessment, and sources extended. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Caution. Not for pregnancy.
Feverfew: what was it used for?
For headaches, fevers, and the womb.
Feverfew: how is it taken as a tea?
An ounce of the herb to a pint of boiling water, left to cool, half a teacupful at a time; a cold infusion of the flowers for the face-ache or earache of a nervous, dyspeptic, or rheumatic person.
All the herbal teas of the database. Historical directions, not medical advice.
Feverfew: what does modern science say?
Some trials suggest it modestly reduces migraine; results are mixed. Parthenolide, its chief lactone, acts on the chemistry of inflammation in the laboratory, but the amount in sold products varies forty-fold, and the Cochrane reviews find the evidence for migraine prevention no more than suggestive. Chewing the fresh leaf causes mouth ulcers in some, and stopping after long use can bring rebound headaches.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- Parthenolide inhibits NF-κB and the release of serotonin from platelets.
- Checked against ChEMBL
- parthenolide: No measurement in ChEMBL for “inhibits NF-kB” (3 activities recorded, none against the target named); the line rests on its references.
- Toxic dose
- Mouth ulcers from the fresh leaf; rebound headache on stopping.
- Standing
- No approved use; the evidence for migraine is inconclusive.
- Johnson, E. S., et al. (1985). BMJ 291. Book, not indexed
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
- The Living LightHildegard's visions, and the migraine aura.
Feverfew: what lore surrounds it?
Its revival came from a Welsh doctor’s wife in the 1970s who found that a few leaves a day, chewed in bread, kept off her migraines; the story spread through the British press, and a trial at the City of London Migraine Clinic in 1985 followed. In the United States the plant is called “bachelor’s buttons.”
Feverfew: what did the older authorities say?
- Dioscorides
- Gives parthenion for inflammations and for the womb, whence its name, from parthenos, the maiden.
- Culpeper
- Sets it under Venus, and says it is “a general strengthener of the womb,” and that the herb bruised and applied to the wrists takes away the fits of an ague.
Sources
- Dioscorides, De materia medica. Read in part · the text read
- Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Feverfew.” As published on botanical.com.
- Johnson, E. S., et al. (1985). “Efficacy of feverfew as prophylactic treatment of migraine.” BMJ 291. Verified against its record · doi:10.1136/bmj.291.6495.569
- Culpeper, N. (1652). The English Physitian. 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
- The mechanism read against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37): curated mechanisms and measured activity
- Sources
- 5 cited: 1 read in part, 1 verified against its record, 1 primary text, 1 book, not indexed, 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
“Feverfew.” 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/feverfew.
- MLA
“Feverfew.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/feverfew. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Feverfew. (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/feverfew
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See Also
Sharing parthenolide
Also in Dioscorides
Frankincense in Dioscorides · Cuttlefish bone in Dioscorides · Ginger in Dioscorides · Crow’s gall in Dioscorides · everything Dioscorides names →
Also in Nicholas Culpeper
Ground cherry in Nicholas Culpeper · Eryngo in Nicholas Culpeper · Ground ivy in Nicholas Culpeper · Endive in Nicholas Culpeper · everything Nicholas Culpeper names →
Drawing on the same sources: Dioscorides, Grieve, Johnson, Culpeper
Garlic · Galbanum · Fennel · Gamboge · Stinkhorn · Foetid pills · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Fig (Ficus carica) · Fern seed (mistaken for seed) · The fig hand (made as a gesture or carved as a charm) · Fly agaric (white-spotted toadstool of fairy tales, of birch and pine woods) · False morel (reddish-brown spring mushroom of conifer woods) · Fairy ring champignon (A small tan mushroom that grows in rings on lawns and pasture)
Historical description, not medical advice.