# Goldenrod (Solidago virgaurea)

*European goldenrod, woundwort, Aaron’s rod, *verge d’or*, *Goldruthe*; *Solidago virgaurea* L.; in pharmacy *Solidaginis virgaureae herba**

**Known today as.** *Solidago virgaurea*, of the family Asteraceae, two to three feet high, with alternate clear green leaves and terminal panicles of golden flowers; of more than eighty species, Grieve says, it is “the only one” native to Britain. Culpeper found it in the open places of woods and copses, its small yellow flowers all turned one way and ripening into down carried off by the wind. When bruised, Grieve adds, it smells like wild carrot. The European Medicines Agency’s assessment report finds flavonoids, triterpene saponins, and the phenol glycoside leiocarposide.

Kind: Plant

> **Caution.** Not for those allergic to plants of the Asteraceae (Compositae) family, nor where reduced fluid intake is advised, as in severe heart or kidney disease; not under twelve, nor in pregnancy or breast-feeding, nor together with synthetic diuretics. See a doctor if fever, painful urination, spasms, or blood in the urine appear. Allergic reactions and mild stomach upsets have been reported.

## What was it used for?

A wound herb and a remedy for the stone. Its name, Grieve explains, comes from *solidare*, the plant being a vulnerary, one that ‘makes whole’; it is “astringent and diuretic and efficacious for stone in the bladder,” and an ingredient of the Swiss vulnerary *faltrank*. Culpeper calls it “a sovereign wound herb, inferior to none, both for the inward and outward hurts.”

## What does modern science say?

The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the herb as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” to increase the amount of urine as an adjuvant in minor urinary complaints (monograph of 2008). Its assessment report found five uncontrolled, non-randomised open trials, of 22 to 1,487 participants, whose quality could not be evaluated, and concluded that treatment effects could be judged only on the basis of traditional use.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **leiocarposide**: a phenol glycoside
- **flavonoids**: 
- **triterpene saponins**: 

**Mechanism.** Not established in the sources read for this entry.

**Standing.** European Union herbal monograph (2008): traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” to increase the amount of urine in minor urinary complaints.

## What lore surrounds it?

Grieve records that in 1788 a boy of ten, after taking the infusion for some months, “passed quantities of gravel, fifteen large stones weighing up to 1 1/4 OZ., and fifty over the size of a pea.” The leaves and flowers yield a yellow dye.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Culpeper, *The Complete Herbal* (1653).** “Venus claims the herb, and therefore to be sure it respects beauty lost.” He cites Arnoldus de Villa Nova, who commended it much against the stone in the kidneys and to provoke urine in abundance, and gives its decoction or distilled water for inward bruises and to stay bleeding.

## Sources

- Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Golden Rod.” As published on botanical.com.
- Culpeper, N. *The Complete Herbal*, “Golden Rod.” Project Gutenberg, 49513.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Solidaginis virgaureae herba (European Goldenrod)*. EMEA/HMPC/285758/2007, 4 September 2008.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Solidaginis virgaureae herba*. EMEA/HMPC/285759/2007, 4 September 2008.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Solidaginis virgaureae herba (European Goldenrod)*. EMEA/HMPC/285758/2007, 4 September 2008.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Solidaginis virgaureae herba*. EMEA/HMPC/285759/2007, 4 September 2008.

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*Goldenrod.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-17. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/goldenrod

Historical description, not medical advice.