# Greater celandine (Chelidonium majus)

**Chelidonia maggiore**

**Known today as.** *Chelidonium majus*.

Kind: Plant  
Toxic: yes

> **Caution.** 

## What did Canale use it for?

Its water in a julep (ch. 6).

## What does modern science say?

Its yellow sap was used in folk medicine against warts, and internal use has caused liver damage.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **chelidonine**: 
- **sanguinarine**: 
- **coptisine**: 

**Mechanism.** The benzylisoquinoline alkaloids are cytotoxic and cholagogue; the latex burns the skin, which is the old use for warts.

**Dose.** Preparations for the gall bladder have caused hepatitis in dozens of reported cases.

**Standing.** Withdrawn from oral products in Germany in 2008 after the liver cases; the European Medicines Agency advises against it.

## What lore surrounds it?

English folk tradition held that witches could not abide the plant: some carried it in a red bag as a ward, households burned it as incense or scrubbed their floors with an infusion to drive witches out, and wearing it against the skin was said to protect a person facing unjust imprisonment or an unfavorable judgment. Old English leechbooks prescribe an eye salve of honey and celandine warmed in a copper vessel. The link to jaundice through its yellow sap, often repeated today, is only thinly attested in the older record.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pliny.** Says the swallow (*chelidon*) restores the sight of its nestlings with this plant, whence its name.

## Sources

- Icy Sedgwick, on celandine folklore.
- Stickel, F., et al. (2003). “Acute hepatitis induced by Greater Celandine (*Chelidonium majus*).” *Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology* 38.

---

*Greater celandine.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-25. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/greater-celandine

Historical description, not medical advice.