# Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea)

*Alehoof; gill*

**Known today as.** *Glechoma hederacea*. A low, creeping weed of the mint family with small purple flowers, common in shaded grass.

Kind: Plant

## What was it used for?

Infused in ale for flavor, clarity, and keeping by Saxon and later English brewers before hops came into general use late in the fifteenth century; “gill ale,” brewed with it, was still sold as a tonic in eighteenth-century coffee houses and victualling houses.

## What does modern science say?

No strong clinical evidence supports any of its traditional uses.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **glechomine**: a bitter
- **rosmarinic acid**: 
- **ursolic acid**: 
- **pulegone**: in the oil, at low levels

**Mechanism.** A mild bitter and astringent, antimicrobial by its phenolic acids, which is why it kept ale from souring; the pulegone of the oil, the pennyroyal toxin, is in small amounts.

**Dose.** Safe as tea; the pulegone content poisons horses that eat it in quantity.

**Standing.** No monograph; used in Germany for mild coughs on tradition.

## What lore surrounds it?

Galen recommended it for inflamed eyes, and the English herbalist John Gerard praised it as a diuretic and a remedy for ringing in the ears and complaints of the kidneys. It was valued in Austria as a herb of the lungs, liver, and digestion, and European settlers carried it to North America, where it is now a common weed of lawns.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pliny.** Pliny's chamæcissos “has ears like those of wheat, with numerous leaves, and small branches, about five in number. When in blossom it might almost be taken for the white violet: the root of it is diminutive.” Its one remedy: “For sciatica, the leaves of it are taken, seven days consecutively, in doses of three oboli, in two cyathi of wine: this is a very bitter potion, however.”

**Culpeper.** An herb of Venus with more names than almost any herb of its size: Cat’s-foot, Gill-go-by-ground, Turn-hoof, Haymaids, Alehoof; quick, sharp, and bitter, and so hot and dry; “a singular herb for all inward wounds, exulcerated lungs”; it expels venom and the plague; with honey and a little burnt alum a gargle for a sore mouth; the juice boiled with honey and verdigris cleanses fistulas.

## Sources

- Wikipedia, “*Glechoma hederacea*.”
- Pliny the Elder, *Natural History* 24.84, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library.
- Culpeper, N. (1653). *The Complete Herbal*, “Alehoof, Or Ground-Ivy.” Project Gutenberg #49513.
- Wichtl, M. (2004). *Herbal Drugs and Phytopharmaceuticals*, 3rd ed., “Hederae terrestris herba.”

---

*Ground ivy.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/ground-ivy

Historical description, not medical advice.