# Ivy leaf (Hedera helix) *Common or English ivy; *Hedera helix* of Linnaeus; in pharmacy *Hederae helicis folium** **Known today as.** *Hedera helix*, the evergreen climber of Europe and northern and central Asia, with dark, glossy, angular leaves, which clings to bark and walls by root-like fibres ending in small discs. Grieve notes that only when it climbs above its support does it flower, the leaves of the flowering shoots turning oval and entire; the yellowish-green flowers open late in autumn and feed the bees when nothing else will, and the black berries ripen the following spring. The leaf is the medicine. Kind: Plant > **Caution.** Contraindicated in children under two, because remedies that loosen mucus can worsen breathing at that age, and a persistent or recurrent cough in a child of two to four needs a doctor’s diagnosis first. Not for anyone allergic to plants of the family Araliaceae; caution with gastritis or stomach ulcer. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and allergic reactions have been reported, and overdose can cause vomiting, diarrhoea, and agitation. Breathlessness, fever, or purulent sputum call for a doctor. ## What was it used for? For the chest, now; for many things once. Culpeper, after Dioscorides, gave a dram of the flowers in red wine twice a day for the flux, and after Pliny the yellow berries against the jaundice and, “taken before one be set to drink hard,” to preserve from drunkenness; fresh leaves boiled in vinegar were laid on the side for the spleen and stitches, and with rosewater on the temples for headache. But ivy, he warned, “is an enemy to the nerves and sinews, being much taken inwardly, but very helpful to them, being outwardly applied.” Bald’s Leechbook, Grieve reports, had the face smeared with tender ivy twigs boiled in butter to remove sunburn. ## What does modern science say? The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the leaf on clinical evidence, as ‘well-established use,’ as an expectorant in productive cough (monograph of 2017). Its assessment report finds 2.5 to 6 per cent triterpene saponins, chiefly hederacoside C, with small amounts of alpha-hederin that form in drying. A 2021 systematic review of trials in acute upper respiratory infections and bronchitis judged ivy leaf preparations safe, “However, effects are minimal at best and of uncertain clinical importance.” ## Pharmacognosy and toxicology - **hederacoside C**: chief of the triterpene saponins, 2.5 to 6 per cent - **-hederin**: small amounts, formed in drying from the saponins of the fresh leaf **Mechanism.** Not established in the sources read for this entry. **Standing.** European Union herbal monograph (2017): well-established use, as an expectorant in productive cough. A 2021 systematic review found effects “minimal at best.” ## What lore surrounds it? Ivy was the wreath of Bacchus and the poet’s crown, Grieve writes, probably because the brow was bound with it to prevent intoxication; Greek priests gave a wreath of it to the newly married, and it has long been an emblem of fidelity. An early Church council forbade it as a Christmas decoration for its pagan associations, but the custom remained. English taverns hung out an ivy bush to advertise good liquor, “hence the saying ‘Good wine needs no bush.’” An ivy leaf is the badge of the Gordons. ## What did the older authorities say? **Nicholas Culpeper.** “It is under the dominion of Saturn.” Between wine and ivy he saw “a very great antipathy”: Cato, he says, held that wine put into a cup of ivy wood would soak through it, and the speediest cure of a surfeit of wine was a draught of the same wine in which a handful of bruised ivy leaves had been boiled. ## Sources - Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Ivy, Common.” As published on botanical.com. - Culpeper, N. *The Complete Herbal*, “Ivy.” Project Gutenberg, 49513. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Hederae helicis folium (Ivy leaf)*. EMA/HMPC/325716/2017, 21 November 2017. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Hederae helicis folium*. EMA/HMPC/325715/2017, 21 November 2017. - Sierocinski E, et al. (2021). Ivy leaf (Hedera helix) for acute upper respiratory tract infections: an updated systematic review. *European journal of clinical pharmacology*. PMID 33523253. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Hederae helicis folium (Ivy leaf)*. EMA/HMPC/325716/2017, 21 November 2017. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Hederae helicis folium*. EMA/HMPC/325715/2017, 21 November 2017. - Sierocinski E, et al. (2021). Ivy leaf (Hedera helix) for acute upper respiratory tract infections: an updated systematic review. *European journal of clinical pharmacology*. PMID 33523253. --- *Ivy leaf.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-16. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/ivy-leaf Historical description, not medical advice.