Lime flower
Linden, linden flowers, linn flowers, common lime, French tilleul; Flores Tiliae; Tilia europaea of Grieve; Tilia cordata Mill., Tilia platyphyllos Scop., and their hybrid Tilia × vulgaris Heyne; in pharmacy Tiliae flos
- Known today as
- The dried flower clusters of the European limes, tall trees of the family Malvaceae (Grieve’s Tiliaceae), which Grieve says grow to 130 feet and “when in bloom perfumes its whole neighbourhood.” The yellowish-white flowers hang on slender stalks in flattened clusters, the stalk joined for part of its length to a narrow, leaf-like bract; King’s Dispensatory finds the smell agreeable when fresh, faint when dry, and the taste “mucilaginous and sweetish.” The European Pharmacopoeia admits the flowers of Tilia cordata, T. platyphyllos, T. × vulgaris, or a mixture of them.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- tiliroside, kaempferol, quercetin, and 2 more
- Earliest authority here
- Grieve, A Modern Herbal (1931) (A Modern Herbal, 1931)
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online · GBIF · Wikidata
Caution. Not recommended for colds under four or for stress under twelve, for lack of data. If symptoms worsen, or breathlessness, high fever, or purulent sputum appears, the European agency advises seeing a doctor.
Lime flower: what was it used for?
A tea for colds and for the nerves. Grieve gives lime flowers in infusion or distilled water “as household remedies in indigestion or hysteria, nervous vomiting or palpitation,” and baths of the infused flowers for hysteria. King’s Dispensatory calls the European linden “a common domestic remedy in Europe” for nervous and catarrhal disorders, the infusion given “to allay irritation and restlessness, and to promote rest and sleep,” and hot for colds and catarrh.
Lime flower: what does modern science say?
The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the flowers as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for the relief of the symptoms of the common cold and of mild symptoms of mental stress (monograph of 2012). Its assessment report records their use since the Middle Ages to promote sweating, their place in the Hungarian, Czechoslovak, Polish, and East German pharmacopoeias, and in German children’s influenza teas; it finds flavonoids, kaempferol, quercetin, and myricetin and their glycosides, chiefly tiliroside, caffeic and chlorogenic acids, and about 3 per cent of mucilage polysaccharides.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- tilirosidechief of the flavonoid glycosides, with kaempferol, quercetin, and myricetin
- kaempferol
- quercetin ChEMBL
- chlorogenic acid ChEMBLwith caffeic acid
- mucilageabout 3 per cent, as polysaccharides
- Mechanism
- Not established in the sources read for this entry.
- Standing
- European Union herbal monograph (2012): traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for the symptoms of the common cold and mild mental stress.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. European Union herbal monograph on Tiliae flos (Lime flower). EMA/HMPC/337066/2011, 22 May 2012. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Tiliae flos. EMA/HMPC/337067/2011, 22 May 2012. Read in part · the text read
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.
Lime flower: what lore surrounds it?
Folkard, after Ovid, traces the lime to Baucis, wife of the old shepherd Philemon, who unknowingly entertained Jupiter and Mercury in their cottage in Phrygia when richer neighbours had turned the gods away; at their own request the couple died in the same hour, Baucis changed into a lime and Philemon into an oak. The European Medicines Agency’s assessment report adds that lime flowers were once believed so effective against epilepsy that a sufferer could be cured simply by sitting beneath the tree. Grieve names lime as the wood the carver Grinley Gibbons used for St Paul’s, Windsor Castle, and Chatsworth.
Lime flower: what did the older authorities say?
- Grieve, A Modern Herbal (1931)
- Linden tea, she writes, is much used on the Continent, “especially in France, where stocks of dried lime-flowers are kept in most households for making ‘Tilleul.’” In the Pyrenees the flowers soothed the excitement caused by the spa waters. She warns that if the flowers used for the tisane are too old “they may produce symptoms of narcotic intoxication.”
Sources
- Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Lime Tree.” As published on botanical.com. Read in full · the text read
- Felter, H. W., & Lloyd, J. U. (1898). King’s American Dispensatory, vol. 2, “Tilia.” Internet Archive, kingsamericandis02kinguoft. Read in part · the text read
- Folkard, R. (1884). Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics, “Lime-tree.” Project Gutenberg, 44638. Read in part · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. European Union herbal monograph on Tiliae flos (Lime flower). EMA/HMPC/337066/2011, 22 May 2012. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Tiliae flos. EMA/HMPC/337067/2011, 22 May 2012. Read in part · the text read
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
- Sources
- 5 cited: 2 read in full, 3 read in part.
- 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.
Club members can point at a technical term in this entry, such as a constituent, an action, or a word of Jung’s, to read its definition from the source. The Club.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published October 16, 2026
- Chicago
“Lime flower.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 16, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lime-flower.
- MLA
“Lime flower.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 16 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lime-flower. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Lime flower. (2026, October 16). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/lime-flower
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See Also
Sharing kaempferol, quercetin, chlorogenic acid
Ribes nigrum · Equisetum arvense · Allium cepa · Drosera rotundifolia · Pilosella officinarum · Grindelia robusta · Helichrysum arenarium · Prunus insititia
Also in M. Grieve
Mayapple in M. Grieve · Laburnum in M. Grieve · Melilot in M. Grieve · Horseradish in M. Grieve · everything M. Grieve names →
Drawing on the same sources: Grieve, Felter, Folkard
Linseed · Licorice · Liverwort, or hepatica · Lobelia · Oleander · Lesser bean-trefoil · Madonna lily · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Lion’s mane (A single clump of hanging spines on hardwood trees) · Letters from Heaven · Litharge (a byproduct of refining silver) · Lenitive electuary
Historical description, not medical advice.
