# Madonna lily (Lilium candidum)

**Lilium*; Greek *krinon**

**Known today as.** *Lilium candidum*.

Kind: Plant

## What was it used for?

The bulb, roasted or in oil, to ripen swellings and soothe burns; its oil, *susinum*, in ointments.

## What does modern science say?

Soothing as a poultice; no specific action shown.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **steroidal saponins**: in the bulb
- **mucilage and starch**: 
- **linalool and benzyl esters**: the scent, the base of susinum

**Mechanism.** A roasted bulb is a hot mucilaginous poultice, which draws a boil as any such does; the saponins are mildly irritant. The flowers’ pollen stains, and the plant is toxic to cats, not to people.

**Dose.** Safe externally.

**Standing.** No monograph; a plant of the Virgin’s iconography more than of the pharmacy.

## What lore surrounds it?

The white lily of the Annunciation, carried by Gabriel in the paintings: the flower of the Virgin’s purity.

Classical myth traced the lily’s whiteness to a pagan source: when the infant Heracles was put to Hera’s breast and pulled away, her spilled milk formed the Milky Way, and, in one telling, a fallen portion became the first lily on earth.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pliny.** “The lily holds the next highest rank after the rose,” sharing with it the making of unguents, its oil being called lirinon; no flower grows taller, sometimes three cubits, “the head of it being always drooping, as though the neck of the flower were unable to support its weight,” and “the whiteness of the lily is quite remarkable”; he also records a method of tinting lilies by steeping the stalks in wine-lees, “thanks to the taste of mankind for monstrous productions.”

## Sources

- Dioscorides, *De materia medica*.
- Wikipedia, “Milk of Hera.”
- Pliny the Elder, *Natural History* 21.11, 21.13, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library.
- Grieve, M. (1931). *A Modern Herbal*, “Lily, Madonna.”

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

Historical description, not medical advice.