# Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)

*Meadwort, queen of the meadow; *Spiraea ulmaria**

**Known today as.** *Filipendula ulmaria*, of the rose family, of damp meadows and ditches, with frothy cream flowers smelling of almond.

Kind: Plant

## What was it used for?

Cooling and astringent, for fluxes and fevers; strewn on floors for its scent, and used to flavour mead, whence one of its names.

## What does modern science say?

Its flowers contain salicylates. Salicylic acid was obtained from them in 1839, and when Bayer named acetylsalicylic acid in 1899 it called it aspirin, from *Spiraea*, the plant’s old name.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **salicylaldehyde**: in the flowers
- **methyl salicylate**: 
- **spiraeoside**: 

**Mechanism.** The salicylates inhibit the prostaglandin synthases, weakly; the plant holds far less than a tablet of aspirin.

**Dose.** The salicylate risks in those allergic or on anticoagulants.

**Standing.** Approved in Europe as a traditional remedy for colds and minor aches.

## What lore surrounds it?

A favourite strewing herb, said to have been Queen Elizabeth I’s choice for her chambers.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Gerard.** Writes that its smell “makes the heart merrie and joyful and delighteth the senses.”

## Sources

- Gerard, J. (1597). *The Herball*.
- Grieve, M. (1931). *A Modern Herbal*, “Meadowsweet.”
- European Medicines Agency (2011). *Assessment report on Filipendula ulmaria*.

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*Meadowsweet.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-30. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/meadowsweet

Historical description, not medical advice.