Motherwort
Cardiaca; lion’s tail
- Known today as
- Leonurus cardiaca, of the mint family, a tall, prickly-calyxed herb of waste ground.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- leonurine, stachydrine, ajugoside and other iridoids, and 1 more
- Earliest authority here
- Culpeper (1616–1654)
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
Revised October 1, 2026: Lore added from texts read in full. Version 1, first published September 30, 2026.
Motherwort: what was it used for?
For the heart, as its Latin name says: for palpitations and faintness, and for the womb, in childbirth and its aftermath.
Motherwort: what does modern science say?
Small studies suggest a mild calming effect; its use for the heart has no good clinical support.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- Mildly sedative and slows the heart in animal preparations, which is as near as the herbals’ “cardiaca” came to a test; leonurine contracts the uterus in animals, the basis of the Chinese use (yi mu cao) after childbirth, and is studied for cardioprotection.
- Toxic dose
- Safe at tea doses; not in pregnancy, for the uterine action.
- Standing
- EMA monograph (2010) for nervous cardiac complaints and sleep, on tradition; in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia for menstrual and postpartum use.
- EMA/HMPC (2010). Community herbal monograph on Leonurus cardiaca L., herba (EMA/HMPC/127428/2010). Verified against its record
- Shang, X., et al. (2014). “Leonurus japonicus Houtt.: ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry and pharmacology of an important traditional Chinese medicine.” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 152. Verified against its record · doi:10.1016/j.jep.2013.12.052
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
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.
Motherwort: what lore surrounds it?
Folkard has Parkinson's reason for the name, “of wonderful helpe to women in the risings of the mother,” and the Japanese festival on the 9th of the 9th month, “called the Festival of Motherwort,” with its zakki brewed from the flowers and the legend of the boy emperor who, told he would die before fifteen, drank it daily “and lived upwards of seventy years.” In the houses of the common people “a branch of the flowers fastened with a string to a pitcher full of common zakki” wishes the household long life.
Motherwort: what did the older authorities say?
- Culpeper
- Writes that there is no better herb “to drive melancholy vapours from the heart, to strengthen it, and make a merry, cheerful, blithe soul.”
Sources
- Culpeper, N. (1652). The English Physitian. Primary text
- Grieve, M. (1931). A Modern Herbal, “Motherwort.” Book, not indexed
- Folkard, R. (1884). Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics, “Motherwort.” Project Gutenberg #44638. Primary text
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
- Each quotation from the older authorities checked word for word against the text, read in full
- Sources
- 5 cited: 2 verified against its record, 2 primary text, 1 book, not indexed. 1 with the abstract on file.
- 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.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 30, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026
- Chicago
“Motherwort.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 1, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/motherwort.
- MLA
“Motherwort.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/motherwort. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Motherwort. (2026, October 1). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/motherwort
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See Also
Sharing stachydrine
Also in Nicholas Culpeper
Periwinkle in Nicholas Culpeper · Moonwort in Nicholas Culpeper · Ragwort in Nicholas Culpeper · Masterwort and angelica in Nicholas Culpeper · everything Nicholas Culpeper names →
Drawing on the same sources: Culpeper, Grieve, Folkard
Pilewort · Mugwort · Mint, oil of · Mullein · Mustard seed · Myrobalans · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Morel (hollow spring mushroom) · Mummy (sold by the apothecaries) · Moly (Unidentified) · Musk (The secretion of the musk deer’s gland) · Mithridate (the forerunner of theriac)
Historical description, not medical advice.