# Ox eye (Buphthalmum salicifolium)

**Buftalmo**

**Known today as.** Probably *Buphthalmum salicifolium*, yellow ox-eye; some read it as the ox-eye daisy, *Leucanthemum vulgare*.

Kind: Plant

## What did Canale use it for?

As an amulet and in fumigations (ch. 10).

## What does modern science say?

No established effect. Both candidates are harmless composites with a little volatile oil; the daisy was once used, like chamomile, for coughs and the chest.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **sesquiterpene lactones**: 
- **flavonoids**: 
- **polyacetylenes**: 

**Mechanism.** *Buphthalmum*, or the ox-eye daisy: a Compositae of no particular pharmacology, whose lactones sensitise the skin. In a fumigation it is smoke.

**Dose.** Safe; contact dermatitis in the sensitised.

**Standing.** No monograph.

## What lore surrounds it?

The ox-eye daisy of the English meadows, *Leucanthemum*, is the “moon daisy” and the midsummer flower of Saint John, worn against lightning and the devil; if Canale meant that plant, the amulet joins the midsummer herbs.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Dioscorides.** Gives *bouphthalmon*, the ox-eye, a yellow flower like chamomile, in a cerate to dissolve hard swellings, and says that those who drink it after the bath are rid of the jaundice.

**The amulet herbs.** Canale strings it with the other strong-smelling composites, the chamomile and the feverfew, which the folk medicine of Italy hung at the neck and burned against the spells of the fascinators.

## Sources

- Dioscorides, *De materia medica* III.
- Paulsen, E. (2002). “Contact sensitization from Compositae-containing herbal remedies and cosmetics.” *Contact Dermatitis* 47.

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

Historical description, not medical advice.