# Primrose (Primula vulgaris)

*Primrose; anciently *Paralisos* and, with the cowslip and oxlip, *Herba paralysis*; German *Schlüsselblume*, ‘key-flower’; *Primula vulgaris* Huds.*

**Known today as.** *Primula vulgaris*, of the family Primulaceae, abundant in woods, hedgerows, pastures, and railway banks throughout Britain, flowering in April and May and in mild winters from the first days of the year. Its pale yellow flowers come in two forms, on separate plants: ‘pin-eyed,’ with the stigma at the mouth of the tube, and ‘thrum-eyed,’ with the anthers there instead; Darwin showed, Grieve explains, that this ensures cross-pollination by long-tongued bees and moths. The fresh herb in bloom and the dried root-stock are used; Grieve names saponin as their somewhat acrid active principle.

Kind: Plant

> **Caution.** Grieve notes that the powdered root acts as an emetic. None of the sources read for this entry reports on its safety otherwise.

## What was it used for?

A sedative and a remedy for the nerves. Grieve calls it antispasmodic, vermifuge, emetic, and astringent, records that in the early days of medicine it was an important remedy for muscular rheumatism, paralysis, and gout, and that a tincture of the fresh plant had been used in America for extreme sensitiveness, restlessness, and insomnia; an infusion of the root was taken for nervous headaches, and the powdered root served as an emetic.

## What does modern science say?

No European monograph for this species was used for this entry, and the searches of Europe PMC made for it found no clinical study of the primrose itself.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **saponin**: the somewhat acrid active principle, by Grieve’s account
- **primulin**: which Grieve identifies with mannite

**Mechanism.** Not established in the sources read for this entry.

**Standing.** There is no European monograph for this species, and no clinical study of it was found for this entry.

## What lore surrounds it?

Folkard tells that it was anciently called *Paralisos*, after a handsome youth, son of Priapus and Flora, who died of grief for his lost betrothed and was changed by his parents into the primrose; and that the name primrose, “the first Rose of Spring,” once belonged to the daisy and attached itself to this flower only in the sixteenth century. In Worcestershire it was unlucky to bring fewer than a handful of primroses into a farmhouse in spring, for the goodwife’s ducklings and chickens would die; in East Norfolk each goose would hatch only as many eggs as the primroses first brought in, if fewer than thirteen. In Germany it is the key-flower that opens the doors of treasure-caves, and the goddess Bertha lures children into her enchanted halls with primroses. Shakespeare made it a funeral flower for youth, and in Folkard’s own day it had become the emblem of Lord Beaconsfield and the Primrose League.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pliny, Gerard, and Culpeper, as Grieve quotes them.** Pliny, Grieve writes, spoke of it as almost a panacea for rheumatism, paralysis, and gout. Gerard held that primrose tea “drunk in the month of May is famous for curing the phrensie,” and Culpeper that of its leaves “is made as fine a salve to heal wound as any I know.” In old cookery its flowers made a ‘Primrose Pottage,’ and another dish of rice, almonds, honey, saffron, and ground primrose flowers.

## Sources

- Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Primrose.” As published on botanical.com.
- Folkard, R. (1884). *Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics*, “PRIMROSE.” Project Gutenberg, 44638.
- Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Primrose.” As published on botanical.com.

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*Primrose.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-17. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/primrose

Historical description, not medical advice.