Red clover

Statema, B. C. P.

Plant

Red clover

Trefoil, purple clover, meadow trefoil, honeysuckles; Trifolium pratense L.

Known today as: Trifolium pratense, of the family Leguminosae, a short-lived perennial of meadows across Britain, Europe, and northern and central Asia, with leaves of three leaflets and fragrant red to purple flowers in dense round heads; Grieve calls it an excellent mowing crop, though the bees work it less than the white clover. The flowering heads are the drug. The modern trials use preparations of its isoflavones, which one of the reviews calls phytoestrogenic.
Kind: Plant, in 1 older authority
Constituents: isoflavones, biochanin A
Earliest authority here: Culpeper, The Complete Herbal (1653) (1616–1654)
In other databases: Plants of the World Online · GBIF · Wikidata

Caution. None of the sources read for this entry reports on its safety, and no European monograph sets it out.

Red clover: what was it used for?

In the old herbals an application for inflammations and a cough remedy; now a supplement for menopausal hot flushes. Grieve records the fluid extract as an alterative and antispasmodic, an infusion for bronchial and whooping cough, and fomentations and poultices of the herb applied to cancerous growths.

Red clover: what does modern science say?

No European monograph covers it, and the trials are of its isoflavone extracts, against placebo, for hot flushes. A 2021 meta-analysis of eight trials found a statistically significant fall of about 1.7 hot flushes a day, but called for further well-designed studies to confirm it; a 2026 meta-analysis of nine trials, most at low risk of bias, found a small-to-moderate reduction in their frequency and called it “modest but statistically significant.” A 2022 meta-analysis in postmenopausal women found a small fall in total cholesterol and a rise in HDL cholesterol.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

isoflavonesthe constituents of the modern preparations, which one review calls phytoestrogenic
biochanin Aa higher proportion of which marked the more effective formulations in one meta-analysis

Mechanism

Not established in the sources read for this entry.

Standing

There is no European monograph. Meta-analyses (2021, 2026) find a modest reduction in hot flushes against placebo.

Kanadys W, et al. (2021). Evaluation of Clinical Meaningfulness of Red Clover (Trifolium pratense L.) Extract to Relieve Hot Flushes and Menopausal Symptoms in Peri- and Post-Menopausal Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Nutrients. PMID 33920485. Abstract read · the text read
Jiang W & Wu K (2026). The effectiveness of red clover on hot-flash in menopausal women: a GRADE-assessed systematic review and meta-analysis. European journal of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology. PMID 42269521. Abstract read · the text read
Błaszczuk A, et al. (2022). Role of Phytoestrogen-Rich Bioactive Substances (Linum usitatissimum L., Glycine max L., Trifolium pratense L.) in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Postmenopausal Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. PMID 35745197. Abstract read · the text read

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.

Red clover: what lore surrounds it?

Thiselton-Dyer records that among the Virginian tribes red clover “was supposed to have sprung from and to be coloured by the blood of the red men slain in battle,” and sets the story beside the English legend of the lilies of the valley that sprang from the blood of St. Leonard after his three-day fight with “a mighty worm, or ‘fire-drake,’” in St. Leonard’s Forest, Sussex.

Red clover: what did the older authorities say?

Culpeper, The Complete Herbal (1653): Under “Meadow Trefoil, or Honeysuckles,” which he says are so well known, white and red, that he need not describe them, Culpeper gives the plant to Mercury. The juice dropped in the eyes was “a familiar medicine, with many country people, to take away the pin and web”; country people also drank the juice against the bite of an adder and laid the boiled herb on the wound, and a poultice of the herb eased inflammations.

Sources

Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Clover, Red.” As published on botanical.com. Read in full · the text read
Culpeper, N. The Complete Herbal, “MEADOW TREFOIL, OR HONEYSUCKLES.” Project Gutenberg, 49513. Read in part · the text read
Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (1889). The Folk-lore of Plants, ch. 1, “Plant Life”. Project Gutenberg, 10118. Read in part · the text read
Kanadys W, et al. (2021). Evaluation of Clinical Meaningfulness of Red Clover (Trifolium pratense L.) Extract to Relieve Hot Flushes and Menopausal Symptoms in Peri- and Post-Menopausal Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Nutrients. PMID 33920485. Abstract read · the text read
Jiang W & Wu K (2026). The effectiveness of red clover on hot-flash in menopausal women: a GRADE-assessed systematic review and meta-analysis. European journal of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology. PMID 42269521. Abstract read · the text read
Błaszczuk A, et al. (2022). Role of Phytoestrogen-Rich Bioactive Substances (Linum usitatissimum L., Glycine max L., Trifolium pratense L.) in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Postmenopausal Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. PMID 35745197. Abstract read · the text read

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

Sources

6 cited: 1 read in full, 2 read in part, 3 abstract read. 3 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.

Club members can point at a technical term in this entry, such as a constituent, an action, or a word of Jung’s, to read its definition from the source. The Club.

Cite This Entry

Version 1 · first published October 17, 2026

Chicago: “Red clover.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 17, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/red-clover.
MLA: “Red clover.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 17 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/red-clover. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
APA: Red clover. (2026, October 17). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/red-clover

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Red clover

Red clover: what was it used for?

Red clover: what does modern science say?

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Red clover: what lore surrounds it?

Red clover: what did the older authorities say?

Sources

Verification

Cite This Entry

See Also

Sharing isoflavones

Also in Nicholas Culpeper

Drawing on the same sources: Grieve, Culpeper, Thiselton-Dyer

Nearby in the alphabet