Rowan
Mountain ash, witchen
- Known today as
- Sorbus aucuparia.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- parasorbic acid, sorbitol, vitamin C, and 1 more
- Earliest authority here
- Pliny (AD 23/24–79)
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
Revised October 1, 2026: An older authority added from a text read in full. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.
Rowan: what was it used for?
The berries astringent, in jellies and for scurvy.
Rowan: what does modern science say?
Raw berries contain parasorbic acid and upset the stomach; cooking removes it.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- The raw berry’s parasorbic acid irritates the stomach and kidney, which cooking and drying convert to sorbic acid, the food preservative E200; the cooked berry is an astringent fruit with vitamin C, the scurvy use. Sorbitol, the sugar alcohol, was first found here.
- Toxic dose
- Raw berries in quantity give vomiting and diarrhoea; cooked, a food.
- Standing
- A food; sorbic acid and sorbitol are its industrial legacy.
- Frohne, D., and Pfänder, H. J. (2005). Poisonous Plants, 2nd ed., “Sorbus aucuparia.” Book, seen in reviews
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.
Rowan: what lore surrounds it?
The first tree against witchcraft in the British Isles: “Rowan tree and red thread / Hold the witches all in dread.” Sprigs were fixed over doors and byres and tied to cattle.
Norse myth credits the rowan with saving a god: Thor, swept away in a river of the otherworld, escaped only by grasping a rowan that bent over the water, and the Norse held this to be the source of the tree’s protective power. Its berries, each marked with a five-pointed star where the flower had been, strengthened the belief, and crosses of rowan twigs bound with red thread were worn or hung in the house, especially on May Eve.
Rowan: what did the older authorities say?
- Pliny
- Pliny treats the sorb, the fruit of the rowan's cultivated cousin, among the stored fruits of the Roman larder: “Sorb apples, too, are similarly kept in holes in the ground, the vessel being turned upside down, and a layer of plaster placed on the lid: it should be buried two feet deep, in a sunny spot; sorbs are also hung, like grapes, in the inside of large vessels, together with the branches.” Among his sixty-six artificial wines he lists one made from “cornels, medlars, sorb apples, dried mulberries, and pinenuts,” which “produce a sweet liquor of themselves.”
Sources
- Grieve, M. (1931). A Modern Herbal. Read in part · the text read
- Trees for Life, on rowan mythology and folklore. Book, seen in reviews
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 15.18; 14.19, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library. 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
- 4 cited: 1 read in part, 1 primary text, 2 book, seen in reviews.
- 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 25, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026
- Chicago
“Rowan.” 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/rowan.
- MLA
“Rowan.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/rowan. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Rowan. (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/rowan
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See Also
Sharing sorbitol, vitamin C, tannins
Prunus insititia · Oxalis acetosella · Rosa gallica · Lepidium sativum · Prunella vulgaris · Veronica chamaedrys · Rheum officinale
Also in Pliny the Elder
Rue in Pliny the Elder · Rosemary rice water in Pliny the Elder · Sage in Pliny the Elder · Rocket in Pliny the Elder · everything Pliny the Elder names →
Drawing on the same sources: Grieve, Frohne
Round birthwort · Liverwort, or hepatica · Gorse · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Saffron (The stigmas of Crocus sativus) · Saffron milk cap (An orange mushroom of pine woods that weeps carrot-colored milk) · Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus (formerly Rosmarinus officinalis))
Historical description, not medical advice.