Sage

Statema, B. C. P.

Plant

Sage

Salvia

Known today as: Salvia officinalis.
Kind: Plant, in 4 older authorities
Constituents: thujone, camphor, rosmarinic acid, and 1 more
Poisoning: Convulsant terpenes (thujone, pinocamphone, camphor)
Earliest authority here: The School of Salerno (10th–13th century)
In other databases: Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
In the Canale glossary: On the Manner of Discerning and Healing the Bewitched, Appendix A: Part Three, Chapter 9: Anointings

Revised October 1, 2026: Tradition, lore, modern assessment, and sources extended. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.

Sage: what did Canale use it for?

In the oil; among the amulets; blessed, in the oil of Treatise Two (chs. 9–10; Treatise Two).

Sage: how is it taken as a tea?

A pint of boiling water on an ounce of the leaves, with lemon rind and sugar if liked, strained after half an hour: a gargle for the relaxed or ulcerated throat, and in small repeated doses for nervous headache and the delirium of fevers. The Chinese, Grieve says, once preferred it to their own tea.

All the herbal teas of the database. Historical directions, not medical advice.

Sage: what does modern science say?

“Why should a man die with sage in his garden?” ran the medieval proverb. It is still used for sore mouths and throats and minor wounds, and there is some evidence for memory. Two small British trials in 2003 and 2008 found extracts of sage improved word recall and attention for some hours, and its compounds inhibit the same enzyme as the drugs for Alzheimer’s disease; the research has not gone further. The oil contains thujone, the poison of wormwood, so regulators limit it to a few milligrams a day.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

Mechanism

The oil’s terpenes are antimicrobial and, in excess, convulsant; extracts inhibit acetylcholinesterase weakly.

Toxic dose

Thujone from the oil, not the leaf, is the hazard; a few millilitres of the oil have caused seizures in children.

Syndrome

Convulsant terpenes (thujone, pinocamphone, camphor)

Standing

Approved in Europe as a traditional remedy for the mouth and throat and for sweating; thujone limited to about 6 mg a day.

European Medicines Agency (2016). Herbal monograph on Salvia officinalis. 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.

Sage: what lore surrounds it?

The Chinese of the seventeenth century are said to have traded three chests of their tea for one of English sage. Where sage flourishes, said the proverb, the wife rules, and it was planted at weddings for the couple’s long life.

Used in These Compounds

Sage is an ingredient of 1 compound medicine in the database. For Club members. Create a free account or sign in.

Sage: what did the older authorities say?

The School of Salerno: “Why should a man die who has sage in his garden?” asks the Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum, and answers that against death there is no herb.
Pliny: Calls it salvia, the saving herb, from salvere, to be well, and gives it for snakebite, the memory, and the womb; the Romans gathered it with a rite, in white tunics with bare feet.
Charlemagne: Named it among the first herbs to be grown on the imperial farms, after the lily, the rose, fenugreek, and costmary, and every monastery garden had its bed.
Gerard: Says it “quickeneth the senses and memory, strengtheneth the sinewes, restoreth health to those that have the palsie.”

Sources

[41] European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products (HMPC). Herbal monographs, assessment reports and public statements, ema.europa.eu, cited under the herb concerned: aniseed (summary, EMA/305345/2016); Aristolochia (public statement, EMEA/HMPC/138381/2005); asarone (public statement, EMEA/HMPC/139215/2005); caraway (EMA/HMPC/715092/2013); centaury (EMA/HMPC/277493/2015); chicory root (assessment report, EMA/HMPC/113041/2010); cinnamon (EMA/HMPC/246774/2009); clove (assessment report, EMA/HMPC/534946/2010); ethanol in herbal products (reflection paper, EMA/HMPC/85114/2008); fennel (EMEA/HMPC/372839/2016, Rev. 1, 2024); fumitory (draft assessment report, EMA/HMPC/367013/2021); greater celandine (public statement, EMA/HMPC/743927/2010); hops (EMA/HMPC/682384/2013); horehound (EMA/HMPC/604271/2012); mallow (assessment report, EMA/HMPC/749518/2016); marshmallow root (Althaeae radix); melissa (summary, EMA/HMPC/310761/2013); myrrh (assessment report and monograph, EMA/HMPC/96910/2010 and 96911/2010); peppermint oil (assessment report, EMEA/HMPC/349465/2006); pyrrolizidine alkaloids (public statement, EMA/HMPC/893108/2011); rhubarb (EMA/HMPC/113700/2019); sage (Salviae officinalis folium); wormwood (EMA/HMPC/751490/2016). Read in full · the text read
[76] Larkin, D. The Medieval Garden Enclosed (blog), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters: Herb Paris (23 June 2010); Salvia, Save Us (7 September 2010); Beneficent Betony (24 June 2011). Book, seen in reviews
[88] Miroddi, M., Navarra, M., Quattropani, M. C., Calapai, F., Gangemi, S., & Calapai, G. (2014). Systematic review of clinical trials assessing pharmacological properties of Salvia species on memory, cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics 20(6): 485–495. doi:10.1111/cns.12270 Verified against its record · doi:10.1111/cns.12270

Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Sages.” As published on botanical.com.
Tildesley, N. T., et al. (2003). “Salvia lavandulaefolia enhances memory in healthy young volunteers.” Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior 75. Verified against its record · doi:10.1016/s0091-3057(03)00122-9
Gerard, J. (1597). The Herball. Verified against its record · doi:10.5962/bhl.title.99400

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

7 cited: 1 read in full, 3 verified against its record, 2 book, seen in reviews, 1 not yet checked.

Corrections

Charlemagne's Capitulare de villis lists sage fifth, after lily, rose, fenugreek, and costmary, not "first."

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: “Sage.” 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/sage.
MLA: “Sage.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/sage. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Sage. (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/sage

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