# Sage (Salvia officinalis)

**Salvia**

**Known today as.** *Salvia officinalis*.

Kind: Plant  
Poisoning: Convulsant terpenes (thujone, pinocamphone, camphor) (https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/poisons/convulsant-terpenes)

## What did Canale use it for?

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

## 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 and toxicology

- **thujone**: 
- **camphor**: 
- **rosmarinic acid**: an antioxidant
- **carnosic acid**: 

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

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

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

## 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.

## 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

- 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.
- Gerard, J. (1597). *The Herball*.
- European Medicines Agency (2016). *Herbal monograph on Salvia officinalis*.

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

Historical description, not medical advice.