Solomon’s seal

Statema, B. C. P.

Plant

Solomon’s seal

Known today as: Polygonatum multiflorum and its relatives. A shade-loving woodland perennial with arching stems of paired leaves and small white bell flowers.
Kind: Plant, in 1 older authority
Constituents: steroidal saponins, mucilage, convallarin, and 1 more
Poisoning: Saponin irritation
Earliest authority here: Culpeper (1616–1654)
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 27, 2026.

Solomon’s seal: what was it used for?

The rhizome used as a poultice and decoction for bruises, sprains, and wounds in European and Chinese medicine.

Solomon’s seal: what does modern science say?

Laboratory studies suggest some anti-inflammatory activity; it is not established in clinical use.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

steroidal saponinspolygonatosides
mucilage
convallarina cardioactive glycoside, in small amounts
asparagine ChEMBL

Mechanism

The mucilage and saponins make a poultice that is soothing and mildly anti-inflammatory on a bruise, which is the old use; the berries have cardiac glycosides of the lily-of-the-valley type and have poisoned children with vomiting and diarrhoea. The Chinese species (P. odoratum, yu zhu; P. sibiricum, huang jing) are tonic herbs of that pharmacopoeia.

Toxic dose

The rhizome externally is safe; the berries are not.

Syndrome

Saponin irritation

Standing

No European monograph; two species in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia.

Zhao, P., et al. (2018). “The genus Polygonatum: a review of ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry and pharmacology.” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 214. Verified against its record · doi:10.1016/j.jep.2017.12.006

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.

Solomon’s seal: what lore surrounds it?

Its name comes from the round scars left on the rhizome where each year’s stem broke away, said to resemble the interlocking triangles of King Solomon’s seal, the six-pointed star later bound up with his legendary power over demons and his knowledge of herbs.

Solomon’s seal: what did the older authorities say?

Culpeper: “Saturn owns the plant, for he loves his bones well”: the root is “found by experience” to close green wounds and to knit joints that go out of place and broken bones, bruised and applied, or infused a night in wine and drunk, “the most assured refuge of help to people of divers counties”; for falls and blows it dispels the congealed blood and the black and blue marks.

Sources

Wisconsin Horticulture, “Solomon’s Seal, Polygonatum spp.” Book, seen in reviews
Culpeper, N. (1653). The Complete Herbal, “Solomon’s Seal.” Project Gutenberg #49513. 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

3 cited: 1 verified against its record, 1 primary text, 1 book, seen in reviews. 1 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.

Cite This Entry

Version 1 · first published September 27, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026

Chicago: “Solomon’s seal.” 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/solomons-seal.
MLA: “Solomon’s seal.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/solomons-seal. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Solomon’s seal. (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/solomons-seal

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Solomon’s seal

Solomon’s seal: what was it used for?

Solomon’s seal: what does modern science say?

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Solomon’s seal: what lore surrounds it?

Solomon’s seal: what did the older authorities say?

Sources

Verification

Cite This Entry

See Also

Poisoned alike: saponin irritation

Sharing steroidal saponins, mucilage

Also in Nicholas Culpeper

Drawing on the same sources: Culpeper, Zhao

Nearby in the alphabet