Teasel
Fuller’s teasel; Venus’s basin
- Known today as
- Dipsacus fullonum. A tall, prickly biennial whose paired leaves clasp the stem to form a natural cup that fills with rainwater.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- iridoid glycosides, caffeic acid derivatives, saponins
- 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 27, 2026.
Teasel: what was it used for?
The dried, hooked flower heads used for centuries to raise the nap on woolen cloth, whence the cultivated form’s name, fuller’s teasel; medieval herbalists also prescribed the plant for fistulas, hemorrhoids, and boils.
Teasel: what does modern science say?
No controlled evidence supports its old medicinal uses; its use in finishing cloth was genuine and lasted into the industrial age before metal card teeth replaced it.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- iridoid glycosidessylvestroside, loganin
- caffeic acid derivatives
- saponins
- Mechanism
- A plant of the cloth trade whose root was a mild diuretic and bitter; the modern claim of a teasel-root cure for Lyme disease has no trial and no mechanism, and the iridoids showed weak activity against Borrelia in one laboratory study.
- Toxic dose
- Safe.
- Standing
- No monograph; the Lyme claim is folk internet medicine.
- Liebold, T., et al. (2011). “Growth inhibiting activity of lipophilic extracts from Dipsacus sylvestris roots against Borrelia burgdorferi in vitro.” Pharmazie 66. Verified against its record · doi:10.31083/ph.2011.0887
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.
Teasel: what lore surrounds it?
The water gathered in its leaf cups was called Venus’s lip by the Romans and Venus’s basin by Renaissance writers, and was believed to have cosmetic and healing power, above all against warts. The medieval prescriptions reasoned from the plant’s prickly look that it suited piercing, stubborn ailments.
Teasel: what did the older authorities say?
- Pliny
- “The dipsacos has leaves like those of the lettuce, with prickly tubercles on the middle of the back. The stem of it, two cubits in length, is bristling all over with prickles of a similar nature. The joints of the stem are closely covered with two leaves, which form a concave axil in which a saltish dew-like liquid collects.” Pliny gives the small prickly heads, the watery habitat, and two uses: the root boiled in wine “to the consistency of wax” as a salve for fistula, and for warts, “the juice collected in the axils, as above mentioned, is also used by some.”
Sources
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Wild Teasel.” Book, seen in reviews
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 27.47, 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
- 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
“Teasel.” 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/teasel.
- MLA
“Teasel.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/teasel. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Teasel. (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/teasel
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See Also
Sharing iridoid glycosides, saponins
Ajuga iva · Ajuga iva · Ajuga chamaepitys · Succisa pratensis · Ficaria verna · Eryngium maritimum · Atriplex hortensis
Also in Pliny the Elder
Thyme in Pliny the Elder · Sweet flag in Pliny the Elder · Toad in Pliny the Elder · Sweet almond, oil of in Pliny the Elder · everything Pliny the Elder names →
Nearby in the alphabet
Teonanácatl (Small brown mushrooms that stain blue when bruised) · Tea (The dried leaves of Camellia sinensis) · Terra sigillata (A clay dug on the island of Lemnos and stamped with a seal) · Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) · Tetragrammaton (not pronounced in Jewish practice) · Tamarind (The pod pulp of Tamarindus indica) · Theriac · Sweet woodruff
Historical description, not medical advice.