# Water germander (Teucrium scordium)

**Scordeo**

**Known today as.** *Teucrium scordium*, of the same genus as wall germander, which has caused liver failure in modern herbal preparations.

Kind: Plant  
Poisoning: Hepatotoxic monoterpenes (pulegone) (https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/poisons/hepatotoxic-terpenes)  
Toxic: yes

> **Caution.** 

## What did Canale use it for?

Among the amulet herbs: hung about the neck, and used in fumigations and decoctions against hexes (ch. 10; see [the amulet herbs](https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/the-amulet-herbs)).

## What does modern science say?

Scordium was an ingredient of theriac and was esteemed as an antidote to poisons. Several *Teucrium* species have caused liver injury, so the genus is treated with caution.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **neo-clerodane diterpenes**: teucrins
- **scordein**: 
- **the garlic-scented oil**: 

**Mechanism.** *Teucrium scordium*: its relative the wall germander (*T. chamaedrys*) caused an epidemic of liver damage in France in 1992 when sold for weight loss, the teucrin diterpenes being activated by the liver into hepatotoxic epoxides; the water germander carries the same class and should be assumed to share the risk. Its old fame against the plague rested on its scent.

**Dose.** No safe internal dose can be stated; the wall germander was banned in France in 1992.

**Standing.** Not approved; *Teucrium* species are restricted across Europe after the French cases.

## What lore surrounds it?

Thiselton-Dyer records that “the germander is known as horse-chere, from its growing after horse-droppings.”

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pliny.** Lennaeus, he says, “attributes to Mithridates the discovery of another plant, the scordotis or scordion, which has been described, he tells us, by the hand even of that prince”: a cubit high, with a square branchy stem and downy leaves like the oak’s, growing in Pontus in rich, humid soils, and bitter; it reduces swellings of the testes, is taken in vinegar for gout, its juice is recommended “for all painful affections of the body,” and it is drunk for ruptures and convulsions.

## Sources

- Pliny the Elder, *Natural History* 25.27, 26.58, 26.64, 26.67, 26.85, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library.
- Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (1889). *The Folk-lore of Plants*. Project Gutenberg #10118.
- Larrey, D., et al. (1992). “Hepatitis after germander (*Teucrium chamaedrys*) administration: another instance of herbal medicine hepatotoxicity.” *Annals of Internal Medicine* 117.
- Kouzi, S. A., et al. (1994). “Hepatotoxicity of germander (*Teucrium chamaedrys* L.) and one of its constituent neoclerodane diterpenes teucrin A in the mouse.” *Chemical Research in Toxicology* 7.

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

Historical description, not medical advice.