Wild carrot, seed of

Statema, B. C. P.

Plant

Wild carrot, seed of

Dauco

Known today as: Seed of Daucus carota, Queen Anne’s lace.
Kind: Plant, in 1 older authority
Constituents: carotol, daucol, alpha-pinene, and 1 more
Earliest authority here: Pliny (AD 23/24–79)
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 4: Stronger Purgatives and Compound Medicines

Revised October 1, 2026: An older authority added from a text read in full. Version 1, first published September 25, 2026.

Wild carrot, seed of: what did Canale use it for?

In the melancholic purge, in the gentle vomitories, and in the stuffing of the cockerel (chs. 4–6).

Wild carrot, seed of: what does modern science say?

Reported to be diuretic and carminative, as the old pharmacy also held; not a purgative.

Pharmacognosy & Toxicology

Constituents

carotola sesquiterpene alcohol of the seed oil
daucol
alpha-pinene ChEMBL
falcarinol ChEMBLa polyacetylene

Mechanism

A carminative and mild diuretic seed of the fennel family, which is why it stood in the purges and the cockerel; its folk use as a morning-after contraceptive rests on an unconfirmed animal study, and the plant must not be confused with hemlock, whose smooth stem and purple spots are the difference.

Toxic dose

Safe as a spice; the leaf’s furanocoumarins photosensitise.

Standing

No monograph; the cultivated carrot is the food.

Jansen, G. C., and Wohlmuth, H. (2014). “Carrot seed for contraception: a review.” Australian Journal of Herbal Medicine 26. Matched to its record and reviewed

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.

Wild carrot, seed of: what lore surrounds it?

Its modern name, Queen Anne’s lace, carries its own legend: the single dark purple or red floret at the heart of the white flower is said to be a drop of blood, shed when a Queen Anne, variously Anne of Great Britain, Anne of Denmark, or even Anne Boleyn, pricked her finger trying to make lace as fine as the flower.

Wild carrot, seed of: what did the older authorities say?

Pliny: Of the daucus he says Petronius Diodotus distinguished four kinds, “the varieties being in reality but two”: the most esteemed of Crete, resembling fennel with whiter, hairier leaves and a root that “has a remarkably pleasant taste and smell”; the seed “white, acrid, hot, and odoriferous,” that of the second kind stronger and to be used more sparingly; quadrupeds will not touch it “except indeed, after abortion”; the seed is the part used, save for the Cretan, whose root is “particularly useful for the stings of serpents”; it is also “curative of head-ache,” and a wine was made of it.

Sources

[28] Culpeper, N. (1653). Pharmacopœia Londinensis, or, The London Dispensatory [the Royal College of Physicians’ pharmacopoeia in English, with Culpeper’s commentary]. London: Peter Cole. Text Creation Partnership edition A35381. Read in part · the text read
[66] Ismail, J., Shebaby, W. N., Daher, J., Boulos, J. C., Taleb, R., Daher, C. F., & Mroueh, M. (2024). Phytochemistry and pharmacology of wild carrot (Daucus carota). Encyclopedia MDPI, entry 56267, based on Plants 13(1): 93. doi:10.3390/plants13010093 Verified against its record · doi:10.3390/plants13010093

Plant-Lore, “Queen Anne’s Lace.” Book, seen in reviews
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 25.64, 25.84, 14.19, 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

5 cited: 1 read in part, 1 verified against its record, 1 matched to its record and reviewed, 1 primary text, 1 book, seen in reviews.

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 25, 2026 · last revised October 1, 2026

Chicago: “Wild carrot, seed of.” 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/wild-carrot-seed-of.
MLA: “Wild carrot, seed of.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 1 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/wild-carrot-seed-of. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
APA: Wild carrot, seed of. (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/wild-carrot-seed-of

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