# Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) *Spotted alder, winterbloom, snapping hazelnut; *Hamamelis virginiana* of Linnaeus; in pharmacy *Hamamelidis folium*, *cortex*, and the distilled water* **Known today as.** *Hamamelis virginiana*, a shrub of the eastern United States and Canada of several crooked trunks from one root, ten to twelve feet high, with smooth grey bark. Its oval leaves fall in autumn and only then do the yellow flowers come, “very late in September and in October,” followed by black nuts whose seeds “are ejected violently when ripe, hence the name Snapping Hazelnut.” The bark and leaves, fresh and dried, are the parts used, and a water distilled from the leaves and young twigs. The common hazel has its own entry. Kind: Plant > **Caution.** Allergic contact dermatitis has been reported from the skin preparations, and conjunctivitis from the eye preparations. The agency’s eye monograph says to stop and ask a doctor for eye pain, a change in vision, continued redness or irritation, or a condition lasting more than 48 hours; rectal bleeding calls for a doctor. The monographs set age limits that differ by use, from six to eighteen years, for want of data, and safety in pregnancy and breast-feeding has not been established. ## What was it used for? An astringent above all. Grieve calls leaves and bark alike “valuable in checking internal and external haemorrhage, most efficacious in the treatment of piles,” useful for bruises and inflammatory swellings and for diarrhoea and dysentery, and she reports that the North American Indians had long used it in poultices for painful swellings and tumours. The distilled extract was laid on varicose veins on a lint bandage kept constantly moist, and a pad of it on a burst vein, she says, would stop the bleeding. Pond’s Extract of Witch Hazel was “much used in our grandmother’s days as a general household remedy for burns, scalds, and inflammatory conditions of the skin,” and diluted with warm water the extract was used for inflamed eyelids. ## What does modern science say? The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee has three monographs on it, all for traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use”: the bark and the leaf for minor inflammation and dryness of the skin, for the itching and burning of haemorrhoids, and as a mouthwash or gargle for minor inflammation in the mouth; and the distillate for minor skin inflammation and for the temporary relief of eye discomfort from dryness, wind, or sun. Its assessment report puts the leaf’s tannins at 3 to 10 per cent and the bark’s at 8 to 12, the bark the richer in hamamelitannin. ## Pharmacognosy and toxicology - **hamamelitannin**: richer in the bark, whose tannins make 8 to 12 per cent - **tannins**: 3 to 10 per cent of the leaf **Mechanism.** Not established in the sources read for this entry. **Standing.** European Union herbal monographs: traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” of the bark, the leaf, and the distillate, for minor skin inflammation, haemorrhoids, mouth inflammation, and eye discomfort. ## What lore surrounds it? The name *Hamamelis*, Grieve says, was taken from a Greek word for its likeness to an apple tree. Its oddity in the garden is its calendar: it drops its leaves and then flowers, yellow and late, in October, and the nuts often do not ripen until the following summer. In Britain, she notes, the nut bears no seeds; in America the seeds come abundantly and are shot from the capsule, which gave the shrub its name of snapping hazelnut. ## What did the older authorities say? **Mrs. M. Grieve.** A tea of the leaves or bark “may be taken freely with advantage, being good for bleeding of the stomach and in complaints of the bowels,” and given as an injection for bleeding piles, “the relief being marvellous and the cure speedy.” Witch hazel, she adds, had been supposed to owe its use to an action on the muscular fibre of the veins. ## Sources - Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Witch Hazel.” As published on botanical.com. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Hamamelidis cortex (Hamamelis Bark)*. EMA/HMPC/114583/2008 Corr. 1, 25 September 2019. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Hamamelidis folium (Hamamelis Leaf)*. EMA/HMPC/114586/2008, 12 November 2009. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Hamamelidis folium et cortex aut ramunculus destillatum (Hamamelis Distillate)*. EMA/HMPC/114584/2008, 12 November 2009. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Hamamelidis cortex*. EMA/HMPC/114585/2008, 12 November 2009. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Hamamelidis cortex (Hamamelis Bark)*. EMA/HMPC/114583/2008 Corr. 1, 25 September 2019. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Hamamelidis folium (Hamamelis Leaf)*. EMA/HMPC/114586/2008, 12 November 2009. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Hamamelidis folium et cortex aut ramunculus destillatum (Hamamelis Distillate)*. EMA/HMPC/114584/2008, 12 November 2009. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Hamamelidis cortex*. EMA/HMPC/114585/2008, 12 November 2009. --- *Witch hazel.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-16. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/witch-hazel Historical description, not medical advice.