FEVERFEW
Chrysanthemum parthenium
COMMON NAMES: Feather few, febrifuge plant, featherfoil, pyrethrum.
FEATURES: The plant is native to Europe but common in the United States. Found occasionally in a wild
state, but generally cultivated in gardens. The tapering root, with dark brown, furrowed bark, contains a
large percentage of inulin. The yellowish, porous wood has a distinct odor and a sweetish taste, very
pungent, acrid, tingling, with a sialagogue effect. The flower resembles chamomile with its yellow disk
and white petals, one to a stalk; flowering in June and July. The center stem grows to about 2 feet high
with serrated-edge alternate leaves; very short hairs.
Bees are said to dislike this plant very much, and a handful of the flower heads carried in their vicinity
will cause them to keep their distance.
MEDICINAL PART: The whole herb.
SOLVENTS: Alcohol, boiling water (partial solvent).
BODILY INFLUENCE: Aperient, carminative, tonic, emmenagogue, vermifuge, stimulant.
USES: The warming infusion of feverfew upon the circulation influences the skin, nervous system, and the
genitourinary organs and relieves the head of dizziness, brain and nerve pressure, and tensions of
overexcitement.
Culpeper recommends it as “a special remedy against opium when taken too liberally.”
This garden herb provides relieving assistance of hyperemic conditions of the mucous membrane in
conditions of colic, flatulence, general indigestion, colds, suppressed urine, expelling worms, hysteria,
and in some febrile diseases. It is largely used in female correction of scanty or delayed monthly periods.
Drs. Wood and Ruddock, in their book Vitalogy, say that it is “an admirable remedy for St. Vitus dance.”
Dr. Clymer, dealing with nature’s healing agents, administers the following for fevers:
Tincture of feverfew (Chrysanthemum parthenium), 10–30 drops
Tincture of coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia), 10–20 drops
Tincture of cayenne pepper (Capiscum), 10–20 dropsTaken every 2–3 hours, depending on symptoms. The cold infusion or extract makes a valuable tonic.
The warm infusion is nervine and very useful for hysteria and promoting perspiration in fevers.
Dose of feverfew alone: 10–30 drops in water every 2–3 hours, or as indicated by condition. Can be
used as tea, 1 teaspoonful to 1 cup of boiling water steeped for ½ hour; 2 cups a day in small mouthful
doses.
EXTERNALLY: The leaves boiled for hot compresses for pain of congestion or inflammation of the lungs,
stomach, and abdomen is beneficial.
HOMEOPATHIC CLINICAL: Tincture of fresh plant for convulsions, delirium, dysentery, fevers, loquacity,
rheumatism.