08/07/2021
Feverfew - a very insightful article from Mags Noonan of Liveeka,
our local practitioner in herbal medicine and a pharmaceutical chemist.
(Thanks, as always Mags, for sharing your knowledge with us.)
🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺
Tanacetum parthenium, known as feverfew, is a flowering plant in the daisy family, Asteraceae. The name feverfew is a corruption of featherfew, referring to the plant’s fine petals. It has clusters of small, white, yellow-eyed daisy flowers from early summer until the first frosts. The leaf is mid green, lobed and divided with slightly serrated edges.
Feverfew leaves contain many different chemicals, including one called parthenolide. Parthenolide or other chemicals decrease factors in the body that might cause migraine headaches. The herb addresses painful, inflammatory conditions in general such as headache, migraine and neuralgia Feverfew is also an important woman’s ally, as a uterine spasmolytic it treats uterus Qi constraint i.e. cramps and painful periods and uterus Qi stagnation i.e. irregular cycles or absent periods
Applications
Fresh leaves: Eat one leaf daily as a prophylactic against migraines
Infusion: Drink a weak infusion (15g herb to 500water) after childbirth to encourage cleansing and tonifying of the uterus. Also for period pain associated with sluggish flow and congestion
Tincture: 5 – 10 drops every 30 minutes at the onset of a migraine; it is best for “cold” – type migraines, involving tightening of the cerebral blood vessels and eased by applying a hot towel to the head.