A HERBALIST’S VIEW : MEADOWSWEET

Meadowsweet is one of the loveliest wild plants in flower during August, the fragrance of its frothy blossoms being reminiscent of the smell of baby powder. It was from this plant, as well as from the bark of willow, that salicylic acid was extracted towards the end of the nineteenth century and used to synthesise acetylsalicylic acid. This was patented by Bayer as Aspirin, the name deriving from Spiraea, the genus to which Meadowsweet was then deemed to belong.

Meadowsweet is still used by herbalists today for its anti-inflammatory properties. Sometimes it will be included in a prescription for patients with rheumatism or arthritis, but these days it is used most frequently in cases of stomach inflammation – gastritis, acid reflux and peptic ulcer. This may be surprising if you remember that aspirin can be irritating to the stomach but herbal medicines are complex mixtures of many compounds which, herbalists believe, can act together more gently and safely than their isolated ingredients. Unlike some of our remedies, Meadowsweet is actually pleasant to take. The dried flowers and leaves can be infused to make a fragrant tea. Sadly, there is not enough growing wild in my part of Suffolk to gather it for medical use and my own garden is too dry to grow it. I must buy in supplies grown in Holland! The plant thrives in damp meadows. A few years ago it was abundant in the willow plantation opposite Holbrook Mill but following a change in ownership, the site is now mown earlier in the year. This seems to have been the last straw for the plant, which was already struggling to compete with nettles in an over-enriched soil. The nettles have won. They lack the aesthetic appeal of meadowsweet but are also of medicinal value. I’ll save them for a future edition.

Caroline Wheeler,

Member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists

Don't forget you can download the whole of each White Admiral as a .zip file.
(Typically under 700 kb)   ~ See the top menu.