Agrimony

Agrimonia eupatoria

Also: Church steeples, Sticklewort, Common agrimony

WarmingDryingTonifying

Tightens leaky tissue from the throat to the bladder.

A downy perennial whose slender spires of small yellow flowers turn into hooked burrs that catch on socks and fur. Agrimony is a gentle astringent and bitter: it tones loose, leaking mucous membranes in the gut, throat, and urinary tract, and stirs a sluggish liver.

Energetics: Warming, drying, toning
Taste: Astringent, bitter, faintly sour and floral
Family: Rosaceae (rose family)
Parts used: Aerial parts in flower

Medicinal uses 7

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Traditional useLab and mechanism studiesClinical studies

Loose bowelsTLC
Tones loose, leaky bowels; one of the gentlest astringents, and suitable for children.
Sore throatTLC
Gargled, it tightens a sore throat and swollen tonsils.
Cuts, scrapes & bleedingTLC
A wash or compress slows bleeding and helps cuts and grazes heal.
Sluggish liver & digestionTLC
A bitter that stirs bile and helps the liver cope with rich, fatty food.
Bladder irritationTLC
Soothes an irritated bladder and nighttime urgency, and tones a leaky one.
Kidney stones & gravelTLC
A traditional remedy for gravel and the low back ache of troubled kidneys.
Acne & breakoutsTLC
Calms boils, breakouts, and other eruptive skin.

Preparations

Tea, gargle, tincture, and washes.

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Cautions

Large amounts can constipate.
Its tannins reduce iron absorption; take iron supplements a couple of hours apart.

Medication interactions

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Pregnancy & breastfeeding

PregnancyTea amounts

Agrimony has no known action on the uterus, and European herbalists have long given it for digestive upsets in pregnancy. Research is limited, so keep to tea amounts.

BreastfeedingTea amounts

Generally considered compatible as tea.

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Folklore

Eupatoria honors Mithridates VI Eupator, the king of Pontus remembered for his antidotes. An old English medical manuscript warns that a sprig laid under a sleeper's head keeps them asleep until someone takes it away. Arquebusade water, distilled with agrimony among other herbs, was dabbed on wounds from early handguns. In the 1930s Edward Bach made agrimony one of his flower remedies, for people who hide their troubles behind a cheerful face.

How to grow

A hardy perennial for sun or light shade and ordinary, well-drained soil, reaching two to three feet. Sow in spring or divide clumps in autumn. Cut the stems when the spires are about half in flower, before the burrs form.

In the wild

Field edges, hedge banks, roadsides, and dry grassland across Europe, western Asia, and North Africa. North America has native agrimonies of its own in thickets and woodland edges.

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