Motherwort

Leonurus cardiaca

Also: Lion's tail, Lion's ear, Throw-wort

CoolingDryingRelaxing

For a racing heart and a mind that won't settle.

A square-stemmed mint with deeply lobed leaves and whorls of small pink flowers set in spiny cups up the stalk. Motherwort cools and slows a heart that pounds with anxiety, settles hot, agitated nerves, and relaxes a tense womb.

Energetics: Cooling, drying, relaxing
Taste: Bitter, acrid, aromatic
Family: Lamiaceae (mint family)
Parts used: Flowering tops

Medicinal uses 8

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Traditional useLab and mechanism studiesClinical studies

Anxiety & stressTLC
Calms anxiety that sits in the chest, with heat, agitation, or a pounding heart.
Heart supportTLC
Steadies palpitations and a skipping, stress-driven heartbeat.
High blood pressureTLC
Helps lower blood pressure in people who run hot and wound up.
Hot flashes & night sweatsTLC
Cools the flushes and night waking of perimenopause, often with sage or linden.
PMS & cycle irritabilityTLC
Eases the irritability and tension of the days before a period.
Menstrual crampsTLC
Relaxes a tight, cramping uterus, especially when anxiety comes along.
Trouble sleepingTLC
For the sleeper who keeps waking through the night, particularly one who runs hot and restless.
Indigestion & bloatingTLC
Its bitterness helps a stomach that knots up with nerves.

Preparations

Tincture in drop doses, cooled tea, and calming heart blends.

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Cautions

Can add to the effect of heart medicines and sedatives; talk with your prescriber.
If your periods run heavy, leave it out in the week before your period.
Palpitations with chest pain, fainting, or breathlessness need medical care right away.

Medication interactions

Practitioner Practitioners are able to see the 3 types of medicine flagged for motherwort, each with the mechanism and what to do. The plain-language cautions above stay open to everyone.

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Pregnancy & breastfeeding

PregnancyAvoid

Motherwort stimulates the uterus and brings on menstruation, so it stays out of pregnancy. Its traditional use after birth belongs with your midwife.

BreastfeedingAvoid

Its effects on the heart and its sedative action could reach a nursing baby, and the research is thin. It waits until after weaning.

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Folklore

Leonurus is Greek for lion's tail, after the shaggy, tapering flower spike, and cardiaca marks its long use for the heart. Nicholas Culpeper wrote in 1652 that no herb did more to drive melancholy vapours from the heart. An old English saying promised that those who drink motherwort will live to be a source of astonishment and grief to waiting heirs. In China its relative yi mu cao, the herb that benefits mothers, has been given after childbirth for centuries.

How to grow

An easy, tough perennial in sun or part shade and almost any soil. It self-sows freely, so cut the flowering tops before the seeds ripen. Wear gloves at harvest, since the dried flower cups are prickly.

In the wild

Native from southeastern Europe to central Asia and naturalized along roadsides, farmyards, fence lines, and waste ground across North America.

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