Red clover

Trifolium pratense

Also: Meadow clover, Purple clover, Bee bread

CoolingDryingRelaxing

A mineral-rich lymph mover for skin and lungs.

A meadow clover with three-part leaves marked by pale chevrons and round, rosy-purple flower heads full of nectar. Red clover nourishes with minerals, keeps lymph moving, calms spasmodic coughs, and clears skin over time.

Energetics: Cooling, drying, relaxing
Taste: Vegetal, sweet, slightly bitter
Family: Fabaceae (pea family)
Parts used: Flowering tops

Medicinal uses 6

The tags sort the evidence behind each use by kind. Members are able to tap a condition to compare every herb for it.

Traditional useLab and mechanism studiesClinical studies

Swollen glandsTLC
Keeps lymph flowing in swollen glands and supports recovery after illness.
Rashes & eczemaTLC
A gentle, long-term skin clearer, a classic in blends for eczema and psoriasis.
Dry coughTLC
Calms a spasmodic, dry, tickly cough.
Depletion & mineral needsTLC
Long overnight infusions add calcium, magnesium, and trace minerals to the diet.
Hot flashes & night sweatsTLC
Red clover isoflavone extracts reduced hot flashes modestly in some trials.
Varicose veins & hemorrhoidsTLC
In tea blends, thins and moves the blood and lymph that pool in varicose veins and hemorrhoids.

Preparations

Overnight mineral infusions, blossom tea, and mineral blends.

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Cautions

Its coumarins may thin the blood; leave it out alongside blood thinners and in the two weeks before surgery or birth.
Leaf-based supplements are concentrated plant estrogens, a different product from blossom tea; talk with your practitioner with any hormone-sensitive condition.

Medication interactions

Practitioner Practitioners are able to see the 2 types of medicine flagged for red clover, each with the mechanism and what to do. The plain-language cautions above stay open to everyone.

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Pregnancy & breastfeeding

PregnancyAvoid

Its plant estrogens and blood-thinning coumarins keep red clover out of pregnancy.

BreastfeedingAvoid

Its plant estrogens could reach a nursing baby. It waits until after weaning.

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Folklore

Red clover is the state flower of Vermont, and a four-leaf clover is the old charm for luck. Its cousin sweet clover, spoiled in damp hay, bled cattle to death on the prairies in the 1920s, a mystery that led chemists to dicoumarol and later to the drug warfarin.

How to grow

A short-lived perennial for sun and average soil that fixes nitrogen, a fine cover crop. Pick fully open, bright blossoms on dry days and dry them quickly out of the sun.

In the wild

Meadows, pastures, roadsides, and lawns across Europe, Asia, and North America.

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