Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) · Herb Profile

At a glance

Botanical name: Eupatorium perfoliatum
Family: Asteraceae
Part used: Aerial Parts
Taste: Very bitter, slightly acrid
Temperature: Neutral to slightly cool (cooling diaphoretic)
Moisture: Drying

No pre-1900 source found for this reading.

Safety at a glance

In pregnancy

Avoid (PA concerns and traditional caution)

While breastfeeding

Avoid during breastfeeding — pyrrolizidine alkaloid concerns; acute short-course in mother requires weaning or avoidance.

For children

Older children short-course under guidance only; not for infants

Cautions

Contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) — species and preparation variable; limit to short courses during acute illness; emetic in large doses

General contraindications

Chronic liver disease; prolonged daily use

Stewardship

Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) is cultivated and wild in eastern North America. Stewardship: 'break-bone fever' Eclectic flu remedy — teach the plant's emergence during specific historical infectious disease patterns.

In the traditional record

Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) — used by the Cherokee, Mohegan, and Iroquois for fevers and "break-bone" aches; named for its long-standing reputation in American folk and Eclectic medicine as the foremost diaphoretic for influenza- and dengue-type fevers, and documented extensively in King's American Dispensatory.

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Educational use

The Apothecary is educational and does not constitute medical advice. Nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before changing what you take, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or managing a diagnosed condition.

On our sources

These entries draw on public-domain materia medica, most of it published before 1900, alongside a smaller number of modern reference works. Energetic qualities such as warming, cooling, drying and moistening are a traditional framework for describing how a plant behaves in the body, not a laboratory measurement. Where a period source states one, we cite it. Where none does, and for many North American herbs none exists, the value reflects modern herbal consensus rather than a historical text. When we cannot support a caution with real evidence, we say nothing rather than guess.