Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Geranium maculatum
Pronounced Cranesbill: KRAYNZ-bil. Wild geranium / Geranium maculatum: jeh-RAY-nee-um mak-yoo-LAY-tum.
Cool and drying: a non-irritating tannin astringent that tightens lax, weeping mucous membranes, stanches passive hemorrhage and chronic diarrhea, and knits raw, ulcerated, or bleeding tissue.
Insufficient reliable data; avoid sustained internal use. Geranium maculatum has no documented uterine-stimulant, emmenagogue, or abortifacient action (it is a mechanical tannin astringent, used traditionally to check rather than to provoke uterine bleeding), so the concern is the absence of formal reproductive-safety studies together with its high tannin load, which can impair maternal iron absorption. Short-term topical use (styptic, wash) and a mouth gargle are low-risk; reserve any internal use for professional supervision. (AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook, 2nd ed.: no reliable pregnancy data for Geranium maculatum; general tannin-astringent caution, Mills and Bone, Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy.)
Insufficient data; short-term use likely low-risk, avoid sustained internal use. No lactation-specific studies exist for Geranium maculatum. As a large, poorly absorbed tannin molecule it is unlikely to reach milk in meaningful amounts, but sustained high-tannin intake can reduce maternal iron absorption. Topical and gargle use is not a concern; keep any internal use brief. (AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook, 2nd ed.; Mills and Bone, Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy, on tannins.)
Traditionally a favored pediatric astringent: King's American Dispensatory singles it out as well adapted to infants for cholera infantum and childhood diarrhea because it is non-irritating and free of nauseous qualities, and a dilute decoction is a classic wash for a child's sore mouth and thrush. Modern guidance: use low doses for short courses only, since high-tannin herbs can impair iron absorption and constipate; do not use it in place of oral rehydration for acute diarrhea, and seek care for a dehydrated or persistently ill child. (AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook, 2nd ed.; NCCIH general guidance on unstudied botanicals in children. The pediatric-use tradition is cited from King's 1898 as tradition, not as a modern safety clearance.)
A high-tannin astringent (historically assayed at about 13 to 17 percent tannin): reserve internal use for short courses, since sustained high-tannin intake can irritate the stomach, promote constipation, and impair the absorption of iron and other minerals. Give at least two hours apart from iron supplements, mineral supplements, and alkaloidal or other oral medications, whose absorption tannins reduce. Best avoided in iron-deficiency anemia, chronic constipation, and frank tissue dryness. Not a substitute for rehydration in acute infectious diarrhea, and not for undiagnosed or brisk bleeding, which needs medical evaluation. Discontinue if it causes nausea or constipation.
Frank tissue dryness, atrophy, and constipation (a drying, binding astringent). Iron-deficiency anemia and malnutrition (tannins impair mineral absorption). Prolonged or high-dose internal use. Concurrent dosing with iron, mineral supplements, thiamine, or alkaloidal and other oral drugs without a two-hour separation. Undiagnosed hemorrhage or acute infectious dysentery, which require medical assessment. Insufficient safety data in pregnancy and lactation: avoid sustained internal use.
Geranium maculatum is a common, widespread native woodland wildflower of eastern North America and is not listed as at-risk by United Plant Savers (unlike its Eclectic neighbors goldenseal and bloodroot). It is not endangered. Root harvest, however, kills the plant, and its slow-spreading clonal colonies are slow to recover, so prefer cultivated root, or harvest the astringent leaf and aerial parts (which regrow) instead of the rhizome where these suffice.
Not named in the canonical biblical texts. Geranium maculatum is a North American woodland native with no Old World or Mediterranean scriptural presence. Its documented tradition is Native American (Cherokee, Iroquois, Chippewa, Meskwaki, and others used the astringent root for diarrhea, sore mouth, and hemorrhage, and as a wash) and Eclectic and Physiomedical American, standardized in King's American Dispensatory (Felter and Lloyd, 1898) and admitted to the United States Pharmacopoeia. The cranesbill of Dioscorides and the European herbals is a different plant (Geranium robertianum and Geranium sanguineum), so classical Mediterranean citations should not be transferred to this American species.
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