Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium): Traditional Uses & Safety

At a glance

Botanical name: Tanacetum parthenium
Family: Asteraceae
Part used: Leaf, Flower
Taste: Bitter, Pungent
Temperature: Cool
Moisture: Dry

On temperature, Gerard (1633) and Culpeper (1653) read it as warm. The app keeps cool, the modern reading of what the herb does in the body; the old readings are shown here but do not change it.

Safety at a glance

In pregnancy

Avoid — insufficient safety data

While breastfeeding

Contraindicated during breastfeeding — traditional emmenagogue and insufficient safety data.

For children

Avoid under 12

Cautions

Avoid with anticoagulants; Asteraceae allergy; do not stop abruptly (rebound headache)

General contraindications

Contraindicated — strong emmenagogue

Stewardship

Feverfew is cultivated; volunteer-seeds in gardens. Sustainable to grow and harvest. Stewardship: the preventive migraine herb teaches that terrain-work precedes crisis — a long-term kingdom principle.

In the traditional record

Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) — referenced by Dioscorides in De Materia Medica and detailed by John Gerard's Herball (1597) and Nicholas Culpeper as a primary remedy for "all pains in the head"; the name parthenium derives from its traditional use after a fall from the Parthenon in classical antiquity.

Which herbs suit your body?

The same herb can calm one person and wire another. Our free assessment reads your pattern across temperature, moisture and tone, then matches herbs to it.

Take the free assessment Open Feverfew in the Apothecary

Teaching children at home? Eden's Table builds a full herbalism curriculum around plants like this one.

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.