Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Fumaria officinalis
Pronounced Fumitory: FEW-mih-tor-ee. Fumaria officinalis: few-MAIR-ee-uh oh-fiss-ih-NAH-liss.
Cool and drying: a bitter alterative and gentle amphocholeretic that cools and clears a hot, damp, congested terrain, moving biliary and blood stagnation to settle chronic skin eruptions.
Not recommended. The European Medicines Agency Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products (HMPC) EU herbal monograph (2023) states that safety during pregnancy has not been established and that, in the absence of sufficient data, use during pregnancy is not recommended. Reproductive-toxicity testing has not been performed. Fumitory also carries isoquinoline alkaloids (chiefly protopine), a further reason for caution. Avoid in pregnancy. Source: EMA/HMPC EU herbal monograph on Fumaria officinalis L., herba (2023).
Not recommended. Per the same EMA HMPC EU herbal monograph (2023), safety during lactation has not been established and use during lactation is not recommended in the absence of sufficient data. It is not known whether the alkaloids pass into breast milk. Avoid while nursing. Source: EMA/HMPC EU herbal monograph on Fumaria officinalis L., herba (2023).
Not recommended for self-directed use in the young. The EMA HMPC monograph (2023) does not recommend the powder, dry and liquid extracts, tincture or fresh juice in children and adolescents under 18 years, and does not recommend the herbal tea in children under 12 years, in both cases because use has not been established for lack of adequate data. Reserve any pediatric use to qualified practitioner guidance. Source: EMA/HMPC EU herbal monograph on Fumaria officinalis L., herba (2023).
A gentle, well-tolerated bitter at recommended doses; the EMA HMPC records no known undesirable effects and no reported case of overdose. The cautions center on its bile-stimulating action and its alkaloid content. Because it stimulates bile secretion, it is not recommended in obstruction of the bile duct, cholangitis, liver disease, gallstones and any other biliary disease. Its principal alkaloid protopine is a hypotensive, cardiac-depressant compound, and in animal studies very large doses of the fumitory alkaloids produce drowsiness and, at extremes, central excitation and convulsions, so keep to recommended amounts and avoid high-dose or prolonged use. If digestive or skin symptoms persist beyond about two weeks, or worsen, consult a practitioner. Discontinue on any sign of hypersensitivity.
Hypersensitivity to fumitory. Obstruction of the bile duct, cholangitis, liver disease, gallstones and any other biliary disease, owing to its bile-stimulating action (EMA HMPC 2023). Pregnancy and lactation, where safety has not been established and use is not recommended. Children and adolescents under 18 years for the powder, extracts, tincture and juice, and children under 12 years for the herbal tea, due to lack of adequate data. Avoid high doses and prolonged high-dose use because of the protopine-type isoquinoline alkaloids.
Fumaria officinalis is an abundant, cosmopolitan annual weed of cultivated and disturbed ground across Europe, North Africa and Asia and is naturalized in the Americas. It is in no way at risk, is not listed by United Plant Savers, and is frequently gathered as a common field weed, so wild harvest carries no conservation concern. Gather the flowering aerial parts cleanly from unsprayed ground, well away from agricultural chemicals and roadsides.
Not in the canonical biblical texts; fumitory is a plant of Europe, the Mediterranean basin and western Asia, not of the scriptural flora. It is, however, an old remedy of classical and medieval Mediterranean medicine. It is commonly identified with the kapnos (Greek for 'smoke') described by Dioscorides in De Materia Medica (1st century CE) and praised by Pliny the Elder, both using it as a purifier of the blood and skin and a digestive aid, and it is treated at length by Culpeper (1653), who assigned it to Saturn and used it to 'clarify the blood' and clear the skin. Cited honestly as a herb of the Greco-Roman and European tradition rather than of Scripture.
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