Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Allium cepa
Pronounced Onion: UHN-yun. Allium cepa: AL-ee-um SEE-puh (also KAY-puh).
Warm, dry, and pungent: a stimulating, dispersing bulb that loosens cold phlegm, moves standing water, rouses a torpid digestion, and draws boggy swellings, while overheating a hot, dry terrain.
On moisture, the old sources disagree: Salmon (1710) reads it as dry; Rajanighantu (c. 15th c.) reads it as moist. The app keeps dry, the modern reading of what the herb does in the body; the old readings are shown here but do not change it.
Culinary amounts are considered safe: onion is an ordinary food eaten throughout pregnancy with no established risk, and it has a long dietary and traditional record. Concentrated medicinal or high-dose supplemental extracts are not well studied in pregnancy, so these should be avoided or used only with professional guidance. Sources: e-lactancia.org (Allium cepa); AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook (2nd ed.), foods and common culinary herbs; NCCIH (general guidance for foods used as medicine).
Compatible with breastfeeding in normal dietary amounts (rated a safe, preferred option by e-lactancia.org). Some constituents such as the flavonol quercetin pass into breast milk, but food-level intake carries low or no risk, and the common belief that maternal onion causes infant colic or feeding refusal is not supported by evidence. Concentrated medicinal doses are not specifically studied in lactation; keep to food amounts unless a clinician advises otherwise. Sources: e-lactancia.org (Allium cepa); AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook (2nd ed.); Brinker, Herb Contraindications and Drug Interactions.
Onion is a normal food for children, and the sugar-or-honey onion-juice cough syrup was a standard domestic remedy for children's coughs (King's American Dispensatory). Two cautions apply: honey-based onion syrup must not be given to infants under one year of age (infant botulism risk from the honey, not the onion), and the acrid juice should not be applied undiluted to a young child's broken or delicate skin. Sources: King's American Dispensatory (1898), Allium Cepa; AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook (2nd ed.); NCCIH.
Raw onion commonly provokes heartburn, reflux, belching, and gas, and is poorly tolerated in dyspepsia, hiatal hernia, and reflux disease; cooking and boiling reduce this. The fructan (FODMAP) fraction can trigger bloating, cramping, and loose stools in irritable-bowel-pattern and FODMAP-sensitive people. Applied undiluted and left on the skin, the acrid juice can cause irritation or a burn, so topical use should be brief and patch-tested. Contact with cut onion can cause occupational contact dermatitis. Onion is toxic to dogs and cats (organosulfur compounds cause Heinz-body hemolytic anemia), so preparations and scraps must be kept away from pets.
Active gastroesophageal reflux, gastritis, or peptic ulcer (raw onion aggravates); known allergy to onion, garlic, or other Allium and Amaryllidaceae species; and, at concentrated medicinal or supplemental doses, the week or two before scheduled surgery because of an antiplatelet effect. Ordinary culinary amounts are a well-tolerated food for most people.
One of the world's most widely cultivated staple vegetable crops, grown on every inhabited continent and in no way wild-at-risk; it does not appear on the United Plant Savers at-risk or to-watch lists. No conservation concern. Prefer locally grown or organic bulbs where possible for freshness and to reduce agrochemical residue.
Numbers 11:5, where the Israelites in the wilderness remember the food of Egypt: 'the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick' (KJV). The onion was a staple and revered food of ancient Egypt; Greek and Roman writers noted the Egyptians' esteem for it, and it remained a common Mediterranean food and household remedy through Dioscorides and Pliny into the herbals of Gerard, Culpeper, and Grieve.
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