Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Prunella vulgaris
Pronounced SELF-heel; Prunella vulgaris = proo-NELL-uh vul-GAIR-iss
Cool, dry, and astringent: it tightens boggy, overheated, weeping tissue, clears liver heat, and knits wounds and swollen glands.
Insufficient reliable data; avoid internal medicinal use. Safety in pregnancy has not been established and no adequate human studies exist. Topical wound or dilute gargle use only under qualified guidance. Source: WebMD / NCCIH consumer safety summary (safety not established); not assigned a specific rating in readily available modern safety references.
Insufficient reliable data; avoid internal medicinal use while breastfeeding. Safety during lactation has not been established. Source: WebMD / NCCIH consumer safety summary.
No established pediatric dosing. Dilute gargles and topical application are traditionally regarded as low risk for older children; internal use in young children lacks modern safety data, so reserve it for qualified guidance. No pediatric safety studies were located.
Cold, bitter, and drying: prolonged internal use may aggravate cold, deficient digestion, causing loose stools or poor appetite. Large doses can cause nausea or diarrhea. Rare mint-family contact dermatitis has been reported. Its blood-pressure- and blood-sugar-lowering activity warrants monitoring in anyone on relevant medication.
Avoid internal medicinal use in pregnancy and lactation (safety not established). Use cautiously in low blood pressure and in cold, deficient digestive states (spleen and stomach deficiency).
Common, widespread, and often weedy across the Northern Hemisphere; not at risk and not on the United Plant Savers list. Easily garden-grown or wildcrafted; harvest flowering spikes sustainably, as it self-seeds readily.
Not named in the canonical biblical texts. A European and East Asian wound herb: its old names Self-Heal, Heal-All, and Woundwort, along with the Doctrine of Signatures, reflect a long folk reputation for closing wounds; in TCM the flowering spike is Xia Ku Cao ('summer-dry herb'), recorded in the Shennong Bencao Jing. Culpeper (1653) placed it under Venus.
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.
Teaching children at home? Eden's Table builds a full herbalism curriculum around plants like this one.
