Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Euonymus atropurpureus
Pronounced Wahoo (WAH-hoo); Euonymus atropurpureus (yoo-ON-ih-mus a-troh-pur-PYUR-ee-us)
Cool, dry, and pointedly bitter: a decisive hepatic stimulant that whips a torpid, bile-bound liver and drains dropsical damp, carrying a digitalis-sharp cardiac edge.
No pre-1900 source found for this reading.
Contraindicated. Rated UNSAFE in pregnancy: a drastic cathartic with cardioactive glycosides and a traditional reputation as a pelvic/uterine stimulant. Avoid entirely. (WebMD/RxList Wahoo monograph drawn from Natural Medicines; general herbal-safety consensus.)
Contraindicated. No reliable lactation data exist; given the cardiac-glycoside and cathartic toxicity, treat as UNSAFE and avoid. (WebMD/RxList; precautionary.)
Contraindicated. The plant is toxic and cardiac-glycoside and cathartic poisoning (severe diarrhea, vomiting, collapse) is a documented risk to which children are especially vulnerable. Do not use. (WebMD/RxList.)
Contains digitalis-like cardioactive glycosides (euonymin and related digitaloids; Bliss 1957 separated seven) alongside a drastic hydragogue-cathartic resin. The therapeutic margin is narrow. Overdose produces violent watery and bloody purging, vomiting, cramping, cold sweat, and cardiac-glycoside toxicity (bradycardia, arrhythmia, visual disturbance). Cathartic fluid and potassium loss potentiate the cardiac toxicity. Not a self-medication herb; practitioner-administered only, starting at the lowest historical dose.
Contraindicated in cardiac disease and arrhythmia; with concurrent digoxin or other cardiac-glycoside therapy; with potassium-depleting diuretics or existing hypokalemia; in dehydration; in acute gastroenteritis, inflammatory bowel disease, diarrhea, or suspected intestinal obstruction; in pregnancy and lactation; in children; and in any debilitated, dry, or depleted state. Avoid long-term or unsupervised use.
Euonymus atropurpureus is a widespread North American native shrub/small tree and is not currently listed by United Plant Savers as at-risk. However, harvesting root bark is destructive and typically kills the plant. Prefer cultivated or ornamentally planted stock (wahoo/burning bush is nursery-grown) and never wild-dig roots. Given its toxicity and narrow legitimate use, demand should stay low.
Not in canonical biblical texts. Euonymus atropurpureus is a North American native (eastern and central United States and Canada), used by Indigenous peoples (eye washes, physic, and gynecologic decoctions) and adopted into 19th-century Eclectic and American medicine; the root bark was official in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia in the 1800s. Its Mediterranean cousin, the European spindle tree Euonymus europaeus, was known to classical writers as a purgative and emetic.
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