Yarrow (Achillea millefolium): Traditional Uses & Safety

At a glance

Botanical name: Achillea millefolium
Family: Asteraceae
Part used: Flower, Leaf
Taste: Bitter, Pungent, Astringent
Temperature: Warm
Moisture: Dry

On temperature, Culpeper (1653) and Salmon (1710) read it as cold. The app keeps warm, the modern reading of what the herb does in the body; the old readings are shown here but do not change it.

Taught in Eden's Table

Sprouts (grades K-2), Week 18

Our homeschool curriculum, one plant a week. Week 1 is free.

Safety at a glance

In pregnancy

Generally safe in low doses

While breastfeeding

Avoid high medicinal doses during breastfeeding — traditional caution; small culinary-medicinal use may be compatible.

For children

Generally safe; classic wound and fever herb

Cautions

Avoid with anticoagulants; Asteraceae allergy; avoid high doses in pregnancy

General contraindications

Culinary safe; avoid high therapeutic doses (emmenagogue)

Stewardship

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is abundant globally; easy to wildcraft from clean ground. Stewardship: 'soldier's woundwort' from the Achilles legend — a plant of warrior-medicine tradition; teach it as a bridge from first aid to systemic medicine.

In the traditional record

Yarrow — Achillea named after Achilles who used it on battle wounds (Homer's Iliad); referenced in Norse and Celtic traditions as a sacred wound herb

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 Yarrow 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.