Folk Medicine

Latin name: Spiraea flos, herba3

Usable parts: Everything from the flower to the leaves and the root3

Harvest period: The leaves and flowers from June to August, and the root in spring or autumn.

Constituents: Gaultherin, salicylic acid, essential oil, heliotropin, vanillin, terpenes, tannins, mucilage, flavone glycosides3

Action: Analgesic, diaphoretic, diuretic, haemostatic 3

Application: Meadowsweet serves as a classic anti-flu remedy. Consumed as a tea, it is used at the onset of cold symptoms or when a fever is already in progress. Thanks to its salycil constituent (an ingredient also found in aspirin), it soothes cold and flu symptoms.

Risk of misidentification: Aruncus dioicus

Tips for Domestic Cultivation

The meadowsweet is easily grown just using part of its root. If it is planted in alkaline soil and in damp conditions, you’ll have a highly useful plant for the kitchen.

Home Use / Recipe Idea

Meadowsweet skin lotion3

Pour 250 ml of boiling water over a bunch of flowers and leave to cool. Mix a teaspoon of witch hazel water into the filtered water. Filled into spray bottles, it serves as an excellent astringent.


3 “Die Kräuter in meinem Garten” by Siegrid Hirsch & Felix Grünberger; 22nd Edition; Freya Verlag Gmbh
4 “Schwester Bernardines große Naturapotheke”; 1983 Artia Prague; All rights of the German edition held by Mosaik Verlag GmbH