The story of meadowsweet, queen of the meadow, links mead, Cuchulainn, Queen Elizabeth I and the invention of aspirin.
This is the number one herb for treating stomach acid problems, while also benefiting the joints and urinary system. Meadowsweet is effective for fevers and ’flu, diarrhoea, headaches and pain relief generally. It well earns its name ‘herbal aspirin’.
Rosaceae Rose family
Description: A perennial of up to 1 or 1.5 metres tall, with serrated leaves, silvery beneath, and fragrant masses of creamy-white flowers in high summer.
Habitat: Marshes, streams, ditches and moist woodland.
Distribution: Widespread throughout the British Isles.
Related species: There are ten species in the genus worldwide. The dropwort (Filipendula vulgaris) is a related species of chalk and limestone areas.
Parts used: Flowering tops; less often, leaves and roots.
A popular wild plant, fortunately more common now there is less spraying on field edges and hedgerows, meadowsweet has some delightful country names, including queen or lady of the meadow, maid of the mead, bridewort and sweet or new mown hay. But plant historians suggest the origin of the common name is more to do with mead the honey drink than meadows as such. Meadsweet is another old name, and William Turner’s herbal (1568) has ‘medewurte’, a term also used by Chaucer two centuries earlier.
The creamy billows of meadowsweet’s flowers have indeed been used for centuries as a flavouring for mead, wine, beer and syrups, and still make a good choice.
Everybody says the smell is full of summer echoes, but some do find it rather overpowering. Matthew is one of these, and says: ‘I owe a lifelong debt to meadowsweet as this was the very first long word I uttered. At about three years old, according to my mother, when I was saying almost nothing else, out pops this word I’d heard on family walks in the Trent marshes. These days I’m more likely to swear, though, as I get hayfever if I’m too close to the flowers.’
In hedgerow medicine terms, the plant gives much more than it takes. A sacred herb of the Druids, meadowsweet was well known to Celtic communities as a malaria and fever treatment. The legendary hero Cuchulainn was given it to calm his fits of rage and fevers, as recalled in the plant’s Gaelic name, ‘belt of Cuchulainn’.
Use meadowsweet for…
The flowers and tops yield a beneficial herb tea or tincture that is particularly good for an upset stomach and diarrhoea, and the whole plant was a traditional strewing herb of medieval and Tudor times. Charles I’s herbalist, John Parkinson, wrote in 1640:
because both flowers and herbes are of so pleasing a sweete sent, many doe much delight therein, to have it layd in their Chambers, Parlars, &c. and Queene Elizabeth of famous memory, did more desire it then any other sweet herbe to strew her Chambers withall.
Willow has a longer record of use in pain relief, with Hippocrates, ‘the father of medicine’, in the fifth century BC, using powdered willow bark and leaves to control headache and pain generally. But it was research on meadowsweet that led to chemical breakthroughs in the nineteenth century.
These included the identifying of salicylic acid, and culminated in the synthesis and manufacture of it as aspirin. The drug company Bayer patented the name in 1899, basing it on the old Latin name for meadowsweet, Spiraea.
Frothy, creamy flowers, erect reddish stalks, a ditch location: typical meadowsweet in high summer
We now know that, like willow, meadowsweet contains natural salicylate salts. Aspirin itself is synthesised acetylsalicylic acid, which in concentration the stomach finds burning. This means pure aspirin can cause stomach pain and ulcers, but meadowsweet’s balanced combination of organic compounds is soothing for heartburn and hyperacidity, as well as ulcers.
This is not to decry aspirin, for like meadowsweet it offers a wonderful combination of pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory benefits. The plant, however, has a broader range of activity, including gentle astringency. Instead of damaging the stomach, it soothes upset tummies and is a good remedy for children’s diarrhoea.
In terms of acid indigestion, reducing the acid levels in the stomach can assist in lowering such levels in the body overall. This might explain why meadowsweet is so effective in treating joint problems associated with acidity.
It has been used to good effect in dispelling uric and oxalic acid, thereby relieving some of the pain of articular rheumatism and gout. A stronger infusion is taken in such cases. Externally, cloths soaked in meadowsweet tea can also be applied to sore joints and bring extra relief; another soothing external use is for mouth ulcers and bleeding gums.
One other area of benefit is in the positive effect of the plant’s salicylates for treating cystitis and urethritis, as well as breaking down kidney stones and gravel. The strong capacity of the plant to eliminate toxins and uric acid supports this action.
Meadowsweet always brings its analgesic and soothing properties to even the more vigorous aspects of its healing range, and as a relaxant it stops spasm and promotes restorative sleep. And even if you are feeling well, if you have the tea to hand, all you have to do is smell it, and you’ll feel summer’s heat and brightness return.
Harvesting meadowsweet
Pick meadowsweet flowers and leaves on a dry sunny day. Spread them on paper or a screen outside for a while to let all the little black beetles escape, then dry indoors. Once dry, crumble or cut into smaller pieces and store in brown paper bags or in jars, in a cool dark place.
Meadowsweet tea
Use a rounded teaspoonful of the dried meadowsweet per mug of boiling water, and allow to infuse for 5 minutes. It’s best made in a teapot or covered mug to keep the aroma in. Drink a cup before meals if you suffer from acid indigestion or stomach problems, or one to three cups a day for arthritic and rheumatic aches and pains.
Meadowsweet glycerite
Pick meadowsweet flowers on a dry sunny day. Spread them on a cloth outside and let any insects escape, then pack the flowers into a jar large enough to hold them. Make a mix of 60% vegetable glycerine with 40% water (ie for 100ml, you would use 60ml glycerine and 40ml water), and pour this mixture onto the meadowsweet until the jar is full. Stir to release any trapped air bubbles and top up if necessary.
Put the jar on a sunny windowsill, pushing the flowers back under the liquid every few days if necessary, or employ a plastic ‘preserving plunger’ used in jam-making to keep it down. It’s a good idea to put a saucer under your jar, as sometimes the glycerine will ooze out at the top. After two weeks, strain off the liquid, bottle and label it.
Dose: 1 teaspoonful three times a day for stomach problems. A teaspoonful can also just be taken just when it’s needed for heartburn and indigestion, with a second dose after an hour if necessary.
Meadowsweet electuary
For a particularly irritated digestive tract, mix slippery elm powder into your meadowsweet glycerite to make a runny paste or electuary.
Dose: 1 teaspoonful three times a day as needed.
Meadowsweet ghee
This is a lovely warming, pain-relieving rub, which goes on smoothly and smells of summer sweetness. To make the ghee, melt a packet of butter in a small saucepan. Simmer for about 20 minutes, skim off and discard the foam on top, then slowly pour the clear golden liquid into a clean saucepan leaving behind the whitish residue at the bottom. Put 5 or 6 heads of meadowsweet flowers in the ghee and heat gently for about 10 minutes. Strain and pour into jars to set.
