Feverfew is a cooling, calming reliever. It's also known as Medieval aspirin! This plant is super easy to grow, provides great medicine, and makes us smile with its cute, daisy-like flowers. Here are some of the gifts it will bring you...
Why We Love It
Here are some of the reasons why we love Feverfew...
1) COOLING - Feverfew is the herb you want to reach for when you're feeling hot. It gets its name from its ability to lower fevers.
2) CALMING - Feverfew helps to calm inflammation in the body. It has a special affinity for the lungs, stomach, and liver.
3) RELIEVER - Feverfew has become famous as a headache preventative and reliever. The dosage used in research is eating 2 leaves per day.
How to Grow It
| SUN | FULL OR PART SUN |
| MOISTURE | LOVES MOIST, WELL-DRAINED SOIL |
| GROWING ZONES | USDA 5-9 (Not sure? Find your growing zone here) |
| SIZE | 2-3 feet tall and wide |
| PRO TIP | Feverfew produces a ton of seeds, so if you don't want it to pop up in other parts of your garden, trim off the flower heads before the seed matures. |
How to Harvest and Use It
You can harvest the leaves and flowers of feverfew anytime. For headache treatment and prevention, the dosage used in the first research study was 2 leaves daily.
The leaves and flowers can be made into a tea or tincture. The flowers are a great insect repellant. You can tincture the flowers and use as a bug spray and also as a balm to soothe bug bites.
For those of you who love research, here's a great summary of the medical literature on feverfew's benefits:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3210009/pdf/PRev-5-103.pdf
Here's a great post about feverfew's benefits and dosage from Lesley Tierra: https://planetherbs.com/blogs/lesleys-blog/feverfew-and-chrysanthemum/
Precautions: Don't use during pregnancy. Best not to use while using blood-thinning medications. Those with an allergy to ragweed may have sensitivity to feverfew.