🧠 Medicinal Plants for Headache
With headache, herbal medicine is more restrained than many guides suggest. Little is well documented; tradition mainly offers peppermint oil applied to temples and neck, and willow bark as the plant relative of acetylsalicylic acid. Sudden, very severe or unfamiliar headaches are a matter for a doctor, not for the tea cupboard.
16 plants from our database are traditionally associated with Headache – each with a profile, active compounds, safety notes and sources. Poisonous and legally controlled species are deliberately left out of this list; they remain reachable through the search and the plant index.
These plants are traditionally used for the listed conditions. Not medical advice — consult a doctor or pharmacist for persistent symptoms.
Traditional daily intake of fresh leaves for migraine prophylaxis — long-term use, rooted in English folk medicine; not for acute attack treatment.
Standardized root extracts (standardized to petasins) reduce the frequency and intensity of migraine attacks in controlled trials.
Decoction of willow bark (standardised to salicin) for low back pain, mild joint complaints and fever — positively assessed by Commission E; the EM…
Infusion of dried herb (1–2 g per cup) for nervousness, sleep disturbances, and tension headaches.
External application of 10 % peppermint oil on forehead and temples for mild tension headache — analgesic effect clinically documented (EMA well-es…
Beechnuts have been used as food since antiquity (40% oil, 23% protein, 22% starch).
Classic spring ornamental for pot and garden: Hyacinthus orientalis has been the most important fragrant bulb ornamental in Europe since the late 1…
In Ayurvedic and Persian folk medicine, coriander seeds are used for palpitations, anxiety and headaches.
Flower infusion for feverish colds and influenza-like illness — Kommission E positive monograph based on natural salicylate compounds.
In Philippine folk medicine, crushed fresh Bowles' mint leaves are used as a compress for mild muscle pain, headaches (applied to the temples), and…
Essential spearmint oil (externally diluted) for headaches, muscle tension and aromatherapy — carvone profile milder than peppermint menthol.
Aromatherapeutically, fresh leaves or the essential oil are used for exhaustion, migraine, insomnia and mild respiratory irritation.
Traditional use for nervousness, weather-related headaches and mild sleep onset issues (Commission E gave a negative monograph due to lack of clini…
Traditional Indigenous and folk use of Thuja leaf pastes and salves in North America: Ojibwe, Algonquian and other First Nations used infusions and…
Dried, yellow sweet clover develops a distinctive scent reminiscent of freshly cut hay — caused by coumarin, which makes up nearly one percent of t…
Its yellow flowers open only in the evening, releasing a delicate scent that draws night-flying pollinators — a display that gives evening primrose…
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