Leonurus cardiaca L. · herb
Evidence tier: traditional
A cardiovascular nervine, traditionally for nervous palpitations, anxious heart symptoms, and uterine cramping.
Motherwort contains iridoid glycosides, flavonoids, labdane diterpenes and phenylpropanoids, which in laboratory work show mild sedative and cardiac effects, including modest calcium channel and beta adrenergic activity that could plausibly slow a racing heart. Plausible is where it stops. No mechanism has been demonstrated to operate in people at the doses taken, and EMA's traditional registration is an explicit acknowledgement that the mechanism is unproven.
Motherwort is a traditional herb with almost no clinical file, and the single most important thing about it is a safety rule, not a benefit. Europe's regulator, the EMA HMPC, registers Leonurus cardiaca herb as a TRADITIONAL herbal medicinal product to relieve symptoms of nervous tension and nervous conditions of the heart such as palpitations, after serious conditions have been excluded by a medical doctor. That registration is granted precisely because there is insufficient evidence from clinical trials: it rests on plausibility and at least 30 years of safe use, not on results. The clinical literature is essentially one study. Shikov and colleagues (2011) gave 1,200 mg daily of a Leonurus oil extract to 50 people with stage 1 and stage 2 hypertension accompanied by anxiety and sleep problems for 28 days and reported improvement in psycho emotional status and blood pressure. It was an open study with no placebo control, in a disease population, and its own authors state they ran it BECAUSE of the lack of clinical data. One uncontrolled study of 50 people is not evidence that a herb works; it is evidence that someone finally looked. There is no adequate controlled trial of motherwort for anxiety, for palpitations, for sleep, for menstrual complaints or for the menopause, which are the uses it is actually sold for. Grade it traditional and say so plainly. The safety rule is the part that must never be softened: EMA states that motherwort medicines MUST NOT be taken during pregnancy, and that they should only be used in adults. The name and the folk reputation as a women's herb pull in exactly the wrong direction here, which is why the contraindication has to lead.
Not established by clinical evidence, because no adequate trial has established one. The single clinical study used 1,200 mg daily of an oil extract for 28 days. EMA registers traditional preparations of the dried flowering herb for ADULTS ONLY, and advises consulting a doctor if symptoms last longer than four weeks or worsen. Follow the specific product's registered posology.
Tincture: 2 to 4 ml three times daily. Tea: 1 tsp herb steeped 10 min, twice daily.
Avoid in pregnancy (uterine stimulant). May increase bleeding risk, caution with anticoagulants.
Pregnancy: avoid
Breastfeeding: avoid
Active compounds: iridoid glycosides, flavonoids, labdane diterpenes, phenylpropanoids, phenolic acids
Remedies using Motherwort · Browse by body system · Check it against what you take
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.