Yarrow: The Wound & Fever Herb

What It Is

Yarrow is a tough, fine-leaved perennial in the daisy family found wild on every continent except Antarctica — meadows, road cuts, old fields, high-altitude grasslands. The species name millefoliummeans "thousand-leaf," for the feathery, deeply divided foliage. The flat-topped clusters of small white (or pale pink) flowers bloom mid-summer.

The genus name Achillea comes from Achilles, who according to Homer used yarrow to staunch the wounds of his soldiers at Troy. Whether or not the story is literal, the use is real and runs unbroken from the Greeks through every European and indigenous American tradition to the present day.

How It Works

Yarrow has one of the longest active-constituent lists in the materia medica: achilleine, sesquiterpene lactones (achillin, leucodin), flavonoids (apigenin, luteolin), volatile oils with chamazulene, and tannins. The clinical breadth comes from this stack.

The apparent paradox — stops bleeding and yet moves stagnant blood — resolves when you realize yarrow is not adding clotting factor or breaking clots. It is restoring normal tone. Where the system is hemorrhaging, it tightens. Where it is stuck, it opens.

Traditional Use

Yarrow has carried more folk names than almost any other Western herb: soldier's woundwort, nosebleed, staunchweed, herb militaris. Every name points to the same two uses — wounds and bleeding.

In the Eclectic tradition (Cook, Felter, Lloyd), yarrow was indicated for:

• •External bleeding — fresh leaf chewed or crushed, packed onto cuts and nosebleeds.
• •Heavy menstrual bleeding (menorrhagia) — tincture or tea, especially with clotting and pelvic congestion.
• •Acute fever with chills — the warming-diaphoretic stage when the person feels cold but the thermometer is rising.
• •The classic flu tea — equal parts yarrow, elderflower, peppermint.
• •Hemorrhoids and varicose veins — internally for tone, topically as compress or sitz bath.
• •Sluggish digestion and poor appetite — bitter action stimulates secretion.
• •Cold extremities and poor peripheral circulation — as a circulatory stimulant.

Matthew Wood treats yarrow as one of the great "master herbs" — adaptable to many tissue states, but always working on the flow of blood and heat through the body.

Dosing Protocol

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