
A few years ago, I bought one Feverfew plant from a garden centre. While that plant is long since dead, it did a great job ensuring a healthy progeny before it expired, with the result that Feverfew pops up all over the place every year, including in other plants’ pots. Since I like the flower and the peppery scent the leaves give off when rubbed, or even brushed against, I leave it do its thing.
Feverfew, whose scientific name is Chrysanthemum parthenium (Bernh.) or Tanacetum parthenium (L.) depending on which book you reference, has been a popular herb in physic gardens for centuries due to its effectiveness as a cure for colic and fever. The name is a corruption of the Latin Febrifuge which means something like “fever chasing”. Mrs. Grieve in her seminal work A Modern Herbal (Penguin Books, 1980; ISBN: 0-14046-440-9) has this to say about its medicinal uses:
As a stimulant it is useful as an emmenagogue. Is also employed in hysterical complaints, nervousness and lowness of spirits, and is a general tonic. The cold infusion is made from 1 oz. of the herb to a pint of boiling water, allowed to cool, and taken frequently in doses of half a teacupful.
A decoction with sugar or honey is said to be good for coughs, wheezing and difficult breathing. The herb, bruised and heated, or fried with a little wine and oil, has been employed as a warm external application for wind and colic.
The full text entry on Feverfew is available on Botanical.com.