Contents:
Common Names | Parts Usually Used | Plant(s) & Culture | Where Found | Medicinal Properties | Biochemical Information
Legends, Myths and Stories | Uses | Formulas or Dosages | Warning | Bibliography
Scientific Names
- Viola tricolor L.
- Violaceae
- Violet family
Common Names
- Butterfly flower
- Cull me to you
- Garden violet
- Heart’s-Ease
- Johnny jumper
- Johnny-jump-up
- Love-in-idleness
- Pancies
- Stepmother
- Three faces in a hood
Parts Usually Used
Leaves
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture
The pansy is an annual plant; the soft, angular, hollow stem, 4-12 inches high, bears alternate, ovate to lanceolate, toothed leaves on the lower part of the plant. Stipules are large, leaflike, and strongly divided. The solitary, axillary flowers may be yellow, blue, violet, or two-colored, the flowering time is from March to October.
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Where Found
Widely cultivated as a garden ornamental but is also found wild in fields and meadows, heaths, moors, sunny banks, and along the edges of forests in North America, northern Asia, and Europe.
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Medicinal Properties
Anodyne, demulcent, diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, laxative, vulnerary
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Biochemical Information
Mucilage, salicylic acid, saponins, a flavonic glycoside called violaquercetin
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Legends, Myths and Stories
Although pansy is known as heart’s ease, there is another herb known as heart’s ease or lady’s thumb (Polygonum persicaria L.). Lady’s thumb is of the buckwheat family and has no similarity whatsoever to the pansy.
Legend has it that the flowers, originally white, were turned purple by one of Cupid’s arrows, thus the basal leaves are heart-shaped.
Used medicinally since ancient times; once used in love potions, hence the name of heart’s ease.
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Uses
An infusion of Pansy is useful for skin eruptions, diarrhea, and urinary problems, fevers, mild sedative, blood purifier, asthma, heart palpitations, jaundice, gout, rheumatic problems, arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, dry throat, pleurisy, itch, cough, blemished skin, psoriasis, acne, sebhorrheic skin (scaly) diseases, cradle cap in infants and children, convulsions, epilepsy, sores, ulcers, varicose veins, prevents colds, bedwetting, retinal hemorrhages, tendency to bruise easily, hives, diaper rash, nervous complaints, hysteria, chest congestion, lung inflammations, and cramps in children. The dried and powdered plant can be applied to wounds or made into a salve with honey for external use.
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Formulas or Dosages
Harvest while flowering.
Infusion: steep 1 to 2 tsp. plant in 1/2 cup boiling water. Take 1 cup a day, a mouthful at a time.
Cold extract: soak 2 to 4 tsp. plant in 1 cup cold water for 8 hours. Take 1 cup a day, a mouthful at a time.
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Warning
Contains saponins; may be toxic in larger doses. May induce nausea and vomiting.
Excessive doses or prolonged, continuous use can lead to skin problems.
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Bibliography
American Folk Medicine
The Complete Medicinal Herbal
Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs
Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants
Herbal Gardening, compiled by The Robison York State Herb Garden, Cornell Plantations, Matthaei Botanical Gardens of the University of Michigan, University of California Botanical Garden, Berkeley., Pantheon Books, Knopf Publishing Group, New York, 1994, first edition
The Healing Plants
The Herb Book
The Magic of Herbs
The Nature Doctor: A Manual of Traditional and Complementary Medicine
Planetary Herbology
Webster’s New World Dictionary
The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book)
