Despite its common name, Ground Ivy is actually in the mint family. It was historically taken for bronchitis, sore throats, digestive problems, as a diuretic, to help headaches, arthritis, menstrual disorders and topically for skin irritations. This apparent wide variety of healing uses could be due to the antioxidant properties from various phenolic compounds, including rosmarinic, caffeic, and ferulic acids, and flavonoids such as rutin, isoquercetin, genistin, and daidzin, among others!

Ground Ivy flowers in early spring and all through into late summer, and large carpets can be found beneath hedgerows and at the edges of woodland.

Although being widely consumed as a medicine, especially as ‘Gill Tea’ – a decoction sweetened with honey or liquorice taken for coughs and colds, and being used as a bittering agent in beer for hundreds of years – it has largely fallen out of use. This could be due to toxic effects observed in horses and other animals after large consumption, yet despite those concerns, recent studies into the constituents have recommended only to avoid it in Kidney disease, pregnancy and lactation. Ground Ivy tinctures well using the ‘folk method’ of steeping in vodka, and dries well hung in bunches or laid gently on trays in a dehydrator.

Written by Jenny Carden-Porrett