Herb of the Month

Ground Ivy

(Glechoma hederacea; Nepeta glechoma)

Marianne Hughes, with illustration by Hazel Brady

In her book Wintering, Katherine May discusses forms of recovery after difficult times and the essential nature of rest. She observes that trees in winter may appear as skeletons:

but look closely, and every tree is in bud…the tree is waiting. It has everything ready. It is, in fact, the life and soul of the wood. It’s just getting on with it quietly.

This quality of ‘getting on with it quietly’ seems to apply to Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea), too. I was unaware of this herb until I began looking for winter ground cover options for my garden. This evergreen plant provides excellent cover for those shaded areas under shrubs, trees, and hedges. Some describe it as ‘invasive’, but I prefer to see it as useful, unobtrusive, and a carbon sink during winter months. It also has both medicinal and culinary uses, providing welcome relief from winter ailments.

As early as 1640 John Parkinson (15671650)— Royal Herbalist and early luminary of the Society of Apothecaries —was describing an array of medicinal uses for Ground Ivy; from abdominal pain, sciatica, gout, ulcers, cancer, and cystitis, through to sore throats, eye, and ear ailments, particularly tinnitus (Bruton-Seal and Seal, 2014). Grieve (1931) cites Culpeper’s (1653) comments, echoing John Gerard’s (1545-1612), on the virtues of Ground Ivy, and they are worth repeating as they demonstrate the wide array of its medicinal applications:

for all inward wounds, ulcerated lungs and other parts, either by itself or boiled with other like herbs; and being drank, in a short time it easeth all griping pains, windy and choleric humours in the stomach, spleen etc., and helps the yellow jaundice by opening the stoppings of the gall and liver, and melancholy by opening the stoppings of the spleen: the decoction of it in wine drank for some time together procureth ease in sciatica or hip gout: as also the gout in the hands, knees or feet; if you put to the decoction some honey and a little burnt alum, it is excellent to gargle any sore mouth or throat, and to wash sores and ulcers; it speedily heals green wounds, being bruised and bound thereto.

In the 16th century Glechoma hederacea was important in brewing, its common name being ‘alehoof’ (‘hoof’ meaning herb). It improved the flavour and keeping qualities of the beer and rendered it clearer (Grieve, 1931). Eventually, the use of Ground Ivy was superseded by Hops (Humulus lupulus). But our herb was also made into a cough medicine known as ‘gill tea’ (from the French guiller, to ferment), known to have a tonic effect on the bronchial, digestive, and urinary systems (Bown, 2008).

Hope (2015) outlines some of Ground Ivy’s key constituents: amino acids, flavonoids (e.g. rutin, known as Vitamin P— an antioxidant — and isoquercitrin), glycosides, saponin, tannins, terpineol, and rosmarinic acid. He suggests that the astringency of Ground Ivy is due to the rosmarinic acid and tannins, whilst the terpineol is known to be antiseptic, and the flavonoids offer anti-inflammatory actions— both would be wound healing. Patel and Patel (2019) suggest that rutin is ‘one of the best natural antioxidants in the known natural class’. The flavonoid isoquercitrin appears to inhibit a number of stages of inflammation, including granulation tissue formation in chronic arthritis (Pengelly, 2004)— the ‘gout’ referred to by Culpeper.

The importance of Ground Ivy has, perhaps, been overlooked in recent times. Its availability all the year round makes it useful for medicine and also in cooking— our ancestors probably added it to winter stews for Vitamin C.

References

Bown, D. (2008) Encyclopaedia of Herbs, Royal Horticultural Society, Dorling Kindersley: London

Bruton-Seal, J. and Seal, M. (2014) The Herbalist’s Bible: John Parkinson’s Lost Classic Rediscovered, Merlin Unwin, Shropshire

Culpeper, N. (1653) Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, Foulsham and Co, Slough

Grieve, M. (1931/1980) A Modern Herbal. Penguin, London

Hope, C. (2015) ‘Ground Ivy’ (www.permaculture.co.uk, accessed 28.10.21)

May, K. (2021) Wintering: The power of rest and retreat difficult times. Random House: London

Patel, K. and Patel, D.N. (2019) ‘The Beneficial Role of Rutin, A Naturally Occurring Flavonoid in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention: A Systematic Review and Update’, in Bioactive Food as Dietary Interventions for Arthritis and Related Inflammatory Diseases (Second Edition). Academic Press, Amsterdam: 457479

Pengelly, A. (2004) The Constituents of Medicinal Plants: An introduction to the chemistry and therapeutics of herbal medicine. CABI Publishing: Oxford