Common names | meadowsweet

Scientific name | Spiraea ulmaria

Used part | Flower

Known active compounds | catechin, epicatechin, rutin, spiraeoside

Potential benefits in cosmetics | anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial

Product name | Meadowsweet-APD, Meadowsweet-ANB

Plant Story

Spiraea ulmaria (now the accepted name is Filipendula ulmaria), commonly known as meadowsweet, is a flowering plant native to Europe and Asia. Meadowsweet flowers are small, creamy white-colored with a sweet, pleasant fragrance. Meadowsweet has a long history of traditional and medicinal use. In the Middle Ages, meadowsweet was used as a strewing herb on the floors to provide a pleasant fragrance. In traditional herbal medicine, it was often used to relieve pain, fever, and digestive discomfort. Meadowsweet contains salicin that can be metabolized into the pharmacological active form, salicylic acid. This compound has pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory properties. Meadowsweet was also used to alleviate coughs and bronchitis. The leaves and flowers were used topically for potential skin soothing properties to relieve minor skin irritations, rashes, or insect bites.

Several phenolic compounds were isolated and identified from meadowsweet extracts including gallic acid, catechin, epicatechin, rutin, spiraeoside. The anti-oxidant activities of the methanolic extract of meadowsweet were measured by various radical scavenging assays. It shows strong anti-bacterial and anti-fungal activities against various tested strains. The meadowsweet extract also shows anti-inflammatory activities by inhibition of COX-1 and COX-2 enzyme activities.