Yellow Melilot
- Melilotus officinalis L.
- Pea family
Common Names
 Hay
flowers
Honey
lotus
Hsun-ts'ao
(Chinese name)
King's
clover
Sweet
clover
Yellow
sweet clover
Parts Usually Used
The flowering plant
Description of Plant(s) and Culture
Yellow melilot is a biennial plant; the slender, branched, hollow
stems, from 1 1/2 to 5 feet high, bear pinnate leaves (clover-like)
with 3 obovate or oblanceolate leaflets, which are finely toothed
and blunt-tipped. Blooming from June to November, the fragrant, light
golden-yellow pea-like flowers grow in axillary racemes. Later, long
crooked pods appear, they contain flat brown seeds. The plant is fragrant
when crushed.
Another variety: White melilot (M. alba), a similar but taller,
white-flowered species, has the same medicinal uses. Biennial, grows
1-9 feet tall, leaves clover-like; leaflets elongate, slightly toothed.
Small white, pea-like flowers in long, tapering spikes, blooms April
to October. Like yellow melilot, it is a very common plant in fields
and waste places over most of North America and in Europe and Asia.
Where Found
Grows along roadsides and in waste places in Eurasia and throughout
North America, except in the far north.
Medicinal Properties
Antispasmodic, diuretic, emollient, expectorant, vulnerary
Biochemical Information
Coumarins in both of these clovers may decrease blood clotting.
Legends, Myths and Stories
The name melilot is derived from the words mel, or honey, and lotus;
meaning honey lotus.
Yellow melilot repels moths. Europeans sew the dried plant into an
herb pillow.
This herb is abundant in the Yangtse region of China. The Chinese
use yellow melilot medicinally, use it in cosmetics, and burn it as
an incense.
Moldy hay causes uncontrollable bleeding in cattle due to coumarins.
Science has developed compounds like warfarin from such coumarins
to prevent blood clotting in rodents.
Uses
Used externally in a salve or as a poultice for swellings, boils,
and similar skin problems, old sores,
wounds, swellings,
milk knots, arthritis, rheumatism.
The decoction used as a wash for wounds, aching muscles, convulsions,
varicose veins, anti-inflammatory,
eyewash. Internally
it is used for colic, stomach
problems, gas, diarrhea,
painful menstruation,
smoked for asthma, and headaches
and chronic bronchitis.
Used as a tea, (take 1 cup 3 times a day), this herb is helpful where
there is weakness of tone of the penis and partial
impotence. A concentrated preparation made from the plant is sometimes
prescribed by doctors as an anti-coagulant to break up blood clots.
Components of this herb may lower
blood pressure but care should be taken, it also lowers blood
clotting.
Formulas or Dosages
Infusion: steep 1 tsp. herb in 1 cup boiling water. Take 1
to 1 1/2 cups per day.
Poultice: put about 1/2 oz. dried plant into a small cloth
bag. Boil briefly in water; let steep a few minutes; then apply as
hot as can be tolerated.
Warning
Do not use with warfarin or other blood-thinning drugs, or with any
blood-clotting problem. See the doctor.
Coumarins in both of these clovers may decrease blood clotting.
Large doses can cause vomiting and other symptoms of poisoning.
Do not use without medical supervision.
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