Jacobaea vulgaris - Ragwort

Ragwort, Jacobaea vulgaris

Jacobaea vulgaris, syn. Senecio jacobaea, is a very common wild flower in the family Asteraceae that is native to northern Eurasia, usually in dry, open places, and has also been widely distributed as a weed elsewhere.

Common names include ragwort, common ragwort, stinking willie, tansy ragwort, benweed, St. James-wort, stinking nanny/ninny/willy, staggerwort, dog standard, cankerwort, stammerwort, mare's fart and cushag. In the western United States it is generally known as tansy ragwort, or tansy, though its resemblance to the true tansy is superficial.

Uses

burns, sores, cancerous ulcers, eye inflammation, ulcerated mouths, ulcerated throats, internal bruises, wounds, dysmenorrhoea

Parts Used

Fruits, Flowers.

Chemical Composition

Pentacosane (15.7%), heptacosane (13.1%) and nonacosane (8.1%) whereas the essential oil from J. maritima subsp. bicolor was characterised by the presence of hexadecanoic acid (14.6%), caryophyllene oxide (9.3%) and hexahydrofarnesylacetone (6.5%)

Common names

Language	Common name
Kannada
Hindi
Malayalam
Tamil
Telugu
Marathi	NA
Gujarathi	NA
Punjabi	NA
Kashmiri	NA
Sanskrit
English	Ragwort

Properties

Reference: Dravya - Substance, Rasa - Taste, Guna - Qualities, Veerya - Potency, Vipaka - Post-digesion effect, Karma - Pharmacological activity, Prabhava - Therepeutics.

Habit

Perennial herb

Identification

Leaf

Kind	Shape	Feature
Simple	deeply lobed	The leaves of the basal rosette have petioles, cauline (stem) leaves are sessile and both are deeply lobed and alternate

Flower

Type	Size	Color and composition	Stamen	More information
Unisexual	0.8 in. (2 cm) in diameter	Yellow	5-20	Flowering occurs in summer to early fall

Fruit

Type	Size	Mass	Appearance	Seeds	More information
simple	7–10 mm	Fruit are small and have a persistent ring of white hairs (pappus) attached		60,000-70,000	{{{6}}}

List of Ayurvedic medicine in which the herb is used

• Vishatinduka Taila as root juice extract

Mode of Propagation

Seeds, Cuttings.

How to plant/cultivate

Succeeding on all but the poorest soils, this plant is a declared noxious weed in Britain spreading freely by seed

Commonly seen growing in areas

Waste ground, poorest soils.

Photo Gallery

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External Links

• Human Dermatitis After Skin Exposure to Jacobaea vulgaris and Spectrum of Health Hazards Induced by This Plant to Humans and Livestock
• Pyrrolizidine alkaloid variation in shoots and roots of segregating * hybrids Jacobaea vulgaris
• Jacobaea vulgaris on gobotany.newenglandwild.org
• Jacobaea vulgaris on nature gate plants