Alecost (Costmary)

Tanacetum balsamita L.

Sources

12 listed

Best forChosen for the kitchen and the herb bed. A few young leaves bring a sweet balsam and mint note to salads, soups, stuffings and cakes, and the plant brings centuries of garden history with it, from the ale jug to the prayer book.

Clinical evidence

Traditional

Real World Significance

38Regional historical significance

Breadth 33 Depth 29 Density 33 Convergence 50 Continuity 58

SafetyUse with cautionAs a kitchen herb used sparingly the leaf has a long food history, but its essential oil contains thujone, which can trigger convulsions at high doses and which EU food law and the EMA limit. The oil and concentrated extracts are therefore not for internal use, concentrated forms are best avoided in pregnancy and while breastfeeding, and that places costmary at caution.

Tradition

TEMFolk medicine

Common preparations

Fresh HerbDried HerbTea infusionTea

In short

Summary of findings for quick reference

Alecost, also called costmary, is Tanacetum balsamita, a fragrant perennial of the daisy family native from Turkey across the Caucasus to Iran and grown in European gardens since the Middle Ages. The part used is the large, soft leaf with its scent of balsam and mint. Its names tell its story. Alecost recalls the leaf that flavoured ale before hops, costmary joins the aromatic costus root to the Virgin Mary, and the German Frauenminze and Marienblatt carry the same devotion. It scented houses and linen and became the famous Bible leaf, a bookmark in prayer books. It is a heritage kitchen and garden herb first and a folk remedy second.

Costmary's tradition is wide but thinly documented. Persian pharmacopoeias, the kitchens of central Italy, villages in Serbia and Transylvania and English herbals of the seventeenth century all knew it, mostly as a flavouring and for the stomach. The written trail that can be dated firmly begins in the late Middle Ages, in Hungarian word lists from before 1500, and whether Charlemagne's costum of about 800 means this plant is still debated. The leaf's chemistry is well mapped. Its oil is usually dominated by minty carvone, some plants are rich in thujone, and the leaf carries polyphenols such as chlorogenic and rosmarinic acids.

No European regulator has assessed costmary as a medicinal herb, and modern research consists of laboratory work and a handful of rat studies, with no study in people. What matters most is safety. The essential oil contains thujone, which can trigger convulsions at high doses, and even ordinary plants carry 9 to 16 % alpha-thujone in their oil. Never take the oil internally, keep the herb to kitchen amounts, and avoid concentrated forms in pregnancy and while breastfeeding. Do not confuse it with its relative common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), a poisonous plant.

Clinical evidence ↔ Historical significance

We display two separate evidence categories: clinical evidence from modern trials and historical significance from documented healing tradition. Both are valuable, but they answer different questions.

In every encyclopedia entry we evaluate two distinct categories of evidence. Clinical evidence as used in trials meets a narrower but scientifically essential bar. At the same time, the hundreds of thousands of plant species worldwide have only partially been captured and tested in modern studies.

Alongside the trial picture our researchers compile a comprehensive overview of where and since when a plant has been used across different traditions of natural medicine. When a plant has been used as a medicinal plant in many cultures across many generations, that historical significance deserves to be visible too.

Our position: a truly informative overview emerges only when both categories sit side by side. We communicate transparently what counts as what.

Overview

Alecost, also called costmary, is Tanacetum balsamita, a fragrant perennial of the daisy family (Asteraceae) native from Turkey across the Caucasus to Iran and grown in European gardens since the Middle Ages. The part used is the leaf, large, soft, grey-green and finely toothed, with a sweet scent of balsam and mint. Small yellow button flowers like those of a little tansy follow in summer. Its English names tell its story. Alecost recalls the leaf that flavoured ale until hops took over brewing, and costmary joins costus, an aromatic root of the Orient, to Saint Mary, a link to the Virgin it shares with the German names Frauenminze and Marienblatt.

This is a heritage garden and kitchen herb first and a folk remedy second. Costmary was a fixture of medieval and early modern herb gardens, scenting houses and linen, and it was the famous Bible leaf, a fragrant bookmark in prayer books. Its folk record runs from Persian pharmacopoeias through Serbia and Transylvania to central Italy, mostly as a flavouring and for the stomach. No European regulator has ever assessed it as a medicinal herb, and it has never been tested in people. What deserves attention is its oil. It contains thujone, which can trigger convulsions at high doses, so costmary belongs in the kitchen in small amounts and its essential oil never in the mouth.

History

Costmary came into Europe from the east. Its species name balsamita goes back to the Latin balsamum, balm, and its English name joins costus, an aromatic root traded from the Orient, to Mary. Charlemagne's estate ordinance, the Capitulare de villis of about 800, orders a plant called costum to be grown on the imperial farms. Most historians read it as the imported costus root or as costmary, grown in its place, so the line is a possibility rather than a proof. In the Middle Ages the herb grew in monastery and farm gardens, and Hungarian codices of the period treat it as a plant of the Virgin Mary.

From the Middle Ages into the seventeenth century costmary was one of the most familiar herbs in the gardens of Europe. It flavoured ale until hops took over brewing in the fifteenth century, which left it the name alecost, and its sweet leaves scented houses and linen cupboards and were laid in Bibles as bookmarks. Edmund Spenser put 'fresh Costmarie' into a poem full of garden flowers in 1591, and Nicholas Culpeper, in his herbal of 1653, did not trouble to describe 'Costmary, or Alcost, or Balsam Herb' because it grew in almost every garden. He called it astringent to the stomach and a strengthener of the liver. In France it was herbe Sainte-Marie, in German Frauenminze and Marienblatt, names that dedicate it to the Virgin Mary. Later it became a forgotten plant in much of Europe, surviving as a heritage herb, while it stayed in use from Italy to Iran.

Italy kept the herb closest to the table and the calendar. In central Italy the bitter, minty leaves went into salads, omelettes, vegetable pies and liqueurs, and into the filling of tortelli made for Easter Day. On the eve of St John the leaves were steeped in water with santolina to make a fragrant wash that softened and perfumed the skin, and because 24 June was held to be the best day for the harvest, the plant was also known there as St John's herb. In 1614 the friar Angiolo Marchissi captured its balsamic scent with Ceylon cinnamon, rosemary and mint in a distilled water taken for coughs and colds and to calm the nerves, which became known as Anti-hysteric Water.

In central and eastern Europe the plant belonged to Mary. Hungarian texts from before the sixteenth century call it Bodog anya mentaya, the blessed mother's mint, later Boldogasszony mentája, Our Lady's mint, and alongside these stands the name biblialevél, Bible leaf. In the Csángó and Székely villages of Transylvania, people told researchers that it once grew by every house, and they described a decoction of the herb for wounds, boils and liver complaints. In Bulgaria it goes by the name Kalofer, and a vinegar steeped with its leaves was taken there as a tonic.

Mechanism

Costmary's character lies in its essential oil and in the polyphenols of its leaf. In most plants the oil is dominated by carvone, the molecule that gives spearmint its scent, at roughly half to four fifths of the oil. Studies of the species distinguish four chemotypes, though, named after their main compounds as carvone, camphor, camphor-thujone and camphor-alpha-thujone types. Even Lithuanian carvone-type plants carried 9 to 16 % alpha-thujone, and in some samples beta-thujone made up as much as 84 % of the oil. Alongside the volatile oil the leaf holds a rich set of polyphenols, among them chlorogenic and dicaffeoylquinic acids, rosmarinic acid and flavonoids built on luteolin, apigenin and quercetin, which account for its antioxidant activity in the laboratory.

What the plant might do in the body has so far been studied only in the laboratory and in animals. In test tubes, costmary extracts mop up free radicals and inhibit enzymes such as acetylcholinesterase, tyrosinase and alpha-glucosidase. In an organ bath, the essential oil and its carvone relaxed strips of cattle intestine by blocking calcium channels, a laboratory echo of the herb's old use against stomach cramps. In rats with induced fatty liver or diabetes, a leaf extract lowered blood glucose and blood lipids and raised the activity of antioxidant enzymes. Thujone, by contrast, acts on the brain's GABA-gated chloride channels, the route by which it triggers convulsions at high doses, and that is why the concentrated oil is the part of the plant that calls for care. None of this has been tested in people.

Modern research on costmary is preclinical. No randomised trial or any other study in people has been published, and the literature consists of chemical analyses and laboratory and animal experiments. A detailed 2022 metabolite study (Plants, PMID 36616151) identified more than a hundred compounds in leaf, flower head and root, measured antioxidant and enzyme-inhibiting activity in the test tube, warned about thujone-rich oils and called for studies in living organisms. A 2024 study (Plants, PMID 38931084) started from the herb's use in Transylvanian villages, characterised 92 polyphenols in the aerial parts and showed that apigenin and seven methoxylated flavonoids can pass an artificial membrane, a laboratory model of absorption, with no animal or human testing.

The evidence for any effect comes from rats. Romanian researchers reported in 1991 and 2005 that costmary extracts eased liver damage in rats poisoned with alcohol or carbon tetrachloride. In the best study so far (Plants 2024, PMID 39124206) a Bulgarian group gave rats with induced fatty liver, five animals to a group, a leaf extract for eight weeks. At the higher dose, blood glucose fell by about 20 %, cholesterol by 50 % and triglycerides by 57 %, all statistically significant, and even a single dose of 3000 mg of extract per kg of body weight proved non-toxic. In 2025 the same group saw lower blood glucose and less kidney damage in diabetic rats. The animal findings agree with one another, but they rest on extract doses far beyond any kitchen and establish no benefit in people.

A 2023 review of the whole genus Tanacetum (Frontiers in Pharmacology, PMID 37153781) gathers costmary's folk uses from Italy to Iran and its chemistry, but its chapter on clinical evidence deals only with its cousin feverfew, studied for migraine. For costmary itself, the step from the laboratory and the animal house to people has yet to be taken.

Evidence

4 Outcomes evaluated. Sorted by grade.

Outcome	Class	Grade	Effect	Studies
Culinary and aromatic garden herb useHouseholds and gardens across Europe and western Asia	Traditional	D	Traditional culinary use
Digestive comfort (traditional folk use)Folk tradition (no studies in people)	Traditional	D	Traditional use only
Antioxidant and enzyme-inhibition activityIn vitro (cell-free and cell assays)	Emerging	I	Laboratory findings only
Blood glucose and lipids in rats with fatty liverAnimal model (rats), not humans	Emerging	I	Animal studies only	2 studies

Key studies

The studies that matter.

Animal study · 2024 · 40 participants
Bulgarian pharmacologists gave male rats a high-calorie diet and streptozotocin to induce a fatty liver with raised blood sugar, then fed groups of five a costmary leaf extract for eight weeks. At the higher dose of 300 mg per kg body weight, blood glucose fell by about a fifth, total cholesterol by half and triglycerides by 57 %, all statistically significant, and the liver tissue showed less damage. Even a single dose of 3000 mg per kg proved non-toxic. It is the most careful costmary study so far, but it was done in rats, with extract doses far beyond anything in a dish, and it tells us nothing yet about people.
Mihaylova R, Gevrenova R, Petrova A, Savov Y, Zheleva-Dimitrova D, Balabanova V, Momekov G, Simeonova R. Mihaylova R, Gevrenova R, Petrova A, Savov Y, Zheleva-Dimitrova D, Balabanova V, Momekov G, Simeonova R. Mitigating Effects of Tanacetum balsamita L. on Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Fatty Liver Disease (MAFLD). Plants (Basel). 2024;13(15):2086. doi:10.3390/plants13152086
Laboratory study · 2022
A team from Bulgaria, Turkey and France analysed extracts of costmary leaves, flower heads and roots and found more than 100 compounds, 91 of them reported in the plant for the first time, chiefly caffeoylquinic acids and flavonoids. In test-tube assays the flower heads mopped up free radicals best, the leaves inhibited enzymes that break down acetylcholine as well as tyrosinase, and the roots slowed enzymes that digest starch and fat. These are laboratory results only. The paper's real value is the chemical map it draws, and the authors' own warning that thujone-rich costmary oils call for great care when taken internally.
Gevrenova R, Zengin G, Sinan KI, Zheleva-Dimitrova D, Balabanova V, Kolmayer M, Voynikov Y, Joubert O. Gevrenova R, Zengin G, Sinan KI, Zheleva-Dimitrova D, Balabanova V, Kolmayer M, Voynikov Y, Joubert O. An In-Depth Study of Metabolite Profile and Biological Potential of Tanacetum balsamita L. (Costmary). Plants (Basel). 2022;12(1):22. doi:10.3390/plants12010022
2000
Lithuanian chemists distilled the essential oil from costmary leaves and flowers at several points in one growing season and identified 78 volatile compounds. Carvone, the scent of spearmint, made up 52 to 68 % of the oil, and alpha-thujone 9 to 16 %. The leaves held the most oil, 1.15 %, just before full bloom. The study matters for safety, because it shows that even ordinary carvone-type costmary carries a real share of thujone in its oil, not only the rarer thujone chemotypes.
Bylaite E, Venskutonis R, Roozen JP, Posthumus MA. Bylaite E, Venskutonis R, Roozen JP, Posthumus MA. Composition of essential oil of costmary [Balsamita major (L.) Desf.] at different growth phases. J Agric Food Chem. 2000;48(6):2409-14. doi:10.1021/jf990245z
2012
The European Medicines Agency's herbal committee reviewed the toxicology of thujone, a compound that can trigger convulsions at high doses and occurs in sage, wormwood, tansy and other herbs. It concluded that 3 to 7 mg of thujone a day from a herbal medicine raises no special concern, set 6 mg a day as the limit after allowing for what food already supplies, and asked that use by pregnant women and children be kept to a minimum. It also records severe poisonings in people who swallowed thujone-rich essential oils. Costmary is not named, but this is the yardstick for any concentrated costmary preparation.
European Medicines Agency. Public statement on herbal medicinal products containing thujone Source

Usage

Forms and preparation

Costmary is above all a kitchen and garden herb, and the leaf is the part used. Chop young leaves finely and add them sparingly to salads, soups, stuffings and cakes, where they bring a sweet balsam and mint note. The flavour is strong, lemony and slightly bitter, so a little goes a long way. Dried leaves have long seasoned soups, meats, sausages and cakes, and in central Italy fresh leaves still go into omelettes, vegetable pies, liqueurs and the Easter filling for tortelli. In the past the leaf flavoured ale, and dried leaves scented cupboards and marked the pages of Bibles. For a folk tea, infuse a leaf or two in hot water for a fragrant, mildly bitter drink, the traditional use as a flavouring and for the stomach. There is no standardised medicinal preparation, dose or extract. The concentrated essential oil is a different matter altogether and is not for internal use, because of its thujone. Treat costmary as a heritage kitchen herb to enjoy in small amounts, not as a remedy to dose.

Dosage

There is no official dose for costmary, because no monograph covers it. In the kitchen it is used sparingly, a few finely chopped young leaves, as the flavour is strong. For a folk tea, a leaf or two is infused in hot water. Never take the concentrated essential oil internally, because of its thujone. Keep use occasional and modest, and if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or on regular medicines, avoid concentrated forms and ask your doctor before using the herb more than now and then.

Special populations

Avoid costmary in any concentrated or medicinal form during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Its oil contains thujone, the EMA asks for thujone exposure in pregnant women and children to be kept to a minimum, and folk medicine used the herb to regulate menstruation. There are no safety data for medicinal use in children, so for them too it belongs only in the kitchen. A small amount of leaf in food is a different matter from concentrated extracts or essential oil, which these groups should avoid.

Safety

Safety profile

Costmary is a heritage kitchen and garden herb, and a few leaves used to flavour food are its traditional everyday use. The caution concerns the essential oil and concentrated extracts. The oil contains thujone, which acts on the brain's GABA-gated chloride channels and can trigger convulsions at high doses. Even ordinary carvone-type plants carry 9 to 16 % alpha-thujone in their oil, and in thujone-rich plants it can make up most of it. EU food law caps thujone in drinks and does not allow pure thujone as a flavouring, and the EMA's herbal committee treats about 6 mg a day from medicines as the limit. Never take costmary essential oil internally, and do not use the herb in large, repeated or concentrated medicinal amounts. Because no monograph covers costmary and no study in people exists, there is no official list of contraindications, and this guidance follows from the plant's chemistry and the EMA's position on thujone. Avoid costmary in any concentrated form during pregnancy and breastfeeding, both because of the thujone and because folk medicine used the herb to regulate menstruation. The EMA asks for thujone exposure in pregnant women and children to be kept to a minimum. As a daisy-family plant it can cause allergic reactions in people sensitive to ragweed, mugwort, chamomile, tansy or related plants. Do not confuse it with common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), a poisonous relative. If any unexpected symptom appears, stop and seek advice.

Drug interactions

No interaction studies exist for costmary, and no monograph lists any interactions. The theoretical concern is the thujone in concentrated preparations, which acts on the central nervous system, so avoid concentrated forms alongside medicines that lower the seizure threshold or act on the brain. The EMA considers metabolic interactions with thujone unlikely, because several liver enzymes break it down quickly. Kitchen amounts are a different matter. If you take medicines regularly and want to use costmary more than occasionally, talk to your doctor first.

Contraindications

Pregnancy and breastfeeding: avoid concentrated extracts and the essential oil, because of the thujone and because folk medicine used the herb to regulate menstruation. Known allergy to daisy-family plants (Asteraceae) such as ragweed, mugwort, chamomile, tansy or yarrow. Internal use of the concentrated essential oil: not appropriate, because of thujone neurotoxicity. No official list of contraindications exists, because no monograph covers costmary. These precautions follow from the chemistry of the plant and the EMA's statement on thujone.

Side effects

At kitchen amounts the effects to expect are mainly allergic reactions of the skin or mouth in people sensitive to daisy-family plants, and the sap can irritate the skin on contact. The serious effects belong to thujone from the essential oil, which disturbs the central nervous system and at high enough doses causes convulsions. Severe poisonings after swallowing thujone-rich oils are on record, which is why the concentrated oil is not for internal use. If any adverse reaction occurs, stop and seek advice.

Look-alikes

Botany

Family

Asteraceae

Native regions

Eastern Mediterranean and western Asia (native range), Caucasus and Iran (Azerbaijan provinces, where still widely used), Naturalised and cultivated across Europe as a heritage garden herb

Harvest window

Leaves gathered through the growing season, before and during summer flowering

Habitat

Native from Turkey and Cyprus across the Caucasus to Iran and Iraq, and in the Crimea, on warm, sunny, well-drained ground. Gardeners carried it across Europe and on to North America, where it lingers in old herb gardens and now and then runs wild. It spreads by creeping rhizomes into a broad clump. Costmary is an easy, long-lived perennial for the herb bed. It survives frosts well below minus 20 °C, so Austrian and British winters do not trouble it, and it grows in any light, well-drained soil. Full sun gives the most flowers, a little shade larger, leafier plants, which is what the cook wants. Cut the stems back after flowering. The leaves hold the most essential oil just before full bloom, and in Italy 24 June, St John's Day, was held to be the best day for the harvest. Wear gloves for heavy work, as the sap can irritate sensitive skin.

Identification & foraging

A perennial of the daisy family, usually half a metre to a metre tall in flower, forming a clump of large, soft, oval, finely toothed grey-green leaves that smell sweetly of balsam and mint when rubbed. In summer it carries loose, flat clusters of small yellow button flowers, like a small, pale tansy, sometimes edged with short white rays. The leaf is the part used. Its scent and its large, undivided blade set it apart from the feathery, fern-like leaves of tansy.

Similar plants and look-alikes

Toxic

Common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare)

The closest relative and the most important confusion. Common tansy belongs to the same genus and has similar yellow button flowers, but it is a poisonous plant with a thujone-rich oil and has no place in the kitchen. Tansy has feathery, deeply divided, fern-like leaves and a sharp, pungent smell, while costmary has large, undivided, soft leaves with a sweet balsam and mint scent. Never use wild tansy in place of costmary, and never take tansy oil internally.

Unpleasant

Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium)

Another relative from the same genus, grown in gardens and with its own folk tradition against headaches. Feverfew has smaller, divided, yellow-green leaves, small daisy flowers with white rays and a bitter, strong smell, quite unlike costmary's sweet balsam scent. It is a different plant with different chemistry, so check leaf shape and scent and never use one in place of the other.

FAQs

What part of costmary is used and what does it taste like?

The leaf is the part to use. It is large, soft and grey-green, smells sweetly of balsam and tastes of spearmint and lemon from its carvone, with a bitter, slightly astringent edge. Use it sparingly, as a little goes a long way. The small yellow button flowers look pretty in a vase, but the aroma and the tradition sit in the leaf.

How do I cook with costmary?

Sparingly, and mostly fresh. Chop one or two young leaves finely into a green salad, an omelette, a soup or a stuffing. In central Italy the leaves go into Easter tortelli, vegetable pies and liqueurs, and dried leaves have long seasoned meats, sausages and cakes. The taste is minty, lemony and bitter, so start small. A leaf or two infused in hot water also makes a fragrant tea.

Is costmary approved for any health use?

No. The European Medicines Agency has written no monograph on costmary, and no health claim for it is authorised in the EU. It is a kitchen and garden herb with a long folk-medicine tradition, and none of its traditional uses has yet been tested in people.

Is costmary safe? What about the thujone in it?

As a kitchen herb, used sparingly, the leaf has a long, ordinary food history. The caution is the essential oil. It contains thujone, a compound that can trigger convulsions at high doses. Even ordinary carvone-type plants carry 9 to 16 % alpha-thujone in their oil, and in some thujone-rich plants beta-thujone makes up most of it. The EMA's herbal committee treats about 6 mg of thujone a day from medicines as the limit and wants exposure in pregnancy and childhood kept to a minimum. So never take the essential oil internally and keep the herb to occasional kitchen amounts. In pregnancy and while breastfeeding, avoid it, and above all its concentrated forms.

Why is it called alecost and Bible leaf?

Alecost recalls its use as a flavouring for ale, which faded in the fifteenth century as hops took over brewing. Bible leaf comes from the custom of laying the fragrant leaf in a Bible or prayer book. In villages along the Nagy-Homoród in Transylvania, ethnobotanists recorded old women putting the leaves into their prayer books during Mass to refresh themselves with the scent, and the Hungarian name biblialevél means just that. Costmary itself joins costus, an aromatic root of the Orient, to Mary.

What was costmary traditionally used for?

Mostly as a flavouring and for the stomach. Persian pharmacopoeias used the leaves and flower heads as a tonic and against wind, southern Italians drank an infusion for dyspepsia and as a calming tea, in Serbia a leaf tea was taken for migraine and menopausal complaints, and in Transylvania the herb was boiled for wounds, boils and liver complaints. Its German names Frauenminze and Marienblatt dedicate it to the Virgin Mary, and Hungarian records of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries also name it for menstrual and stomach complaints. These are documented traditions, and none has yet been tested in people.

Can costmary be confused with other daisy-family plants?

Yes. Costmary belongs to the same genus as common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), a poisonous plant with a thujone-rich oil, and the two have been confused. Costmary has large, undivided, balsam-scented leaves, tansy feathery, divided leaves and a sharp smell. As with other daisy-family plants, people allergic to ragweed, mugwort, chamomile or related plants may react to it. Go by leaf and scent, and never use wild-gathered tansy in its place.

Can I grow costmary in my garden?

Easily. Costmary is a hardy perennial that survives frosts well below minus 20 °C and grows in any light, well-drained soil in sun or light shade, with shade giving leafier plants. It spreads by creeping rhizomes into a broad clump, so give it room, and cut it back after flowering. Pick the leaves before full bloom, when they hold the most oil.

References

12 sources.

Bylaite E, Venskutonis R, Roozen JP, Posthumus MA. Bylaite E, Venskutonis R, Roozen JP, Posthumus MA. Composition of essential oil of costmary [Balsamita major (L.) Desf.] at different growth phases. J Agric Food Chem. 2000;48(6):2409-14.. 2000. doi:10.1021/jf990245z
Rusu MA, Tamas M, Puica C, Roman I, Sabadas M. Rusu MA, Tamas M, Puica C, Roman I, Sabadas M. The hepatoprotective action of ten herbal extracts in CCl4 intoxicated liver. Phytother Res. 2005;19(9):744-9.. 2005. doi:10.1002/ptr.1625
Coprean D, Giurgea R, Rusu M, Tamas M. Coprean D, Giurgea R, Rusu M, Tamas M. Hepatoprotector effect of Chrysanthemum balsamita extract in ethanol intoxicated rats. Rev Roum Physiol. 1991;28(1-2):27-9.. 1991. PMID:1817666
Ahmadnejad-Asl-Gavgani M, Maham M, Dalair-Naghadeh B. Ahmadnejad-Asl-Gavgani M, Maham M, Dalair-Naghadeh B. In vitro effects of essential oils of Tanacetum balsamita and carvone on the contractility of bovine ileum smooth muscles. Vet Res Forum. 2022;13(1):29-37.. 2022. doi:10.30466/vrf.2021.521204.3118
Gevrenova R, Zengin G, Sinan KI, Zheleva-Dimitrova D, Balabanova V, Kolmayer M, Voynikov Y, Joubert O. Gevrenova R, Zengin G, Sinan KI, Zheleva-Dimitrova D, Balabanova V, Kolmayer M, Voynikov Y, Joubert O. An In-Depth Study of Metabolite Profile and Biological Potential of Tanacetum balsamita L. (Costmary). Plants (Basel). 2022;12(1):22.. 2022. doi:10.3390/plants12010022
Khatib S, Sobeh M, Faraloni C, Bouissane L. Khatib S, Sobeh M, Faraloni C, Bouissane L. Tanacetum species: Bridging empirical knowledge, phytochemistry, nutritional value, health benefits and clinical evidence. Front Pharmacol. 2023;14:1169629.. 2023. doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1169629
Alberti A, Riethmuller E, Felegyi-Toth CA, Czigle S, Czegenyi D, Filep R, Papp N. Alberti A, Riethmuller E, Felegyi-Toth CA, Czigle S, Czegenyi D, Filep R, Papp N. Phytochemical Investigation of Polyphenols from the Aerial Parts of Tanacetum balsamita Used in Transylvanian Ethnobotany and Parallel Artificial Membrane Permeability Assay. Plants (Basel). 2024;13(12):1652.. 2024. doi:10.3390/plants13121652
Mihaylova R, Gevrenova R, Petrova A, Savov Y, Zheleva-Dimitrova D, Balabanova V, Momekov G, Simeonova R. Mihaylova R, Gevrenova R, Petrova A, Savov Y, Zheleva-Dimitrova D, Balabanova V, Momekov G, Simeonova R. Mitigating Effects of Tanacetum balsamita L. on Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Fatty Liver Disease (MAFLD). Plants (Basel). 2024;13(15):2086.. 2024. doi:10.3390/plants13152086
Simeonova R, Gevrenova R, Marinov L, Savov Y, Zheleva-Dimitrova D. Simeonova R, Gevrenova R, Marinov L, Savov Y, Zheleva-Dimitrova D. Nephroprotective Effects of Tanacetum balsamita Extract on Metabolic-Induced Renal Injury (MIRI) in Rats. Curr Issues Mol Biol. 2025;47(4):293.. 2025. doi:10.3390/cimb47040293
Nicholas Culpeper. The Complete Herbal, Wild Tansy or Silver Weed. Source
Royal Horticultural Society. Royal Horticultural Society. Tanacetum balsamita (costmary), plant details.. Source
European Medicines Agency. Public statement on herbal medicinal products containing thujone. 2012. Source

Legal notice: The depiction of historical significance and traditional use is context within our encyclopedia and not a health claim for any product, not a treatment promise, and not a substitute for medical advice. What may be stated on product labels, product pages, or in advertising is governed by the applicable legal requirements.