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Herb library · Herb · Galium aparine

Cleavers

A sticky, climbing hedgerow weed whose hooked bristles cling to clothing. Old herbals gave its cold infusion for the urinary tract and the skin. It has not been studied in people for any use.

Traditional use

Common in Europe and North America. The nineteenth-century American Eclectics gave its cold infusion for urinary complaints and as a cooling drink in fevers, and washed the skin with it for freckles and rashes; Culpeper suggested it, with smallage, in morning pottage. A 2020 laboratory report notes a monograph in the British Herbal Pharmacopeia, folk use on the skin in Europe, Asia and the Americas, and several medicines and food supplements made from Galium on the European market.

Traditional energetics

What studies show

No studies in people of this herb on its own yet. What is known of it comes from the traditions that use it.

  • Insufficient

    Urinary, skin and immune uses: a search of PubMed found no studies of cleavers in people. Laboratory tests of its infusion show antioxidant and immune-cell activity, which says nothing yet about effects in people.

Be careful of

Cautions

  • NoteBecause cleavers has not been studied in people, its side effects and interactions are not known.
  • NoteIt turns up in mixed teas sold for cleansing. One such tea (with burdock, nettle, dandelion and other herbs) was linked to liver injury in a 2022 case report; no single ingredient was identified as the cause.
  • Ask a clinicianTalk with a clinician or pharmacist before using this if you take prescription medicines, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are giving it to a child.

From the old books

What herbals and dispensaries of the past printed. History, in their words.

“In a green state these plants have an unpleasant odor, but are inodorous when dried, with an acidulous, astringent, and bitter taste. Cold or warm water extracts the virtues of the plants; boiling destroys them.”
Harvey Wickes Felter and John Uri Lloyd, King's American Dispensatory (1905), vol. 2, p. 909. See the page of King's American Dispensatory, vol. 2, p. 909 (opens in a new tab) · Read the full passage from King's American Dispensatory, vol. 2, p. 909

Sources

  1. Immunomodulatory activity and phytochemical profile of infusions from cleavers herb (Molecules, 2020) (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  2. Drug-induced liver injury from herbal liver detoxification tea (Case Rep Gastroenterol, 2022) (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  3. PubMed search: Galium aparine or cleavers, studies in people (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026

Reviewed September 25, 2026.