Herb library · Herb · Inula helenium
Elecampane
A tall yellow-flowered plant whose aromatic, bitter root was a classic cough remedy in Europe and early America. It has not been tested on its own in people; the only trial used it in a mixed cough syrup.
Traditional use
Elecampane is a tall European plant, grown in American gardens, whose thick aromatic root was taken for chronic coughs and chest complaints, for weak digestion, and on the skin. Nineteenth-century American doctors gave it as a syrup, lozenge or decoction and noted that it acted slowly. Its root is rich in inulin, a starch-like sugar first found in this plant in 1804. Today it appears mainly in herbal cough syrups and blends.
Traditional energetics
Galenic (hot or cold, dry or moist)
Hot and dry in the third degree. Culpeper's Complete Herbal (1814), p. 221 (opens in a new tab)
What studies show
- Insufficient
Cough: no studies have tested elecampane alone. A 2021 placebo-controlled trial in 106 children with acute cough found a honey syrup containing elecampane, mallow, plantain and helichrysum extracts reduced cough; the syrup's effect cannot be credited to elecampane.
- Insufficient
Digestion and other traditional uses: no studies in people.
Be careful of
Cautions
- AllergyIt can cause allergic skin reactions: contact dermatitis has been reported from elecampane, including from a massage liniment containing its extract.
- NoteA 2021 case report described acute liver injury in a woman taking an herbal mixture of St. John's wort, elecampane, echinacea, licorice, rosehip and one other plant; the mixture as a whole was blamed, not one herb.
- PregnancyThere is no safety information for pregnancy, breastfeeding or children.
- 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.
“Elecampane should be restudied in reference to its action in catarrhal affections of the respiratory organs, and especially in relation to the kind of cough which is mentioned above.”
Sources
- Efficacy and safety of the syrup "KalobaTUSS®" as a treatment for cough in children: a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- Contact dermatitis due to a massage liniment containing Inula helenium extract (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- [Dermatitis caused by elecampane] (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- [A medicinal liver injury with an immunomodulatory drug of natural origin. Case report] (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
Reviewed September 25, 2026.