Herb library · Herb · Leonotis leonurus
Wild dagga (lion's ear)
A tall South African shrub with whorls of orange, tube-shaped flowers, long used for snakebite, coughs, skin complaints and seizures, and smoked for a mild high. It has not been studied in people.
Traditional use
Andrew Smith wrote in 1895 that it was the snakebite remedy of the Mfengu people (the book's "Fingo"), known to their herb doctors for ages, and that the leaves were smoked; its isiXhosa name, umfincafincane, comes, he says, from the birds that sip its nectar. Pappe, writing in Cape Town in 1857, records that the Khoikhoi smoked it in place of tobacco and took a leaf decoction as a strong purge. A 2015 review lists its present-day uses in South Africa as a decoction taken by mouth or put on the skin for hemorrhoids, eczema, rashes, boils, muscle cramps, headache, epilepsy, chest infections, constipation and spider and snake bites, and records that the dried leaves and flowers are smoked for epilepsy.
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
Snakebite, seizures, coughs and skin complaints: no study of wild dagga in people was found. The research is on its chemistry and in animals and cells. A 2015 review notes that leonurine, the psychoactive compound often claimed for it in the popular literature, has never been found in the plant by scientific analysis.
Be careful of
Cautions
- NoteIt is not a substitute for emergency care: a snakebite needs a hospital and antivenom, and a seizure disorder needs a clinician.
- NoteSmoked, the leaves and flowers are reported to give a mild euphoria, weaker than cannabis. Smoking any plant material harms the lungs, and the effects of smoking this plant have not been studied.
- PregnancyPappe (1857) recorded that Khoikhoi healers gave it to bring on menstruation, and that a strong decoction was a purge. Avoid it in pregnancy and while breastfeeding.
- 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.
“Fanciful stories have been propagated about the mode in which this remedy for snake-bite was discovered, but the truth of the matter is, that this is the Fingo remedy, and has been known to the Fingo herb-doctors for ages.”
“It has a peculiar scent and a nauseous taste, and seems to produce narcotic effects if incautiously used. It is employed in the form of decoction in chronic cutaneous eruptions, and may be tried even in cases of leprosy.”
Sources
- "Wild cannabis": a review of the traditional use and phytochemistry of Leonotis leonurus (J Ethnopharmacol, 2015) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- The use and potential abuse of psychoactive plants in southern Africa: an overview of evidence and future potential (Front Pharmacol, 2024) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
Reviewed September 25, 2026.