Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) comes from Asia Minor and was used in medieval times to treat womens' diseases.  The Greek doctor Dioskuridis and Paracelsus also applied Feverfew to the treatment of fever which might account for the name of this herb: Feverfew, a fever reducer.

Recent research shows however that a much more important use for Feverfew is to be found in the treatment of migraine. Migraine is one of the illnesses most often diagnosed in middle European countries; to this day, its causes are still not fully explained.  It is generally accepted that there is a relationship between migraine and the body's own messenger substances - such as serotonine - which cause changes in the amount of blood flowing through the brain. At first the blood vessels contract and then they dilate abnormally; this causes the typical pains connected with migraine.

The substances making up Feverfew, especially its chief active substance parthenolide, prevent the emission of the messenger substance serotonine, whose presence in the brain is held responsible for the migraine-attack.

Studies in Great Britain showed that 72% of the patients who took Feverfew on a regular basis during two to four months noticed that the number of migraine attacks was considerably reduced.  Where pain did occur, these were less severe and noticeably less frequent.

Feverfew should be taken regularly over a period of at least 4 months, or better still, continuously.