Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Gypsywort is a wild mint-family plant whose dried leaves and flowering tops were used in European folk medicine for an overactive thyroid (a neck gland that sets your body's pace). Today it is sold as tea, tincture and tablets. Its botanical name is Lycopus europaeus, and in French it is lycope d'Europe.
It grows in wet ditches and along stream banks across Europe. Unlike most mints, it has almost no scent. The old name comes from a dark dye once made from the plant.
The honest verdict: human evidence is thin. A few small European studies in mild thyroid overactivity are encouraging but far from proof. Long traditional use is not proof that it works, and it is not proof that it is safe.
Thyroid problems need a doctor's diagnosis and blood tests. Gypsywort is not a stand-in for that.
The proposed action is on the thyroid gland, and most of the evidence for it comes from the laboratory.
In test tubes and in animals, extracts appear to reduce the release of thyroid hormone. They also seem to block the hormone signal from the pituitary gland that tells the thyroid to work. In animal studies they appear to slow the change of T4 into the more active T3 hormone.
The parts thought to do this are oxidised plant acids, which form when the extract meets air. This is why preparation and storage may change what you get.
Whether any of this happens reliably in people, and by how much, has not been settled. Treat the mechanism as a plausible idea, not a fact.
Gypsywort is sold in a few simple forms:
- Dried herb for tea or infusion. - Alcohol tincture or liquid extract, often in drops. - Tablets or capsules of dried extract, common in Germany.
Homeopathic dilutions are sold too. They are a different product. The studies above do not cover them.
Fresh plant juice was used in the past but is rare now.
Gypsywort has a long standing in European folk use, from at least the Middle Ages. Herbalists reached for it for a racing or pounding heart, and for what they called nervous heart complaints.
It was also given for breast pain and tenderness, and for heavy or painful periods. Related North American species were used in much the same way.
In 1986 the German Commission E, a national expert panel, wrote a monograph on it for mild thyroid overactivity with nervous symptoms. That gave it a place in German herbal medicine that it does not hold in most other countries.
See a doctor before you start, not after, if you think your thyroid is the problem.
Stop and contact your doctor if you notice signs that your thyroid has gone too slow:
- Growing tiredness or low mood - Weight gain - Feeling cold all the time - A slow heartbeat (bradycardia) - Dry skin or constipation
Get urgent medical help if you have a fast heartbeat (tachycardia) with fever, confusion, severe shaking or chest pain. These can be signs of a thyroid crisis, which is an emergency.
Also tell any doctor or clinic you are taking it before thyroid tests, scans or surgery.
In Germany and some other EU countries it is sold as a traditional herbal medicine for mild thyroid overactivity. In the UK, the US, Canada and Australia it is sold as a food supplement and is not approved as a drug. Supplement rules do not check that a product works.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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