Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Linden is the dried flower of the lime tree, drunk as a mild, sweet-smelling tea. It is a bedtime and cold-season drink across much of Europe. In Portugal it is called tília; in Spain, tila or tilo.
The herb on sale here is mainly large-leaved lime, Tilia platyphyllos. Small-leaved lime and the common hybrid lime are used in the same way. Shop material is often a mix of these.
The flower is picked with its pale, wing-shaped bract, the leaf-like strip attached to the stalk. Both are dried together. The tree is not related to the lime fruit used in cooking.
Folk use was for colds, chills, restlessness and poor sleep. Good human trials are few and small. Long traditional use is not proof that linden works, and it is not proof that it is safe.
No one has shown clearly how linden acts in the body.
The flowers hold a lot of mucilage, a slippery plant gel. It coats the mouth and throat and may ease a dry, tickly cough. This coating idea is reasonable, but it has barely been tested in people.
In animal studies, linden extracts have had mild calming effects. In test-tube work, its flavonoids attach to brain receptors linked with calm and sleep. Whether a cup of weak tea does any of this in a person is unknown.
Hot linden tea makes many people warm and sweaty. Most of that is likely the hot fluid itself. Old herbals called this a sweat-promoting action and used it for fevers.
Lab tests also show antioxidant activity, meaning the extract mops up reactive molecules in a dish. That result is normal for plant teas. It does not tell you anything about health effects in people.
Dried flower tea is by far the most common form.
Loose dried flowers are sold with the pale bract still attached. Supermarket tea bags hold the same material, chopped finer.
Liquid extracts and tinctures are made in alcohol or glycerine. These are stronger by volume than tea.
Linden often appears inside blends for sleep or colds. Chamomile, elderflower and lemon balm are common partners. The amount of linden in such blends is often small.
The flower extract is also used in creams, bath products and baby washes. These are for skin use only.
Linden honey is made by bees working the flowers. It is a food, not a medicine.
Lime blossom scent sold as an essential oil or perfume oil is for fragrance. It is not meant to be swallowed.
Linden tea has been a household drink in Europe for centuries.
Flowers were gathered in early summer and dried for the winter store. Village and monastery herbals listed them for chills, fevers and so-called nervous complaints.
Parents gave the warm tea to restless children at bedtime. In France, Spain and Portugal, an evening tila or tília became an ordinary habit rather than a treatment.
German herbal practice later listed linden flower for colds and coughs. That listing leaned on long use and plausibility, not on strong trial results.
Lime trees were also planted in town squares and churchyards. The flower's reputation grew alongside its place in daily village life.
Get emergency help if you get swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, a spreading rash, or trouble breathing. These point to a serious allergic reaction.
See a doctor within a day or two if a fever lasts more than three days, or goes above 39C. Also go if you have chest pain, breathlessness or you cough up blood.
Book an appointment if a cough lasts more than three weeks. Do the same if poor sleep or anxiety keeps going for more than a few weeks.
Stop the tea and ask a pharmacist if you feel unusually drowsy, dizzy or sick after drinking it.
In the European Union and the United Kingdom, linden flower is sold as an ordinary herbal tea and food. Some products are registered as traditional herbal medicines, a status based on long use rather than trial results. In the United States it is sold as a food tea or dietary supplement.
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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