June 2026

Alkaloids in herbal medicine

• Week 1: Alkaloids in Herbal Medicine
• Week 2: Goldenseal – Herbal Gold At Risk
• Week 3: Coffee – Your Daily Boost
• Week 4: Lobelia – The Optimal Relaxant

Goldenseal is considered to be one of the most at-risk herbs on United Plant Savers’ At-Risk Medicinal Plants.

Goldenseal – Herbal Gold At Risk

Canadensis, the Latin term meaning “of Canada,” points to the plant’s native range, which extends from southeastern Canada into the eastern United States.

Botanical Family: Buttercup (Ranunculaceae)

Part used: Roots

Degree: Goldenseal is considered a 3rd degree remedy. 

1st degree remedies are herbs you can use as food, such as nettle or dandelion leaves. 

2nd degree herbs are spices you can use to season your food. You are not going to use a large amount of them, but you can use them as a tonic daily.

3rd degree herbs are used for strictly medicinal purposes. 

4th degree are low dose botanicals.

Description

Goldenseal is a slow-growing perennial herb that spreads via root like, yellow underground stems (rhizomes). 

Young plants are often single-stemmed. Mature (reproductive-aged) individuals have forked stalks covered with small hairs. Stalks may reach 30 cm (1 foot) in height. 

Leaves grow in alternating pairs. They are shaped like an open hand and are toothed. 

Flowers are single, white, and green on a short flowering stalk rising from the highest leaf. 

Fruits resemble raspberries, containing 10-30 black, shiny, smooth seeds.

Growing 

Goldenseal is a slow growing perennial that is native to the woods of the Eastern United States and Southern Canada, growing in rich, moist, and often alkaline soils in a full-shaded area. 

The seeds of goldenseal take years to propagate, therefore starting propagation from root divisions is highly recommended. 

Goldenseal is recognized as an At-Risk herb by the United Plant Savers due to habitat loss, slow propagation rate, and overharvesting. It is a worthy plant to grow in your garden if you have a full shaded area. When buying goldenseal medicine, make sure it was sustainably harvested.

History and lore

Goldenseal has a long history of use as a medicine and a dye by the Cherokee and Iroquois, who used the  bitter root for digestive complaints,as  a wash for skin and the eyes, whooping cough, pneumonia, and tuberculosis. The bright yellow rhizome was used to dye clothing, baskets, and body paint.

The first settlers in America learned about goldenseal medicine from the Native Americans. 

Samuel Thomson, regarded as the founding father of Physio-medicalism, H. canadensis was a simple bitter, given as a powder in hot water to treat digestive distress and for “correction of the bile” (Thomson, 1835).

In the mid-to-late 19th century, Goldenseal reached the height of its reputation under the care of the Eclectic physicians. They described it as a “mucous membrane tonic” and prescribed it for digestive, respiratory, and immune concerns.

Felter and Lloyd, in King’s American Dispensatory (1898), wrote: 

“It exerts a peculiar influence upon the mucous tissues… imparting tone when relaxed, and restraining undue secretion.”

Energetic architectutre

Taste

Bitter

Energetics

Temperature: Cooling

Fluids: Drying

Tone: Toning

Tissue State

Damp/Relaxation – Goldenseal is  indicated for conditions involving boggy, relaxed mucous membranes, such as chronic catarrh, loose bowels, and excessive vaginal or sinus secretions.

Pharmacology

Alkaloids – For a goldenseal root to be considered potent, it needs to have an alkaloid concentration, comprising no less than 2% hydrastine and 2.5% berberine

Berberine is a yellow compound that inhibits bacterial replication and disrupts bacterial biofilms. At the same time, berberine increases insulin sensitivity, inhibits intestinal secretion, and stimulates bile secretion. 

Hydrastine is a colorless alkaloid that has a drying astringent effect on the mucosa, toning effect on blood vessels, and strong uterine properties that make doldenseal unsafe during pregnancy. 

Canadine  is a pale yellow alkaloid that is found in relatively small amounts in goldenseal (0.5%), that is sedative and antipsychotic.

Flavonoids in goldenseal enhance berberine’s antibacterial activity and act as efflux pump inhibitors. Bacteria use efflux pumps to protect themselves from antimicrobial compounds, whether pharmaceutical or natural. When bacteria sense antimicrobial compounds, they actively pump them out of the cells, leading to antibiotic resistance. 

Organic acids

Sterols, Volatile oil, resin, fatty acids.

Actions

Foundational action

Foundational action are associated with the energetic pattern and can be experienced viscerally in the body.

The foundational action of goldenseal is astringent. It tightens and tones inflamed mucous membranes. It is traditionally used to reduce excess mucus and catarrh in the respiratory, digestive, and reproductive tracts.

Primary actions

Primary actions relate to organs, systems, or tissues.

Anti-infective alteratives – goldenseal helps metabolize bacterial waste products from the extracellular terrain. 

Hepatic – influences liver enzyme inhibiting phase Ⅰ liver detox because it suppresses P450 enzymes, and it protects the liver by reducing cholesterol in the liver. 

Cholagogue and choleretic – increasing the secretion and flow of bile. 

Digestive tonic – promoting the secretion of gastric acid, pepsin, bile, and pancreatic enzymes, and increasing upper GI motility.

Mucosal tonic – tightens and tones leaky mucous membranes.

Emmenagogues – promote menstruation

Secondary actions

Secondary actions imply an end result without specifying energetics or the system affected. 

Anti-microbial – local acting antimicrobial. It primarily acts on the digestive and urinary tracts, where it directly contacts the infected tissue. 

Anti-inflammatory

Anti-septic

Organ affinity

• Mucosa in the digestive and respiratory tract
• Urinary tract
• Skin
• Eyes

Clinical Pattern

Most research on the medicinal uses of goldenseal focuses on the antimicrobial actions of the Isoquinoline alkaloids. Many researchers isolated them, especially berberine from whole plants, and studied their effects in isolation. 

In the 19th century, however, goldenseal was used differently. At the time, herbalists understood goldenseal as a bitter herb that, when used in small doses, stimulates the mucus membranes of the digestive tract, promotes tissue building and rejuvenation, and strengthens the heart and the nervous system. 

It was only when the antimicrobial berberine was discovered that its use in large doses began. 

The Eclectic John William Frye (1909) writes:

“Hydratis is an energetic tonic to the circulatory and mucous structures. It is especially valuable in diseases associated with irritation or debility of the gastric mucus surface.”

Antimicrobial

Berberine and calandine extracted from goldenseal were found to be effective against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. The whole-plant extract

demonstrated equivalent or superior antibacterial activity compared to the individual alkaloids.

Extraction of the aerial parts of goldenseal was shown to inhibit an efflux pump. When the aerial part was combined with berberine from goldenseal, antimicrobial activity was enhanced. The authors speculated that flavonoids from the aerial parts of goldenseal acted as MDR pump inhibitors, while berberine could directly act against the bacteria. 

Isoquinoline alkaloids have a local antimicrobial effect, meaning they must come into direct contact with the affected tissue. Therefore, Goldenseal’s antimicrobial effect is primarily limited to the digestive tract through direct contact, with modest activity in the urinary tract via renal excretion of berberine.

Skin and mouth

Topical use of goldenseal in compresses and poultices can be used for bacterial and fungal skin infections, as well as for skin cancer and ulcers.

In his classic text Back to Eden (1939), Jethro Kloss emphasized the special influence of H. canadensis on mucous membranes and skin, and recommended using a tea as a wash for “open sores, inflammations, eczema, ringworm, and erysipelas.”

Berberine and flavonoids from goldenseal inhibited oral pathogens, Streptococcus mutans and Fusobacterium nucleatum, suggesting that the flavonoids potentiated berberine’s antimicrobial activity. 

Excess damp conditions

Goldenseal has a long history of use for excess damp conditions, characterized by profuse mucus secretion in the digestive and upper respiratory tracts.

Felter in The King’s Dispensatory (1898) gives specific indications:

“Catarrhal states of the mucous membranes unaccompanied by acute inflammation (except in acute purulent otitis media); relaxed tissues, with profuse secretion of thick and tenacious yellowish or greenish-yellow muco-pus; relaxation and ulceration of tissues of mouth and throat; imperfect recovery from diarrhea or dysentery, with mucous discharges and relaxation; aphthae, ulceration, or erosion of mucous surfaces; atonic gastric irritability; irritation of mucous surfaces, with feeble circulation; muscular soreness aggravated by pressure;. passive hemorrhages from the pelvic organs; ice water dyspepsia; skin diseases depending upon gastric wrongs, which also indicate hydrastis.”

The Ecelectics used goldenseal for chronic inflammation, chronic gastritis, and chronic catarrhal conditions in the digestive tract, as well as in the bladder, vagina, uterus, bronchi, and eyes.

In the digestive tract

Thomas Easley suggests that goldenseal can be a trophorestorative herb for the digestive tract in conditions in which the mucosa loses tone and becomes boggy, with traces of mucus in the stool and a low grade infection.

Goldenseal’s trophorestorative action helps restore appropriate regulation; it’s not just drying indiscriminately; instead, it helps the mucosa remember how to self-regulate secretions.

Diarrhea

Cholera, dysentery, and summer diarrhea were common causes of diarrhea in the 19th century. Way before germ theory was established, herbalists used goldenseal for diarrhea.

We now know that stomach bugs don’t damage the gut’s epithelial cells; instead, they are absorbed into the cells, where they initiate a process that causes the cells to secrete water into the lumen, creating the diarrhea soup.

Goldenseal’s effect on the gut cells is multi-dimensional. It acts as an antimicrobial, directly inhibiting pathogenic bacteria, interfering with the binding of pathogens to epithelial cells, and reducing fluid secretion.

By reducing the E.coli load in the gut through these pathways is likely to also reduce the migration of pathogenic bacteria to the urinary tract, thereby helping prevent urinary tract infections.

In the respiratory tract

Alkaloids are naturally bitter. When we ingest them, they are registered in the brain and activate the vagal nerve. A cascade that starts in the brain and travels through the vagus nerve promotes dilation of the bronchial tubes, thinning of mucus, and stimulation of the cough response, which helps eliminate gunk from the lungs.

Recent studies support the use of goldenseal for upper respiratory disorders. In vitro studies show strong inhibition of influenza A growth, as well as of TNF-α, a proinflammatory cytokine, and prostaglandin E2, which are produced in response to a viral infection.

Goldenseal was used as a snuff powder to treat rhinitis and nasal polyps, and is useful in combination with other herbs for a neti pot rinse. It is an effective astringent and disinfectant for pharyngitis and tonsillitis when there is a runny nose and enlarged, mucus filled tonsils.

For cardiovascular conditions

Doctor Finley Ellingwood describes goldenseal’s action on the heart in his book American Materia Medica:

“It stimulates the respiration and circulation, imparting tone and increased power through the heart’s action, increasing arterial tension and capillary blood pressure.”

A 1998 study found that berberine, derived from goldenseal, relaxes arteries by increasing the release of Endothelium Derived Hyperpolarizing Factor (EDHF), a mediator that causes smooth muscle relaxation by hyperpolarizing the cell membrane, making it less excitable, and by upregulating nitric oxide production in arterial endothelium.

Hyperlipidimia

Hepatocytes (liver cells) cover their surface with a dense array of LDL receptors that bind LDL particles. The more functional LDL receptors your liver expresses, the more efficiently LDL gets cleared from circulation. 

The root extract of goldenseal is highly effective at upregulating hepatic LDL receptor expression in hepatic cells and at reducing plasma cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol in hyperlipidemic hamsters, with greater activity than the isolated berberine.

Anti-cancer

Berberrine from goldenseal shows anti-inflammatory and antitumor properties.

A study with people with prostate cancer found that while berberrine significantly inhibited the proliferation of cancer cells, it did not exhibit toxicity to noncancer cells in human prostate epithelial cells. In addition, evidence indicates that berberine induces apoptosis in prostate carcinoma cells. 

Preparation and dosage

Standard decoction: 2-4 ounces, 3 times daily.

Tincture: Dried root 1:5 60%A

Dosage: 10 drops to 2 ml (0.4 tsp) 2-4 times daily

Glycerite : Dried root 1:8

Dosage: 2.5-10 ml (0.5-2 tsp), 2-4 times daily

Capsules: 500-2000mg 2-3 times daily

Powdered goldenseal can be mixed with barberry powder to make a poultice for skin ulcers.

Safety

Goldenseal is a drying herb that disrupts vitamin B absorption, therefore it should not be used as a simple (single herb) for longer than two weeks. In small doses as part of a formula with demulcents, it can be used longer; however, vitamin B should be evaluated.

Avoid in a dry constitution.

Avoid in pregnancy

Goldenseal interferes with the liver’s Phase Ⅰ detoxification pathways, specifically CYP3A4, CYP2D6, and CYP2C9, which metabolize and eliminate some medications. When taken alongside these meds, it might prolong their half life in the body, leading to an increase in dosage beyond the intended dosage. 

Medication herb contradictions

People who use the following medications should avoid goldenseal:

Statins (simvastatin, lovastatin, atorvastatin)

Calcium channel blockers  (amlodipine, diltiazem, verapamil)

Beta blockers (metoprolol, carvedilol, propranolol)

Blood thinner (Warfarin)

HIV antiretrovirals

Antidepressants (fluoxetine, paroxetine, tricyclics)

Antipsychotics (haloperidol, risperidone)

Benzodiazepines  (diazepam, midazolam, alprazolam)

Opioids  (fentanyl, oxycodone, methadone)

Codeine (convert to morphine)

Immunosuppressants  (cyclosporine, tacrolimus)

Macrolide antibiotics  (erythromycin, clarithromycin)

Antifungals , antidepressants , antipsychotics

Estrogens and progesterones (including hormonal contraceptives)

Recipes for Remedies