Botanical Index No. 398

Evening Primrose

oenothera biennis

Medicinal Actions

Antiaging, Antiaggregant, Antiallergic, Antiatherosclerotic, Antiinflammatory, Antithrombic, Antitumor, Astringent, Depurative, Hypocholesterolemic, Hypotensive, Nutritive, Sedative, diabetic

Primary Conditions Treated

Demulcent Lacrimatory Vasodilator ADD Alcoholism Allergy Alopecia Alzheimer’s Anxiety Arthrosis Asthma Atherosclerosis Boil Bruise Cancer Cardiopathy Cholera Colitis Debility Dementia Dermatosis Diabetes Diarrhea Dysmenorrhea Dyspepsia Dyskinesia Eczema Endometriosis Enterosis Erythema Fibrocystosis Gastrosis Hemorrhoid Hepatosis High Blood Pressure High Cholesterol Hot Flash Hyperactivity Hypercholesterolemia Hyperkinesis Hyperlipidemia IBS Infertility Inflammation Insomnia Itch Laziness Mastosis Menstrual Distress Migraine Multiple Sclerosis Myosis Nephrosis Nervousness Neurodermatosis Neuropathy Numbness Obesity Osteoporosis Pain Pertussis PMS Prostatosis Psoriasis Raynaud’s Syndrome Rheumatism Schizophrenia Sjogren’s Syndrome Stress Stroke Swelling Syndrome-X Tardive Dyskinesia Thrombosis Tumor Xeroderma Wound

General Dosage

250 mg GLA/day; 250 mg oil up to 3 ×/day; 250 mg oil/day/and up; 270–720 mg EPO equivalent to 1–2 g GLA; 6–8 g EPO/day, 1/2 as much for pediatric dose; 2–4 g or 4–8 g EPO/day for atopic eczema; 3–4 g for mastalgia; 3–12 capsules EPO/day; 1 capsule 2 ×/day.

Safety & Contraindications

Contraindications, Interactions, and Side Effects — Class 1. The literature looks reasonably clean. I’ve heard from two separate personal cases of women taking it satisfactorily for PMS, that it caused migraine-like headaches which they did not experience before taking EPO. Anecdotal but credible. As one source of tryptophan, which may convert to cerebral serotonin, it can alter brain levels of serotonin, which is involved in some migraine cases. Colic, headache, and nausea may occur in a small percentage of subjects. CAN reports patients with schizophrenia on phenothiazines may experience mild dyspepsia and/or increased risk of epilepsy. They rather give it a green light for breastfeeding mothers, since both linoleic acid and gamma-linolenic acid are normally in breast milk. The conservative Miller and Murray book says, “No adverse effects of EPO have been reported. Chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity studies of EPO in rats, mice, and dogs revealed no important adverse effects or tumor differences”. The second edition of the Herbal PDR warns that EPO may possibly lower the seizure threshold in patients being treated with drugs that lower the seizure threshold in schizophrenia.

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