Botanical Index No. 647

Male Fern

dryopteris filix-mas

Safety & Contraindications

Class 2a, 2b, 2c, 3. Canadians do not allow its use as a nonmedicinal ingredient for oral use products. In too-large doses, an irritant poison, causing muscular weakness and coma, particularly injurious to eyesight, even causing blindness. Other symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, vertigo, delirium, tremors, convulsion, and cardiac or respiratory failure. Allergenic in some and can be fatally poisonous if misused. It should be used only by prescription from a doctor, and I doubt many doctors will prescribe it. Contraindicated in anemia, cardiopathy, diabetes, hepatosis, and nephrosis.

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