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Adonis / Spring Pheasant’s Eye (Adonis vernalis)
Materia Medica
High-risk safety note: Adonis vernalis contains potent cardiac glycosides. Historical medicinal amounts below document old pharmacy practice; they are not home-dosing instructions.
Family: Ranunculaceae
Botanical name: Adonis vernalis L.
Common names: Spring Pheasant’s Eye, Pheasant’s Eye, Spring Adonis, Oxeye, Bird’s Eye, False Hellebore
Parts used: Above-ground herb; whole plant in older Eclectic records; root and herb in some historical pharmacy preparations
Growth habit: Stout-rhizomatous perennial herb
Primary tradition: European, Russian, Eclectic, and historical Western materia medica
Actions & Energetics
Traditional actions: cardiotonic, positive inotrope, pulse-regulating, diuretic, emmenagogue, and historical antiepileptic adjunct.
Older Eclectic and European materia medica describes Adonis as a rapid-acting digitalis-like heart herb used where cardiac action was weak, irregular, or associated with venous congestion and dropsy.
Botanical Description
Adonis vernalis is a low perennial arising from a stout rhizome. Flowering stems are commonly 5–35 cm tall and become somewhat taller in fruit. Basal leaves are reduced to scales, while the stem leaves are densely arranged and one- to several-times pinnately divided into very narrow, threadlike segments.
Flowers are solitary and terminal, usually 4–8 cm across, with 10–20 spreading bright-yellow petals and numerous yellow stamens. The petals lack the dark basal blotch seen in several red-flowered annual Adonis species. The fruiting head is globose to ovoid and composed of numerous hairy achenes.
Name Confusion & Related Species
The common name Pheasant’s Eye is used for more than one Adonis species. Adonis vernalis is the spring-flowering perennial with large yellow flowers and finely divided foliage. Adonis aestivalis and Adonis annua are annual species with red flowers, often carrying a dark basal blotch, and are not interchangeable with A. vernalis.
Traditional Indications
Historical European and Eclectic materia medica records Adonis vernalis for weak or irregular cardiac action, cardiac dropsy, venous congestion, dyspnea associated with weak heart action, chronic albuminuria, renal dropsy, and certain historical cases of endocarditis and heart strain. Russian practice gave the plant a long reputation in dropsical conditions associated with heart or kidney disease.
Preparations & Dosage
Standardized Adonis Herb Powder — Historical European Phytotherapy
Standardized Adonis herb powder was adjusted to a pharmacological activity equivalent to approximately 0.2% cymarin.
- Median daily amount: 0.6 g powdered drug
- Maximum single amount: 1 g
- Maximum daily amount: 3 g
Felter’s Eclectic Dose — Whole Plant
Whole plant: ½–3 grains, approximately 32–194 mg.
Specific Medicine Adonis — Felter
Historical dose: ½–3 drops.
Wyeth Fluid Extract
Historical dose: 1–5 minims, approximately 0.06–0.30 mL.
Historical Tincture of Adonis — Wyeth
The formula used approximately 75 mL fluid extract, 315 mL alcohol, and 90 mL water, mixed and filtered.
Historical dose: 10–20 minims, approximately 0.60–1.25 mL.
Historical Tincture — 1:8
A 1903 Indian materia medica records a 1 in 8 tincture of Adonis vernalis.
Historical dose: 10–30 minims, approximately 0.6–1.8 mL.
Historical Infusion — 1:40
The same historical source records an infusion prepared at 1 part Adonis herb to 40 parts water.
Historical dose: 1–4 fluidrachms, approximately 3.7–14.8 mL.
The source gives the drug-to-water ratio and dose but does not specify one universal steeping time, so no steeping time is invented here.
Children & Adolescents
No safe, established pediatric medicinal dose has been demonstrated. Because the herb contains potent cardiac glycosides with a narrow safety margin, historical adult doses should never be scaled down for children.
Classical Formulations
No standardized classical formulation system comparable to Ayurvedic or Chinese pharmacopoeial formulas is established for Adonis vernalis. Its best-documented preparations are the historical European and Eclectic powders, fluid extracts, tinctures and specific medicines listed above.
Constituents
The pharmacologically important constituents are cardenolide cardiac glycosides. The dried above-ground herb has been reported to contain approximately 0.2–1.0% total cardenolides. Major glycosides include adonitoxin, cymarin (k-strophanthin-α), k-strophanthin-β, and k-strophanthoside. About thirty cardenolides derived from several genins have been identified. Flavone C-glycosides and other flavonoids are also present.
Modern Research
The cardiovascular action of Adonis glycosides is associated with inhibition of cardiac Na+/K+-ATPase, producing the same broad pharmacological class of effect associated with other cardiac glycosides. Historical pharmacological work found digitalis-like and strophanthin-like effects.
Modern systematic clinical trials of single-herb Adonis vernalis are sparse. The modern scientific literature is dominated by phytochemistry, pharmacology, historical therapeutic use, toxicology, and conservation research.
Documented Adverse Effects & Toxicity
Fresh Adonis was described in Eclectic materia medica as irritant and vesicant. Larger doses were recorded as capable of producing vomiting, diarrhea, marked changes in cardiac rhythm and conduction, circulatory collapse, and cardiac paralysis.
Cardiac-glycoside poisoning from this plant class can include nausea, vomiting, abdominal symptoms, weakness, bradycardia or irregular pulse, conduction disturbances, and dangerous arrhythmias. The narrow pharmacological margin is directly related to the cardenolide content.
Interactions & Contraindications
Because Adonis belongs to the cardiac-glycoside drug class, unsupervised use is inappropriate with digoxin or other cardiac-glycoside medicines and is hazardous in people with cardiac conduction or rhythm disorders. Historical Commission E guidance also flags increased effects or toxicity risk with quinidine, calcium, potassium-depleting diuretics, stimulant laxatives, and prolonged glucocorticoid therapy. Potassium deficiency itself increases susceptibility to cardiac-glycoside toxicity.
Felter’s 1922 Eclectic materia medica also specifically cautions against use when gastrointestinal irritation or inflammation is present. This is a specialist-use plant, not a routine self-care herb.
Pregnancy & Breastfeeding
Felter’s 1922 Eclectic materia medica records Adonis as an emmenagogue. Modern human pregnancy and breastfeeding studies are lacking. Given the plant’s potent cardiac-glycoside toxicity and absence of an established safe dose, medicinal use during pregnancy or breastfeeding should not be assumed safe.
Habitat & Cultivation
- Native range: Europe eastward through Siberia and the Caucasus
- Habitats: Dry and semi-dry grasslands, steppe, rocky slopes, open pine and oak woodland, and other sunny temperate habitats
- Light: Full sun
- Soil: Well-drained, often calcareous or sandy soils
- Growth: Long-lived perennial that forms dense clumps from a stout rhizome
- Flowering: Primarily spring
Propagation
Propagation is by fresh seed or division. Fresh seed is commonly sown soon after ripening because germination becomes slow and erratic in stored seed. Germination can extend through prolonged cool periods and may be sparse. Division is carried out in early spring or autumn, although established plants respond poorly to disturbance and divisions can be slow to re-establish.
Harvesting & Drying
The historical drug consists principally of the above-ground herb, collected around flowering and dried. Older pharmacy sources also record root-and-herb preparations. Dried material is stored protected from moisture and identified by species because other Adonis species differ in chemistry and traditional use.
Conservation & Trade
Adonis vernalis is listed in CITES Appendix II. Under current CITES annotation #2, controlled material includes the plant and its covered parts and derivatives, while seeds and pollen and finished products packaged and ready for retail trade are exempt from that annotation. International movement of controlled material remains regulated. The species is not listed as a Federal Noxious Weed in the United States.
Food Use
Adonis vernalis is not a food plant. Its cardiac glycosides make casual ingestion unsafe, and historical medicinal use should not be confused with culinary use.
History & Folklore
The genus name Adonis comes from the Greek myth of Adonis, whose blood was said to give rise to a flower after he was killed by a wild boar. The red-flowered annual Adonis species fit that blood-red legend more closely than the yellow-flowered Adonis vernalis, but the myth became attached broadly to the genus.
Medicinally, A. vernalis became prominent in European and Russian heart medicine during the nineteenth century and entered Eclectic and pharmaceutical literature as a digitalis-like cardiotonic and diuretic.
Materia Medica Summary
Adonis / Spring Pheasant’s Eye (Adonis vernalis) is a stout-rhizomatous perennial containing potent cardenolide cardiac glycosides. Historical doses include ½–3 grains of whole plant, ½–3 drops of Specific Medicine Adonis, 0.06–0.30 mL fluid extract, and 0.60–1.25 mL of the historical Wyeth tincture. Standardized historical European phytotherapy recorded a median daily powdered-herb amount of 0.6 g, with a maximum single amount of 1 g and maximum daily amount of 3 g. Its traditional record centers on weak or irregular cardiac action, dropsy, venous congestion, and dyspnea associated with weak heart action. The same cardenolide chemistry accounts for its documented toxicological importance and its regulated CITES trade status.