What is Convallaria majalis?

Convallaria majalis, or lily of the valley, is a homeopathic remedy made from the fresh flowering plant. It is used most often for symptoms people link to the heart. These include a pounding or fluttering heartbeat, puffy ankles, and feeling short of breath.

The plant itself is poisonous. It holds compounds that act on the heart and can slow or upset the beat. Homeopathic makers dilute the plant over and over, so most shop-bought strengths hold little or none of it.

Here is the short verdict. There is a clear record of use in homeopathy, but trials do not show this remedy works better than placebo (a dummy pill). Traditional use is not proof that a remedy works, and no remedy on this page should replace heart care.

How does Convallaria majalis work?

There is no accepted way to explain how this remedy could work, and that is the honest answer.

Homeopathy rests on two ideas. The first is "like cures like": a plant that upsets the heart in large doses is given in tiny amounts for heart symptoms. The second is serial dilution, where the starting plant is diluted again and again and shaken between each step.

At 30C, the usual shop strength, the plant has been diluted so far that essentially none of it is left. Makers say the water keeps some trace of the plant, but chemistry does not support this. In trials, homeopathic pills have not been told apart from placebo.

Low strengths are a different matter. A mother tincture or a 1X to 3X dilution can still hold real plant material, and with this plant that means real risk to the heart.

What forms does Convallaria majalis come in?

You will most often see it as small sugar pills or pellets marked 30C, 200C or 6C. Liquid dilutions in alcohol are also sold. Both are high dilutions that hold no meaningful plant material.

A mother tincture, sometimes written as Q or TM, is the undiluted plant extract. Low X strengths such as 1X and 3X sit close to it. These carry a genuine poisoning risk and should only ever be handled by a qualified prescriber.

The sugar pills are usually made from lactose (milk sugar) or sucrose (cane sugar), which matters if you react to either.

Where it comes from:

Lily of the valley has a long record in European folk medicine, going back to at least the 1500s. It was used for a weak or swollen heart and for dropsy, the old name for fluid build-up in the body.

Russian and Eastern European doctors used plant extracts for heart failure into the twentieth century. Purified convallatoxin was studied as a heart drug, but safer medicines replaced it.

Homeopathy added the remedy in the 1800s through provings, where healthy people took the substance and wrote down what they felt. Those notes, not trials, shaped how it is prescribed today.

What does Convallaria majalis help with?

• Palpitations (a pounding, racing or fluttering heartbeat): This is the classic reason homeopaths reach for the remedy. The picture they describe is a heart that feels too big for the chest, with a beat you can feel in your throat. No human trial supports this use, and a new or lasting fast heartbeat needs a doctor, not a remedy.
• Feeling short of breath on effort: Homeopathic texts list breathlessness that comes on with stairs or walking, easing when you rest. That symptom can point to heart or lung disease. Get it checked first; there is no trial evidence that this remedy helps it.
• Swollen ankles and feet from fluid: Old folk use of the plant was for dropsy, the build-up of fluid in the legs. That use came from the plant's strong effect on the heart, not from the diluted pills. Swelling in both legs should be looked at by a doctor.
• Chest tightness linked to the heart: Some homeopathic prescribers use it for a tight or heavy chest with a slow, heavy beat. There is no trial evidence for this. Chest pain or pressure can be a heart attack, so treat it as an emergency, not a self-care problem.
• Heartbeat changes felt around the menopause: Homeopathic materia medica books link the remedy to fluttering felt during menopause. This rests on provings and case notes only. No published trial has tested it for this.
• A dull ache under the left breast: Traditional homeopathic notes mention a sore, dull feeling under the left breast that moves with the beat. This is a symptom picture used to pick the remedy, not a proven result. Any chest ache that is new or getting worse needs a check-up.

What are the side effects of Convallaria majalis?

• No effects beyond placebo are expected from 30C or higher pills
• Upset stomach in people who react to lactose (milk sugar) in the pellets
• Rare rash or itch, usually from something else in the product
• From the mother tincture or low dilutions: nausea and vomiting
• From the mother tincture or low dilutions: a slow, uneven or racing heartbeat
• From the mother tincture or low dilutions: blurred vision or yellow-tinged vision
• From the mother tincture or low dilutions: headache, confusion or drowsiness
• Skin irritation from handling the fresh plant
• The main harm of all: delay in getting real heart care

Good to know:

High dilutions such as 30C are unlikely to cause direct harm, because there is essentially nothing in them.

The risk sits at the other end. The raw plant and low dilutions hold heart-acting compounds. Poisoning has caused a dangerous heart rhythm, and deaths from eating the plant have been reported.

The most common real harm from any strength is delay. Using this instead of treatment for a heart problem can cost you time you do not have.

How much Convallaria majalis should you take?

• Recommended daily: No dose has been proven to work, because no trial has shown a real effect. In practice, homeopathic makers put directions on the label. A common pattern for a 30C pill is two to three pellets under the tongue, once or twice a day, or as a prescriber directs. Never take the mother tincture or a low dilution such as 1X, 2X or 3X on your own. These can hold enough plant to harm the heart.
• Best time of day: Any time of day. Makers usually suggest keeping the pills about 15 minutes away from food, drink, toothpaste and strong flavours.
• With or without food: Between meals, on a clean mouth. Let the pellets melt under your tongue rather than swallowing them with water.
• Time to effect: No reliable time can be given. Any change you notice is most likely from placebo (a dummy pill), from rest, or from the problem settling on its own.
• How long to take it: Homeopaths usually review after a few days to two weeks. If nothing has changed by then, stop. Do not keep taking it for heart symptoms while you wait for it to work. Waiting with an untreated heart problem is the real danger here.