Yarrow is one of the most versatile medicinal herbs you can work with, used topically to help stop bleeding and speed wound healing, and taken internally as a tea or tincture to support digestion and ease inflammation. The key is knowing which preparation fits your purpose, how to make it correctly, and how to stay safe, especially since yarrow has a dangerous lookalike.
Identifying Yarrow Safely
Before you harvest or buy fresh yarrow, you need to know how to tell it apart from poison hemlock, a deadly plant that inexperienced foragers sometimes confuse with it. The differences are straightforward once you know what to look for.
Yarrow is a short plant, typically topping out at two to three feet. Poison hemlock can reach five to ten feet tall. Yarrow’s leaves are frilly, thin, and fern-like, while hemlock’s leaves are broader, flatter, and shaped like parsley. The stems are the most reliable giveaway: yarrow stems are green, slightly fuzzy, and grooved. Hemlock stems are smooth, hairless, and often marked with purplish-red blotches. Finally, yarrow’s flower clusters are flat-topped but not true umbels, while hemlock flowers branch out from a single point like the ribs of an umbrella.
If you’re not confident in your identification skills, buy dried yarrow from a reputable herb supplier instead of foraging.
Making Yarrow Tea
Tea is the simplest and most common way to use yarrow internally. Use one heaped teaspoon of dried yarrow per cup of boiling water and let it steep for 10 minutes. Strain and drink. Yarrow tea has a bitter, slightly aromatic flavor that some people find pleasant and others find challenging. Adding a bit of honey or blending it with peppermint can make it more palatable.
The bitter taste is actually part of how yarrow works for digestion. Bitter compounds stimulate the release of digestive secretions, which can help with bloating, sluggish digestion, and appetite. If you’re using yarrow for digestive support, drink the tea about 20 to 30 minutes before a meal so those bitter compounds have time to prime your system. One to three cups per day is a standard range for ongoing use.
Making a Yarrow Tincture
A tincture is a concentrated liquid extract that lasts much longer than dried herb and is easy to carry and dose. The process differs slightly depending on whether you’re working with fresh or dried plant material.
For dried yarrow, use alcohol in the 40% to 50% range (80 to 100 proof vodka works well). Pack a clean jar loosely with the dried herb, then pour the alcohol over it until the plant material is fully submerged with about an inch of liquid above. For fresh yarrow, you need higher-proof alcohol, around 70% or above, because the water content of the fresh plant dilutes the final product. The finished tincture needs to be above 20% alcohol to prevent microbial growth and stay shelf-stable.
Seal the jar, label it with the date, and store it in a cool, dark place. Shake it every day or two. After four to six weeks, strain out the plant material through cheesecloth, squeezing out as much liquid as you can. Store the tincture in dark glass dropper bottles. A typical dose is 30 to 60 drops (roughly 1 to 2 dropperfuls) in a small amount of water, taken up to three times daily.
Using Yarrow on Wounds and Skin
Yarrow’s oldest and most well-known use is stopping bleeding from cuts and scrapes. In animal studies, applying yarrow to wounds reduced bleeding time by roughly 30% to 36% compared to untreated controls. The plant contains a mix of essential oils, flavonoids, and other phenolic compounds that appear to work together to promote clotting.
For a quick field application, crush fresh yarrow leaves and flowers and press them directly onto a clean wound. Hold firm pressure. This is a first-aid measure for minor cuts, not a replacement for medical care on serious wounds.
Beyond stopping bleeding, yarrow also supports the longer healing process. In wound-healing studies on animals, a 1% to 2% yarrow essential oil preparation significantly increased wound closure rates compared to untreated wounds. Tissue samples showed higher collagen production, reduced swelling and inflammation, and faster regrowth of skin layers, including the return of normal skin structures by day 14.
Making a Yarrow Skin Rinse or Compress
Brew a strong yarrow tea using two to three teaspoons of dried herb per cup of boiling water, steep for 15 minutes, and strain thoroughly. Once cooled to a comfortable temperature, use it as a wound rinse or soak a clean cloth in the liquid and apply it as a compress. This works well for minor scrapes, insect bites, and inflamed skin. You can also infuse yarrow in a carrier oil (like olive or jojoba) over several weeks to create a topical oil for dry or irritated skin.
Using Yarrow for Fever and Colds
Yarrow has a long tradition as a diaphoretic, meaning it encourages sweating when you drink it as a hot tea during a fever. The idea is to support the body’s natural fever response rather than suppress it. For this purpose, brew a strong cup of yarrow tea, drink it hot, and get under the covers. Many herbalists combine yarrow with elderflower and peppermint for cold and flu support, a classic blend sometimes called “yarrow-elder-peppermint” tea. Use equal parts of each herb, one teaspoon of the blend per cup, steeped for 10 minutes.
Safety and Interactions
Yarrow is generally well tolerated, but it has some important cautions. The most significant involves blood-clotting medications. Consuming yarrow in large amounts can reduce clotting rate, so combining it with blood thinners like aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, or prescription anticoagulants may increase the risk of bruising and bleeding. If you take any medication that affects clotting, avoid yarrow or talk to your pharmacist first.
Yarrow contains trace amounts of thujone, a compound that can stimulate uterine contractions. Animal studies found that even though yarrow didn’t cause miscarriage in rats at very high doses (56 times the human dose), it was associated with reduced fetal weight and increased placental weight. Because no safe threshold has been established, yarrow is contraindicated during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Commercial yarrow preparations sold in many countries are required to be thujone-free for this reason.
People with allergies to plants in the daisy family (ragweed, chamomile, chrysanthemums) may also react to yarrow, since it belongs to the same botanical group. Start with a small amount if you’ve never used it before, and watch for any skin irritation or allergic response.