Calendula officinalis

01 Identity and provenance

Accepted binomial: Calendula officinalis
Common names: Calendula
Family (APG IV): Asteraceae
Part used: Flower
Verification tier: Tier 2 · Verified Clinical columns reviewed and a source is on record.
Reviewer note (2026 audit): Reference not supplied - claim unverified against primary literature.

02 Constituent chemistry

Chemical class	Marker compound	Synthetic analogue in use
Tri-terpenoids	Faradiol esters Flower	Hydrocortisone

The analogue column is what makes the interaction reasoning tractable: where a constituent has a marketed structural counterpart, the counterpart's interaction profile is the starting hypothesis for the plant.

Looking up structures and physicochemical properties from PubChem…

03 Stated application

Reported activity: Wound healing,
Oral ulcers, Burns
Marketed in: Cream: Boiron calendula cream,
weleda calendula cream
Reported adverse effects: Allergic reactions,
skin rash, contact dermatitis

04 Interaction matrix

Source column, verbatim: Sedatives , Anti-hypertensive drugs, Anti-diabetic drugs
Normalised onto 3 canonical drug classes below.

Curated from the reviewed source

Drug class	Severity	Mechanism type	Provenance	Expected effect
Antidiabetic drugs (insulin, sulfonylureas, biguanides, GLP-1, SGLT2) Endocrine	3Major	PD-additive	curated B	Symptomatic hypoglycaemia, sweating, tremor, confusion; severe events rep…	why ▾
Class mechanism. Hypoglycaemic botanicals act through insulin secretagogue, insulin-sensitising, alpha-glucosidase-inhibiting or glucose-transport routes. Added to a titrated pharmacological regimen the effects summate rather than plateau. Expected Symptomatic hypoglycaemia, sweating, tremor, confusion; severe events reported with insulin and sulfonylureas. Management Increase self-monitoring frequency for 2 weeks after starting or stopping. Anticipate a downward dose adjustment of insulin or sulfonylurea. Onset rapid Evidence B - reviewed clinical column, source pending Matched on “anti-diabetic drugs” Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism
Sedatives, hypnotics and benzodiazepines CNS	3Major	PD-additive	curated B	Excess sedation, psychomotor and driving impairment, falls, respiratory d…	why ▾
Class mechanism. Valepotriate, kavalactone, apigenin, sesquiterpene and alkaloid constituents act at GABA-A, adenosine and histamine sites, summating with prescribed CNS depression. Some also inhibit CYP3A4 and raise benzodiazepine exposure. Expected Excess sedation, psychomotor and driving impairment, falls, respiratory depression when combined with opioids. Management Warn against driving and machine operation. Avoid triple combinations with opioids. Reduce hypnotic dose in older adults. Onset rapid Evidence B - reviewed clinical column, source pending Matched on “sedatives” Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism
Antihypertensives Cardiovascular	2Moderate	PD-additive	curated B	Orthostatic hypotension, dizziness, syncope and falls; or loss of blood-p…	why ▾
Class mechanism. Vasodilator, diuretic, ACE-inhibitory and calcium-antagonist activity in botanical extracts adds to prescribed blood-pressure lowering. A minority (ephedrine-, glycyrrhizin- and caffeine-bearing) act in the opposite direction and antagonise control. Expected Orthostatic hypotension, dizziness, syncope and falls; or loss of blood-pressure control with pressor botanicals. Management Home BP log for 2 weeks after any change. Warn about postural symptoms; review in the elderly and in those on multiple agents. Onset rapid Evidence B - reviewed clinical column, source pending Matched on “anti-hypertensive drugs” Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism

05 Hazard register

The audit recorded no hazard beyond the interaction profile. The controlled-vocabulary field reads not assessed, which means the assessment has not been done rather than that it came back clear.

06 Confusable material

No same-genus or shared-common-name entry in the corpus.

07 Mechanism map

Chemistry sorts to the left, pharmacology to the right. Dashed edges are predicted. Drag nodes, scroll to zoom, export at 3× for a figure.

species

chemical class

marker compound

drug class

expected effect

hazard

08 Open literature

Abstract-scoped query built from this binomial, its common names and its marker compounds, run live against Europe PMC, PubMed and OpenAlex, then ranked locally against an evidence hierarchy.

Checking openFDA spontaneous reports…

09 Isomechanistic neighbours

Species whose interaction profile overlaps this one, ranked by shared severity weight rather than by count — a shared contraindication counts for more than a shared minor signal. Practical use: these are the plants you should not stack with this one, because the mechanisms summate.

Species	Family	Shared classes	Jaccard
Withania somnifera Ashwagandha	Solanaceae	2	0.40
Centella asiatica Mandukaparni	Apiaceae	2	0.20
Withania coagulans Paneer dodi	Solanaceae	2	0.40
Azadirachta indica Neem	Meliaceae	2	0.50
Cinnamomum verum Cinnamon	Lauraceae	2	0.50
Swertia chirayita Chirata	Gentianaceae	2	0.67

10 References and notes

No citation is on record for this entry. That is itself the finding: the audit flagged it, and it is why the entry does not carry an A evidence grade.

Curator notes

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