Botany
Erect perennial herbs, smooth or hairy, rarely branching.Stem erect, stout and dark red, about 15 to 60 cm high. Lower leaves ovate or lanceolate, 3.5 to 7 cm long with pointed tip and base prolonged into a petiole. Margins somewhat toothed. Upper leaves small, narrower and entire as to margin.
Flowers: Small and yellow, one to four on short axillary peduncles collected into a long leafy panicle. Involucral bracts narrow and pointed. Ray flowers usually number 8. Inflorescence occurring as heads. Fruits are cylindrical or angled achenes, smooth or somewhat covered with short hairs.

Distribution
In open grassy slopes in thin pine forest at an altitude 1,400 to 2,100 m. Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental in Baguio and Manila.

Parts utilized
· Entire plant.
· Best collected from August to October.
· Rinse, sun-dry, compress or use fresh.

Chemical constituents and characteristics
Minty, bitter tasting, cooling nature.
Considered anthelmintic, antifungal, astringent, decongestants, anti-infectious, diaphoretic, diuretic, antiphlogistic, analgesic.
Contains saponins responsible for antifungal effect; rutin for capillary fragility; phenolic glycosides for antiinflammatory effect.
Commission E reports it as diuretic, mildly antispasmodic and antiphlogistic.
Steam distilled essential oil yielded sixty components with the main constituents: a-pinene, myrcene, ß-pinene, limonene, sabinene and germacrene-D.

Uses
Folkloric
Poisonous snake bites.
Throat swelling and pain, tonsillitis, cough, cold.
Sprains and furuncle infections, sores, carbuncles, bruises.
Dosage: 9 to 30 gms dried material, 30 to 60 gms fresh material in decoction.
Fresh material may be pounded and applied as poultice over afflicted area.
Decoction of tea for vomiting and flatulence.
In China, leaves are officinal, used to dissolve blood and expel flatus. Also used for hemorrhages, wounds, menstrual disorders, cholera, diarrhea. .source
Edible
Tea from decoction of leaves.
Others
Yellow dye obtained from leaves and flowers. source
Recent uses
• Approved by Commission E for irrigation therapy for inflammation of the lower genitourinary tract, urinary calculi and kidney gravel; also as prophylaxis for urinary calculi.
• Hyperuricemic use: 30-minute infusion of one tablespoon of dried plant per cup of water; 3 cups daily.

Studies
• Antineoplastic: Extract study shows S virgaurea exhibited strong cytotoxic activities on various tumor cell lines and showed promise as an antineoplastic medicine with minimal toxicities.

Concerns
:This drug material contains fafonin with anemic effect on the body. Prolonged use in large doses may cause gastrointestinal hemorrhage.
Not to be used for genitourinary therapy in the presence of impairment of cardiac and renal functions.

Availability
Wild-crafted. 
Tea, capsules, supplements in the cybermarket.