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Pelargonium sidoides
A root extract for the days when a cold has already started. It has no authorised EU health claim, but it does have an EMA herbal monograph, and that monograph sets both our dose and the seven-day limit on the one formula that carries it. It also carries a liver warning, which this page gives you in full.
WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY
No authorised claim. Nothing on the register to quote.
Pelargonium has no health claim authorised under Regulation (EU) 432/2012. It is a botanical, and most botanical claims have been on the European Commission's on-hold list since 2010, waiting for EFSA to evaluate them. So there is no wording we can quote for you, and we do not write a sentence that sounds like one.Pelargonium has no health claim authorised under Regulation (EU) 432/2012. Botanical claims have been on hold since 2010, so there is no wording we can quote for you.
We use it in a formula for cold symptoms, and there is no authorised food claim for pelargonium and colds. What it has is an EMA herbal monograph that covers the root for the symptomatic treatment of the common cold, on traditional use only. That is a medicines assessment, not a food claim, and we do not borrow its wording. It is a reason to include it, not a permission to promise anything. Where that formula carries an authorised claim, it comes from the vitamin C, zinc and vitamin D3 next to it, not from the pelargonium.
WHY EPs 7630
One named extract, from the root.
Pelargonium sidoides is a South African geranium, also sold as Umckaloabo. We use its root, made into a standardised extract called EPs 7630, which is the form our EU regulatory file requires. Our file lists its main compounds as coumarins, umckalin and scopoletin, and oligomeric proanthocyanidins. It also records how it is thought to work: it prompts immune cells to release interferon-β and nitric oxide, makes it harder for bacteria to stick to the lining of the airways, and speeds up the tiny hairs that clear mucus. A mechanism is not a claim, and we do not use it as one.
The root of Pelargonium sidoides, also known as Umckaloabo or black geranium root extract, made into the standardised extract EPs 7630. No allergens from the EU list of fourteen are on file for it, and no dietary restrictions.
The current EMA monograph, Revision 2 of 2022, covers the root for common cold symptoms on traditional use only; the earlier well-established use was withdrawn. For adults it gives 20 mg of dry extract three times a day, 60 mg a day.
Soluble in water and neutral in taste, and a concentrated form exists that takes a third of the volume. Our file also marks it as not stable in a liquid, and our system is a liquid. That question is still open.
Our file on pelargonium is still a short one, and the deeper research is marked as pending. Two things in it do not line up yet. An older note ties the monograph to acute bronchitis and well-established use, while the current revision covers the common cold on traditional use only; we follow the current revision. And the monograph splits the 60 mg into three doses a day, while our device splits it into two.Our file on pelargonium is still a short one. We follow the current monograph, which covers cold symptoms on traditional use only, and it splits the dose into three a day where our device splits it into two.
WHERE IT APPEARS
One of the twenty-nine carries pelargonium.
It is in Cold symptom support, a BOOST formula for the days when a cold has already started, shared between your morning and night slots, with food where possible. It is the ingredient that sets the length of that course: the monograph says to see a doctor if symptoms last longer than a week, so the formula never runs more than seven days in a row.
THE CEILING
No upper limit has been set.
EFSA has not set a tolerable upper intake level for pelargonium, so there is no official ceiling to draw here. The EMA monograph gives a daily dose, 60 mg of dry extract for adults, not a limit. Our file uses that dose as the reference, and the one formula carrying it sits exactly on it. No limit is not the same as no risk: the monograph records cases of liver injury, and it sends you to a doctor after a week.EFSA has not set an upper limit for pelargonium. The EMA monograph gives a dose, 60 mg a day, not a limit, and our one formula sits exactly on it.
The formula carrying it runs as a course of up to seven days in a row. If your symptoms last longer than a week, the monograph says to see a doctor, and our notes add why: to rule out a bacterial complication or an infection that is hanging on. A new course can start with a new cold; no fixed break between courses and no yearly limit are documented.
Cases of liver injury and hepatitis have been reported with pelargonium. Our file describes them as rare, individual reactions. Stop it immediately at any sign of liver trouble.
Not in pregnancy or breastfeeding, and not for children under 1, as our file takes from the EMA. If you take an anticoagulant, ask a healthcare professional first. The formula carrying it is also not suggested with an autoimmune condition or immunosuppression, or with a vitamin K antagonist anticoagulant such as warfarin, a rule that comes from its vitamin C. Do not exceed the recommended daily dose, do not use it as a substitute for a varied and balanced diet, and keep it out of reach of young children.
WHAT IT REACTS WITH
No documented pairs yet. One flag.
Pelargonium is one of the 140 ingredients in our library, so it has 139 possible partners. None of its pairs has been entered in our interaction table yet, and there are no medication pairs on file for it either. Our ingredient file does flag the one below.
The warning on our label: if you take an anticoagulant, ask a healthcare professional first. No documented pair or mechanism sits behind it yet, and we are not going to invent one.
In Cold symptom support it shares a dose with vitamin C, zinc, vitamin D3, elderberry and NAC. None of those five pairs is documented yet.
An older note in our file lists pelargonium as a weak modulator of CYP3A4, a liver enzyme that clears many medicines. A later check of our sources found nothing to back it, so it is not entered as an interaction. We list it so you know it was looked at.
443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%, and none of them involves pelargonium. The rest are not "safe", they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%, and none involves pelargonium. The rest are not safe, they are simply unchecked.
SOURCES
Everything on this page, with its reference.
Reviewed by VION nutrition team · last reviewed 16 September 2026
140 INGREDIENTS · 64 IN USE TODAY
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