Meadowsweet was a favourite bridal flower, strewn in the path and woven into garlands, and its old country names include bridewort; it stood in folk symbolism for peace, sweetness and marriage. There is a genuine footnote of science attached to it: the plant is rich in salicylates, the same family of compounds as in willow, and it was from meadowsweet, under its old botanical name Spiraea, that the drug name aspirin was coined, the a for acetyl and spirin for Spiraea. That historical fact of chemistry is given here as history and implies no medical use of the raw plant, which carries the sweetness, the wedding symbolism and the sacred Druidic reputation as its lasting meanings.
Modern herbalists sometimes note that meadowsweet, unlike isolated aspirin, also contains mucilage and tannins that may cushion its salicylate content against the stomach irritation the pure drug can cause, a plausible chemical argument rather than a proven clinical advantage, offered here as the kind of reasoning behind current herbal use rather than as medical advice. The plant remains a popular flavouring for country wines and cordials in Britain today, a direct continuation of its old role in mead and ale, showing that its oldest recorded use, flavour, has simply outlasted its once sacred and medicinal reputations.