[2] Active compounds include: In contemporary times, P. aurea is not much used due to its saturated pyrrolizidine alkaloids which can cause liver veno-occlusive disease upon metabolism.

The plant was an important treatment among the Native Americans and among the Eclectic medicine physicians for reproductive conditions.

[3] Scudder wrote: The Senecio exerts a specific influence upon the reproductive organs of the female, and to a less extent upon the male.

It makes little difference whether it is amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea or menorrhagia, or whether it takes the form of increased mucous or purulent secretion, or displacement.

In the male we prescribe it in cases of fullness and weight in the perineum, dragging sensations in the testicle, and difficult or tardy urination.