Herbs & Herbal Remedies @ Green Papaya

You’re Getting Sleepy …

Family: Valerianaceae; (includes Spikenard, Jacob’s Ladder)

Genus and Species: Valeriana officinalis

Also known as: Garden valerian, Phu, All-heal

Parts used: Rhizome and root

Back in the 13th century, the elders of Hamelin, Germany, decided to rid their town of rats. They contracted with an itinerant flute player, one Pied Piper, whose music attracted the rodents, allowing him to lead them out of town. But when the Pied Piper returned for his fee, the elders of Hamelin refused to pay him. In revenge, he used his flute to charm Hamelin’s children away forever.

In modern versions of this story, the Pied Piper’s powers are entirely musical. But early German folklore credits him with being an accomplished herbalist as well. In addition to his hypnotic flute playing, the Pied Piper charmed both the rats and the children with hypnotic valerian root. (Valerian can. indeed, charm rats-and cats. It contains chemicals similar to those in catnip.)

Fu Means P-U

Valerian has a disagreeable odor, and ancient Greek and Roman authorities, including Dioscorides. Pliny, and Galen all called it fu. The term Valeriana first appeared around the 10th century, derived from the Latin valere, to be strong.

Dioscorides recommended valerian as a diuretic and antidote to poisons. Pliny considered it a pain reliever. Galen prescribed it as a decongestant. By the time the plant’s name became valerian, early European herbalists considered it a panacea and also called it all-heal. The German abbess/herbalist Hildegard of Bingen recommended the herb as a tranquilizer and sleep aid about 100 years before the Pied Piper used it as a hypnotic.

For Epilepsy and Plague

During the late 1500s, valerian’s popularity grew after an Italian physician claimed he cured himself of epilepsy using it. In 1597, herbalist John Gerard wrote that in Scotland “no broth or physic [medicine] … be worth anything” if it did not include valerian. Gerard recommended the herb enthusiastically for chest congestion, convulsions, bruises, and falls.

Seventeenth-century English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper added several recommendations: “The decoction of the root … is of special virtue against the plague. [It] provokes women’s courses [menstruation] … is singularly good for those troubled with cough … is excellent [for] any sores, hurts, or wounds … “Later, European herbalists considered the herb a digestive aid and treatment for “hysteria” (menstrual discomforts).

Tranquilizer Par Excellence

Early colonists discovered several Indian tribes using the pulverized roots of native American valerian to treat wounds. Indian use of the herb brought it to the attention of Samuel Thomson, the founder of Thomsonian medicine, which was popular before the Civil War. Thomson called valerian “the best nervine [tranquilizer] known.”

Valerian entered the U.S. Pharmacopoeia as a tranquilizer in 1820 and remained there until 1942. It was listed in the National Formulary, the pharmacists’ guide, until 1950.

The 19th-century Eclectics prescribed it as a “calmative … for epilepsy .. mild spasmodic affections … [and] hypochondria.” However their text, King’s American Dispensatory, warned against using large doses because they caused “restlessness, agitation, giddiness, nausea, and visual illusions.”

During World War I, Europeans afflicted with “overwrought nerves” from artillery bombardment frequently took valerian.

Contemporary herbalists generally agree with David Hoffmann’s Holistic Herbal, which calls valerian “one of the most useful relaxing herbs.” Today’s herbalists recommend it for nervousness, anxiety, insomnia, headache, and intestinal cramps.

In West Germany, where herbal medicine is considerably more mainstream than it is in the United States, valerian is the active ingredient in more than 100 over-the-counter tranquilizers and sleep aids, some of which are specially formulated for children, a use the Pied Piper would probably endorse.