Chasteberry

Chasteberry

Scientific Name: Vitex agnus-castus

Native to: Mediterranean Region

Part Used: Seed

In a Word: Female Hormone Regulator

Uses: Menstrual irregularities, hormonal imbalance, and PMS

As you may have guessed, chasteberry got its name in a different time and place! Women alleged to be a little hot under the bonnet were cooled down by the use of chasteberry tea. Fear not, chasteberry will not turn you into a female eunuch. This archaic use does hint, however, at what chasteberry does do for women: it balances their hormonal system. Women who have no sexual desire and those who have overly abundant desire are both likely to be suffering from hormonal imbalances. While a woman may be perfectly happy the way her particular imbalance affects her sex drive, the physical symptoms that tend to go along with these imbalances are not always as easily tolerated. Menstrual regulation is the gift chasteberry has to offer the modern woman.

I have nothing but respect for women and their ability to remain cool and collected during the course of a month. There is no doubt that hormones affect how we feel. Tiny little amounts of chemicals produced by the body have drastic physiological consequences. Preparation for ovulation, ovulation itself, and the sloughing off of the lining of the uterus are all caused by hormonal signals. A chart of the changes in a woman’s hormonal levels during the course of a month looks like a roller coaster, so it’s no wonder that many women feel as if they are on an emotional roller-coaster ride. The system was designed to work smoothly, but in some cases the hormone levels get a little too high or a little too low, and the end result is PMS. The fact that some women are bothered by their cycles and others are not is probably due to their varying hormonal levels. There does seem to be a genetic element to the syndrome, as mothers with PMS tend to bear daughters with PMS.

Menstrual regulation is the gift chasteberry has to offer the modern woman.

In any event, PMS is a hormonal problem, and the only way to improve the situation is to balance the hormones. The Western medical community seems to agree, slapping women with PMS on the birth-control pill as a last-ditch effort to achieve this hormonal balance. This works, but not without side effects – an increased risk of cancer, infertility, and heart disease to mention a few.

The beauty of our next plant is that instead of adding hormones to the body, it encourages the body to achieve its own natural hormonal balance. Going back to our roller-coaster analogy, taking hormone pills is like loading the individual cars with cement bags to slow the ride down. When you take chasteberry, it is like getting the guy with his hand on the accelerator to turn it to a lower setting.

The chasteberry tree is a Mediterranean native, a small deciduous shrub producing lovely, gray, down-covered leaves. The plant blooms lavishly in early summer and produces a bounty of seeds in early fall. The seeds are blackish and look somewhat like peppercorns. In fact, they even have a peppery scent. Apparently Athenian women strewed them about their rooms during the sacred rites to Ceres as a symbol of chastity. The plant gets its name from this association with chaste living, and people trapped in temple life are said to have used chasteberry to subdue their raging hormones.

Most of the commentary we have today on chasteberry’s use in the past comes to us from European sources. Our friend Gerard writing in the 16^th century had something to say on the matter:

Agnus castus is a singular medicine and remedie for such as would willingly live chaste, for it withstandeth all uncleannesse, or desire to the flesh, consuming and drying up the seed of generation, in what fort forever it be taken, whether in pouder onely, or the dection frunke or whether the leaves be carried about the body, for which cause it was called castus, that is to say, chaste, cleane, and pure. 

Though it is somewhat doubtful that chasteberry would remove a woman’s desire to have sex, if a man took the herb, we could be talking about another story. Chasteberry is considered to be highly estrogenic, and the addition of this hormone would be antagonistic to the hormone causing male randiness. It wouldn’t be nice to put your husband on it as an experiment. Women need not be concerned, but men should steer clear of it.  Gerard goes on to say:

The decoction of the here and seen is good against pain an inflammations about the matrix, if women be caused to sit and bath their privy parts therein; the seed drunke with pennyroyal bringeth down the menses, as it doth also doth in a fume, and in a pessiary, in a pultis is cuerth the headache, the phrenticke, and those that have the lethargie are woont to be bathed herewith, oile and vinegar being added thereto.

His comments that chasteberry is good for headaches, frantic feelings, or lethargy should be of interest to the PMS sufferer as all are common symptoms of the disorder. While modern herbalists have not concluded that chasteberry does much to the female libido, it has been found to be very effective in leveling out the mood swings that sometimes attend the monthly cycle.

This herb’s power is said to be due to its ability to regulate the action of the pituitary gland. By normalizing the hormones that are produced in the pituitary gland, it effectively treats all sorts of menstrual problems. Irregular menstruation, painful menstruation, premenstrual tension (PMS), menopause, and irregularities resulting from coming off the birth-control pill are all sorted out with the use of chasteberry. It has been proven that chasteberry has the ability to balance the estrogen-progesterone levels necessary for what might be called average menstruation.

It also has been proven that women who suffer from PMS experience some sense of relief within a few weeks and a definite improvement within the second menstrual cycle after starting on the herb. Herbalists have found that the improvement is best felt after six months on the herb. Chasteberry is perfectly safe and has no recorded side effects, so there is no problem with being on the herb over a long period of time. Though you will notice some improvement straightaway, it takes time before you will feel chasteberry’s ultimate impact. Like a number of other herbal medicines, it doesn’t act immediately, but it acts substantially, and there is a difference.

The part we use medicinally is the ripe seeds or berries, which the plant produces in copious quantities. They contain iridoid glycosides including aucbin and agnoside, flavonoids including casticin, isovitixin, orientin, and essential oil. The essential oil is so abundant that the seeds are quite aromatic. If you ever have the chance to harvest the seed you will find that your hands carry the characteristic smell for sometime.

Practitioners’ Advice

When hormone imbalance is wrecking havoc with your life, be it in the form of mood swings, acne, or irregular periods, Chasteberry is the first herbal port of call. Practitioners agree that most cases of hormone irregularity are cleared up with its use. It works and it works well.

Practically speaking, it has to be used for three cycles for it to show its effect. That means one has to be willing to use it for three months before seeing a notable change. It’s a long time to persevere without having any encouragement, but women who stick with Chasteberry swear by it. So do those that live around them! Fortunately, very small doses are effective. One only has to take 40 drops each morning to experience its balancing action. It must be said that regularity is the issue here. It must be taken each morning the way one takes the birth control pill. There really is no need to suffer from the effects of erratic hormone function when Chasteberry is so readily available.

QUICK REVIEW

History: European folk medicine for menstrual problems

Science: Contains compounds that help to regulate cycles

Practitioners opinion: To be used for three cycles before effects are felt

Directions: Tincture (1:5, 25% alcohol): 40 drops each morning

Tablets: 2-200mg tablets 3 times daily