Valerian

Valerian

Scientific Name: Valeriana officinalis

Part used: Root

In a word: Stress & Tension Melter

Uses: Stress

Valerian is the Mother Teresa of the plant world for those suffering from stress. The connection between mental stress and various physical maladies is well documented, and most stress sufferers are living proof. More than one daughter-in-law suffers from acid stomachaches for a week before the esteemed mother comes for a domestic inspection; more than one employee hits the aspirin bottle before the managing partner hits town to check the annual figures at the accounting office. When you are under a lot of stress, your body generally lets you know, whether with headaches or diarrhea. If after taking a look at your life, you realize that the root of the condition at hand is stress, there is a plant in the garden that can help.

I was at dinner not too long ago with a bunch of my hardworking friends when we started talking about the nervous twitches we had all been getting in our eyes. Those nervous twitches are the body’s way of saying that stress is doing some damage. In the 16^th century, Gerard wrote that valerian would take away such twitches and worse: "Wild valerian is thought by the later herbalists to be good for them that are bursten, for such as be troubled with the crampe, and other convulsions, and also for all those that are bruised with falls." While I haven’t read of stress as being responsible for a person’s bursting physically, mentally is another story. We can only guess what caused people to burst at the seams in Gerard’s day, but he mentions the problem a good bit. Cramps and twitches are common symptoms of stress, and from the earliest day, valerian was deemed able to dissolve such spasms.

Unlike chemical sleeping pills, valerian does not interfere with the normal sleep stages. A cup of valerian tea will make nodding off easier, without side effects.

As with many of our physical conditions, and stress is indeed a physical condition, modern people tend to do the worst thing they can for themselves in the way of treatment. Whether it is taken in pill or cocktail form, sedation is the modern solution to stress. The problem here is that these drugs are not good for the body or the mind. They are said to have no side effects – that is until you stop taking them. Go to a drug rehabilitation center and visit the ward where people are coming off valium. Then ask yourself the question, do I really want to use sedatives to treat my stress problem?

On the other hand, the fact that people get themselves worked into tight little balls is a reality of life in this day and age. It’s well and good to say that you should keep your life under enough control that your stress doesn’t get out of control, but sometimes it does. Whatever or whomever might be at fault, the body suffers the consequences. Valerian will help the stress sufferer get through a rough patch without making him or her any worse for the wear when he or she goes off the herb. In fact, she might even be a bit better, as valerian is actually strengthening the nervous system, unlike the chemical tranquilizers.

Valerian has the odd effect of nullifying the effect stress has on our bodies. How this works remains a bit of a question. What has been proven time and time again, though, is that when you are in a stressful situation, whatever usually happens to your body will not happen if you take valerian. The physiological reactions to stress are as varied as the people who have them, but what herbalists have found is that those who take a cup of valerian tea when stress occurs remain free of unpleasant symptoms.

The herbaceous perennial Valeriana officinalis grows wild throughout Europe from Spain to Iceland, onto the Crimea, and all the way to northern Asia and into China. It is commercially grown in many countries for one reason: people have long realized that valerian will relieve the symptoms of stress.

Valerian was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Diocorides and Pliny talk of a plant they called the wild nard, which is supposed to be a species of valerian. There are, in fact, many species of valerians, all of which manifest the same relaxing medicinal activities to a greater or lesser degree. The name valerian was not used by the classical writers; it appears in the written record first in the ninth and then in the tenth century. Valerian can be found in Anglo-Saxon home remedies and in books on herbal medicine as early as the 11^th century.

We grow valerian for its roots. The plant spreads by way of runners, so that when you harvest valerian, you get a ragtag collection of runners, dubbed stolons by the botanists, and roots, which are in fact rhizomes. All of the aforementioned bits contain the chemicals we use for relaxation.

This is one complex plant absolutely filled with chemicals responsible for its actions on the body. The roots contain chemicals called valopotriates, volatile oils, and alkaloids. Owing to the plant’s popularity, many a chemical research team have searched to find the chemical that makes the plant such an effective relaxant, and what they have discovered is that various chemicals in valerian have opposing actions that lead to a balancing effect on the nervous system. One chemical has been found to suppress nervous activity, while another has been found to stimulate the central nervous system, which means that the plant has proven to relax those who are uptight and to stimulate those who are so exhausted that they can’t move. Valerian can go either way.

One of the reasons tranquilizers are so popular is that they are effective knockout pills for those who are too stressed out to sleep. As most people now realize, there are several stages of sleep. All of these are essential for a sense of physical well being, but the stages of REM, or rapid eye movement, are disturbed deeply by tranquilizers. The result is sleep that does not refresh. Valerian has been clinically proven to make it easier for people to slip into sleep and to rest deeply. Unlike chemical sleeping pills, valerian does not interfere with the normal sleep stages. A cup of valerian tea will make nodding off easier, without side effects.

Beyond this, research has also shown that valerian relaxes various muscles in the digestive tract, including those in the stomach, which classically clench up under stress and strain. The alkaloids found in valerian have a definite and marked ability to act as a hypotensive, lowering the blood pressure.

If you have ever smelled valerian, you are aware of its unique, or some might say repulsive, odor. Dioscorides, the ancient Greek herbalist, called the plant phu, as that was the noise people emitted when they smelled it. Oddly enough, this same scent is immensely attractive to domestic cats. Annete Zeylstra, an eminent pharmacognosy lecturer, insists that you had better hide the valerian from felines or they will rip through all but the toughest container to get at it. Though few creatures walking on two legs are equally moved by the scent of valerian alone, it is apparently a different story when the essence is combined with other scents. Much of the valerian produced today is bound for the perfume maker, and the herb is one of the major ingredients in most commercial fragrances.

When you dig up your valerian root and take a whiff, you might think that there is something wrong with your plant as it has no odor. Not to worry. The curious odor of valerian develops in the drying process. The volatile oils in the plant’s roots hydrolyze with time and become a different series of chemicals, chemicals that will indeed have the much sought-after stink. You may be one of the lucky ones who love the smell of valerian, or you may hate it. In any case, once you have experienced valerian’s relaxing powers, you will, like the cats, tear through any container to get your hands on it.

In the days when Eclectic physicians were more than a faded page in the history of medicine, and valerian was more than an ingredient in perfume, Harvey Felter, M.D., had this to say about valerian:

This agent has a special affinity for the nervous system, being gently stimulant and antispasmodic, but not producing narcosis. In medicinal doses it acts as a cerebral stimulant. It is adapted to those nervous conditions arising from enfeebled circulation in the cerebral structures. When thus indicated it controls pain, allays irritability, induces rest, and consequently sleep follows, but not from any narcotic properties of the drug.

As the physician states, valerian relaxes without the side effects of most drugs used to produce the same result. It won’t make you feel drowsy or drugged. The muscles and the mind are just relaxed. There is a condition called "two squirrels in the head disorder." One of its symptoms is that your mind starts racing nonstop from one stressful thought to the next when all you really want to do is fall asleep. It’s like having two squirrels in your head chasing each other’s tails. Of course, this usually happens when you have something going on the next morning that is killer important, some sort of activity that requires your being at your best. The more you can’t sleep, the more you check the clock to see how much sleep you haven’t had thus far. At this junction, if you hop out of bed and make yourself a cup of hot valerian tea, the squirrels will move on, and your mind will slow down enough for you to fall to sleep. If you are in the middle of a stressful period, three cups a day or one cup right before bedtime will help you through.

Directions: Tincture (1:5, 25% alcohol): For tenseness, restlessness and irritability, up to 5ml 3 times daily.  As an aid to sleep, 5-10ml 30 minutes before bedtime