Flowers are gathered in a shield-shaped panicle, small, fragrant, white or pink. Valerian medicinal blooms from mid-May to August. Honeycreeper (Fig. 13).
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Valeriana medicinalis is distributed in the European part of the former USSR, in Siberia to the Far North and in the Caucasus. It grows on wet places, in floodplains of rivers, on damp meadows, marshes. Medicinal valerian is widely cultivated as a medicinal plant.
Used rhizomes together with roots, length 2- 4 cm, thickness 1-3 cm, two-year-old plants, collected in the fall, when the stems wilt and turn brown (September, second half of August).
Dried roots have a characteristic strong odor, the taste is spicy, sweetly bitter.
Chemical composition and properties of valerian
Valerian's properties are medicinal. Essential oil (0.5-2%) was found in rhizomes and roots. The main constituent of the essential oil is the ester with isovaleric acid and a number of other terpenes; glycosides, traces of alkaloids. Amorphous alkaloids - chatinine, glycosidovaleride; tannins, resinous, protein substances, saponins, sugars, organic acids (oily, formic, acetic, malic, palmitic, etc.) are also found in rhizomes.), starch.
Valerian properties are used by medical professionals and phytotherapists.
Effects and uses of valerian
The active substances contained in valerian, have a regulating effect on the nervous system, neuromuscular apparatus of the heart, dilate coronary vessels, have ipotensive and antispasmodic effect, slightly increase the motor function of the intestine. The use of valerian is prescribed for many ailments of a nervous nature. Appointed as a sedative for insomnia, states of nervous excitement, neurosis, in diseases of the cardiovascular system, accompanied by spasms of coronary vessels and tachycardia. In recent years, it has been found that the use of valerian has a favorable effect of valerian in the treatment of thyroid diseases: the patients were eliminated a heavy feeling of palpitations and increased nervous excitability (I. И. Florinsky, L. Р. Obukhov).
Experimental studies have established that the properties of valerian increase inhibition processes in the cerebral cortex, reduce reflex excitability, relax smooth muscle spasm.
The use of valerian is also indicated in epilepsy, asthma, coronary insufficiency with pain syndromes, migraine, spastic constipation.
Valerian is part of Zelenin drops, valocardin, cardiovalen and other complex drugs. It's part of the fees.
The rhizome with roots is official in 24 countries, including the former USSR (Klan, 1948).
In domestic folk medicine practiced the use of valerian in the form of infusions, decoctions, extracts and powders for hysteria, migraine, heart pain, heart defects, chorea, epilepsy, nervous fatigue. Infusion of valerian root is shown in the menopausal period, with hot flashes, after prolonged illnesses as an appetite-improving and tonic. Children - for abdominal pain, vomiting and cramps (2-3 drops of tincture) and in the form of enemas. In epilepsy bathe children every other day in the decoction. Rhizome and roots are used for making bitter tinctures.
Useful properties of valerian are concentrated in its parts. We use the root of the plant for neuroses, migraines, insomnia, with hot flashes of blood to the head, especially in women in menopause. It is used 5 g of crushed root, which is brewed with 250 ml of boiling water, stew for at least 2 hours and take 100 ml in the morning and evening before bedtime (the last dose we recommend to take in warm form with honey). For tachycardia, it is good to brew it together with lily of the valley flowers in equal parts. Take it intermittently..
