Valerian Plant
Valerian (Valeriana officinalis, Caprifoliaceae) is a seasonal blooming plant belonging to Europe and Asia. In the summer season, when the mature plant may have a height of 1.5 metres (5 feet), it bears sweetly scented pink or white flowers that draw in lots of fly types, particularly hoverflies of the genus Eristalis. Tall perennial topped with clusters of fluffy white flowers delighted in dappled shade and any soil. Long-prized as an important medical plant by herbalists, now regularly used to draw in bees and earthworms to improve fruit and soil health. It is taken in as food by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) types, including the grey pug.
Crude extract of Valerian root might have sedative and anxiolytic results and is commonly offered in dietary supplement capsules to promote sleep.
History of the Valerian Plant
Valerian has been utilized as a medical herb given that a minimum of ancient Greece and Rome. Hippocrates described its properties, and Galen, later on, prescribed it as a remedy for insomnia. In middle ages Sweden, it was often put in the groom's wedding clothes to fend off the "envy" of the elves. Back In the 16th century, the Anabaptist reformer Pilgram Marpeck recommended Valerian tea for a sick woman.
John Gerard's Herball, very first released in 1597, states that his contemporaries found Valerian "exceptional for those burdened and for such as be troubled with croup and other like convulsions, and also for those that are bruised with falls." He says that the root was valued as a medicine by the poor in the north of England and the south of Scotland, so "no broth or pottage or physical meats deserve anything if Setewale [Valerian] be not there".
The seventeenth-century astrological botanist Nicholas Culpeper thought the plant was "under the influence of Mercury, and for that reason hath a warming, professors." He advised both herb and root and stated that "the root boiled with liquorice, raisins and aniseed is good for those bothered with cough. Also, it is of unique worth against the plague, the preparation thereof being drunk and the root smelled. The green herb being bruised and applied to the head taketh away the discomfort and pricking thereof."
