Valerian rootstocks with roots: indications and contraindications, reviews

On wet soil of meadows and marshes, among trees and bushes in the last days of May there are easily recognizable paniculate inflorescences of healing herbs - valerian. Rhizomes with the roots of this amazing plant are the raw materials for various soothing and heart medications.

Description of pharmacy valerian

A perennial herb medicinal plant (the family with the same name - Valerian) can reach two meters in height. Its rhizome up to two centimeters thick penetrates vertically in moist soil to a depth of no more than three centimeters, and numerous thin root-shoots sometimes grow to half a meter in length. Medicine refers these dried parts of the plant to sedatives. The medicinal properties of the rhizome with the roots of valerian acquire in the second year of plant life, when it blooms and grows. At the same time they have a specific flavor and sweetish-bitter taste. The small rosettes of leaves that are characteristic of the annual "cat grass", in the second year turn into odd-pinnate, coarse-toothed along the edges, separate and opposite leaves with a sessile arrangement on top of the plant and petiolate fastening from below.

Flowers in pharmacy valerian are often small and fragrant, with a pale pink tinge. Mother Nature collects them into the apical scutiform or corymbose-paniculate inflorescences. The stem of valerian is straight, hollow, branched at the top of the plant. Biologists note that the "cat's root" blooms in the period from the end of May to the beginning of June to August, and active ripening of fruits (oblong-ovoid achenes with a feather-feather) takes place in July-September.

Features of wild and cultivated raw materials

In the wild, valerian does not form thickets suitable for industrial harvesting of medicinal plants, so many enterprises prefer to cultivate plantations created by sowing seeds or planting small sockets of valerian. Rhizomes with the roots of cultivated high-yielding varieties of "cardiola" and "mauna" in size are twice as large as their wild relatives. Depending on the location of the habitat of the natural healer, they can be thin (in the northern regions) or have a larger size and a fleshy structure, as in the southern ones.

What is the healing contains "shaking grass" (valerian)?

Due to the rich chemical composition of valerian roots, which includes more than a hundred different active substances, prepared extracts, tinctures and decoctions from this plant raw material help from many ailments. A wide range of aroma oils, as well as borneol, various acids (isovaleric, oily, acetic and formic), combined in the rhizomes of valerian, is combined with alkaloids, nitrogen-containing alcohol, valerine, hatinin, sugar and glycosides, saponins, tannins and many other substances.

Valerian properties and indications

What helps with preparations containing extract and crushed raw valerian (rhizome)? The roots of the herb are treated with hysteria and neuroses, tachycardia, stenocardia and convulsions (including epileptic seizures), various functional disorders of coronary circulation, migraine and hypertension, insomnia and painfulness of PMS. With the help of freshly prepared decoctions or infusions of this herbal raw material, the flow of urticaria, psoriasis and eczema is facilitated (taking outside and inside). The beneficial effect of preparations from valerian officinalis is known (rhizomes with roots which are used for water and alcohol extracts, tablets and heart medicines) for defects (heart defects or large vessels), increased irritability, climacteric disorders, liver and biliary tract diseases, gastrointestinal spasms, Inflammation of the sciatic nerve. The treatment of such a wide range of ailments, including valerian-based drugs, is effective due to its calming and analgesic, hypnotic and choleretic action.

Well-known in the people, the valerian reduces the excitability of the central nervous system, improves the state of the cardiovascular and peripheral nervous systems, exerts a carminative and spasmolytic effect. In addition, the tincture of valerian (rhizomes with roots for which serve as plant raw materials) has sufficiently powerful antiviral properties.

Medicinal forms of produced vegetable raw materials

On the shelves of drugstores today you can find alcoholic tincture of valerian in bottles (25 ml), tablets with extract of "cat grass" or dried roots of medicinal plants. Domestic producers chop them in small pieces or powdered state, and then pack the resulting raw materials in cardboard packs of 30-100 g or in filter bags of 1.5 g, which are sold in boxes of the manufacturer for 10 or 20 pieces. Foreign pharmaceutical companies supply capsules with freeze-dried powder of valerian (rhizomes with roots) to the market, the instruction of which is attached in Russian. The buyers leave positive reviews about these import analogues, but warn that the price of an American preparation from the Eclectic Institute (90 capsules) can be about 600 rubles, and BAA with valerian root from NOW Foods (USA) - 800 rubles for 250 capsules. Domestic medicinal products based on valerian root significantly benefit in price, but they are not inferior in quality to foreign analogues.

Calming tablets "Valerian"

Rhizomes, the roots of which can be used to prepare decoctions and infusions, serve as raw materials for home remedies. It is difficult to apply them to highly-employed people who are uncomfortable at work or events, on a business trip or a tourist trip, to prepare and take liquid preparations. It is much more convenient to purchase in the pharmacy inexpensive extract of valerian in the form of tablets coated with a shell and packed in 50 pieces in a blister. Their dosage, regardless of the manufacturer, is 20 mg per 1 tablet. Sedative and antispasmodic drug is released without a prescription. You need to eat it after eating, one or two tablets, not more than three times a day.

Indications and contraindications in this form of the drug with valerian extract (rhizomes with roots which are raw materials for a drugstore) are the same as for infusions, decoctions and other types of medicinal plants. Tablets with an extract from the "cat's root" will help to calm down with increased nervous excitability, with problems with falling asleep (insomnia). They are often prescribed in a complex therapy for malfunctioning of the cardiovascular system or with spasms of various gastrointestinal organs.

Contra-indications and limitations

It is forbidden to extract valerian in tablets to people with hypersensitivity to the drug, children under the age of 12, and pregnant women in the first trimester. Sedative action of the drug should also be taken into account when taking people whose professional activity is associated with increased concentration of attention (driving a car, working with machinery and others).

In these cases, you need to limit the intake of valerian extract, consuming it at night. For people with high sensitivity of the nervous system to valerian, it is necessary to select a dose of the drug individually or even to exclude its administration. It is not necessary to use funds based on the "cat's root" for patients suffering from cholelithiasis, pregnant women (in the first trimester). If the infusion of valerian root is taken for a long time, then drowsiness, depressed state, constipation, allergic reactions and worsening of working capacity may occur. The same side effects are noted when the medicine is overdosed. Children up to 1 year of age can not use valerian root in treatment. Pregnant women in the second and third trimesters, as well as in the lactation period, the drug can be recommended for use only by a doctor who will monitor the process.

Spirituous tincture of valerian

This drug is an extract of Valerian roots, prepared in a ratio of 1 to 5 and alcohol-filled strength of 70%. Assign it for oral administration as a sedative (adults - 15-30 drops after meals, but not more than three times a day).

Home alcoholic tinctures of valerian can be used with menopause, painful menstruation or as sedatives, but experts recommend paying special attention to the quality of alcohol or vodka, which poured the roots of valerian and their dosage (5 tablespoons of crushed roots of "cat grass" pour 500 ml of alcohol , Insist 14-15 days). Tincture is drunk on 20-30 drops (3 rivers per day), for 30 days, and then you need to make a two-week break if you need a second course of treatment.

Reviews

Most opinions about the effects on the body of natural medicine from valerian are positive. Users note its good sedative effect, gently eliminating the effects of stress and facilitating falling asleep. Water infusion of rhizomes with the roots of valerian herbalists have long been recommended for the normalization of the thyroid gland in hyperthyroidism (increased function). For the preparation take 8-10 g of crushed dry root of valerian or powder, pouring it with 200 ml of boiling water. The next day, the ready-made infusion is drunk in several receptions. Reduce the preparation time of the infusion without losing its properties, by placing the raw material in a thermos and filling it with boiling water. In this case, the natural medicine will be ready within an hour.

When migraine - a tablespoon of raw material boil on low heat for 5 minutes, then filter after cooling and drink 25-50 ml several times a day. With a neurosis use a combined soothing collection: one part of the rhizomes with the roots of valerian and cones of hops, and two parts - leaves of peppermint and trefoil water. A couple of tablespoons of this collection pour 400-500 ml of boiling water, insist 30-40 minutes and drink twice a day for half a cup (morning and evening). This collection calms the body well with neuroses, insomnia and stenocardia after stress, facilitates the condition with psoriasis.

Praise the effect of decoction of valerian roots on the skin, affected by hives or eczema, if you take a bath with this remedy. To prepare 50 g of raw material pour two liters of boiling water and heat on low heat for no more than 20 minutes. Then insist for half an hour, filter and add to the bath, which, judging by the reviews, it is better to take it for relaxation before going to bed.