American Valerian soothes nerves and brings sleep
American Valerian, Valeriana sitchensis, is also known as Sitka Valerian. It’s closely related to Valerian.
Another plant is also sometimes called American valerian, but is not related. This is Cypripedium calceolus pubescens, the Nerve Root. It’s very easy to tell these plants apart, particularly when in flower. The plant I’m covering in this post has tiny white flowers which are in clusters or even balls of many flowers on a single stem, whereas the nerve root is an orchid with fairly typical orchid foliage and large flowers in bright colors on individual stems. The plants are almost impossible to mix up unless you are going purely by the common name.
American valerian is a perennial which has male and female flowers on separate plants, so if you want to produce seed (so that you can replace plants you have dug up, for example), you will need several plants, to be sure of getting viable seed. The plant reaches a height of about 4 feet (120cm) and is happy in almost any soil, so long as it is moist. It will not grow in the shade.
American valerian should not be used by anybody suffering from liver disorders of any kind.
The part used in medicine is the root. Dig up 2 year old plants after the leaves have fallen for use either fresh, or after drying by laying out in a single layer on kitchen paper somewhere out of the sun which is dry and airy. Turn the roots over every day or so until they are completely dry and store in a dark, cool place in an airtight container. However, fresh root is 3 times more effective than dried.
Make a decoction from 30g (1 ounce) of fresh or dried root to 570ml (2½ US cups or 1 UK pint) of water. Place the ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Continue to simmer until the liquid has reduced by half (about 20 minutes), then strain and allow to cool. The correct dose is 1 tablespoonful a day maximum, and it is used for anxiety, insomnia, hypertension (high blood pressure), and cramps including those associated with menstruation and irritable bowel syndrome. It can also be used externally to treat eczema, ulcers, cuts and grazes.
You will not be surprised that in common with all plants grown for use as herbal remedies, American valerian should be grown organically so as to avoid the active constituents being adulterated or completely negated by the presence of foreign chemicals. To find out more about growing organic herbs visit the Gardenzone.
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July 12th, 2009 at 12:31
Oh wow…I am anxious to learn more for two reasons. I have anxiety issues and would love to find some ways to help that are natural and safe! Our family has “gone green” this past year because of our little boy and skin condition. He has suffered from severe Eczema since he was a baby and nothing has helped him. The prescription meds like oral steroids seemed to be making his body weaker and worse, also stunting his growth dramatically. We were getting very scared for him and decided that we had to drastically change our lifestyle for him. We have been eliminating chemicals, cleaners, soaps, processed foods, we now have a garden and we are easting tons of fruits and vegs! Fortunately, he became so much better after starting on Vidazorb kids probiotics and it has made a big difference for him. This along with our changes in our life have been such a blessing! It is an answer to prayer that he is better now…but for occasional flare-ups and my anxiety….I just may have to look into valerian for our garden next year! Thanks for the info, Caroline
July 14th, 2009 at 15:35
I was so sad to hear about how badly eczema – or possibly the treatment for it – is affecting your son’s life.
I wasn’t sure whether you were looking at American Valerian as a treatment for anxiety or eczema, as it can be used for both. So to be on the safe side, I went through the database files and got together a list for both.
American Valerian can be used, of course, but it involves growing the plant for 2 years, then digging it up in the Fall, so it would be a while before you had anything you could use.
*Eczema*
African Marigolds I give this 2 stars, as you use the flowers, and you can get them flowering for most of the summer if you deadhead
Valerian Another plant that needs to be dug up in Fall of the second year
Nettles The disadvantage being that you are likely to get stung when you harvest them
Salad Burnet This plant is used for Winter salads, so might be good at that time of year, when the African Marigolds are long gone
Great Burnet The roots of this plant, crushed and mixed with petroleum jelly, have been found to work well to treat eczema
Heartsease The wild pansy is a pretty plant, so you might grow this anyway
Vervain You can dry the leaves for use later in the year
American Valerian This is where we came in
*Anxiety*
Lemon Balm This has a lovely lemon scent, if you like the scent of lemon (which i don’t, lol)
Vervain See above
Betony Is another plant that can be dried for later use
Valerian See above
Lavender This great herb can be used as an infusion or you can throw handfuls in the bath, or use it to stuff pillows for soothing sleep
American Valerian See above
As well as being very interested in natural healing, I’m also gluten intolerant, so, being the type of person who sees research as fun (yeah, i know, but being geeky is normal for me), I’ve done a fair amount of research on that topic, and eczema is one of the conditions with a strong link to gluten.
Both gluten and casein are known to cause eczema in many cases. Gluten is the protein found in wheat, rye, barley, spelt and a few other closely related grains and casein is a protein found in milk. Unfortunately, almost all processed food contains either gluten, casein or both. So the natural diet you are following is great – but you may want to start to watch out for food that contains gluten or dairy products as well.
I realize that you already have a lot of things to watch out for, but as you have gone as far as you have already, I hope this will not be too much of a change – and there are plenty of gluten free and casein free specialist products available if a particular food is something you want to continue to include in the diet.
The gfcf (gluten free casein free) diet is known as “the autism diet” because it’s often used by parents of autistic children as a way to help their children, but autism isn’t the only condition that’s helped by it.
Hope this helps
March 8th, 2010 at 01:00
would it be possible to translate your website into spanish because i have difficulties of speaking to english, and as there are not many pictures on your website i would like to read more of what you are writting .
March 15th, 2010 at 21:31
I found a plugin for Firefox that will automatically translate any page for you. You can get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/918