Useful and medicinal properties of valerian drug
Family Valerian - Valerianaceae
The generic name - the ancient name of the plant, which occurred, obviously, from the Latin verere valere - to be healthy. Species definition in Latin means pharmacy.
Botanical Description. Perennial herbaceous plant with a vertical short rhizome and numerous accessory roots, which after digging out a peculiar odor. Stems erect, ribbed, hollow inside, 50-
150( 200) in height. Leaves opposite, incompletely plated with lanceolate segments. Edge of segments serrate or, rarely, whole. The flowers are small, with a delicate pleasant aroma, white or light pink, collected in the corymbose semi-zonotics( dichasia) at the top of the stem and in the sinuses of the upper leaves. The calyx is hardly noticeable with the sepals wrapped inside, which after flowering grow into a tuft. Corolla funnel-shaped with blunt five-bladed limb, slightly irregular, 3 protruding from corolla of stamen. Pestle 1 with a lower single-cavity ovary and three-bladed stigma. Fruit is a brown flat seed bearing a pinnate crest of 10 knotted spines.
Blossoms in June - July;fruits ripen in July - September.
The name "valerian medicinal" means a composite species, including different species: alternate, Volga, lush, or shiny, marshy, runaway, doubtful and many others. They differ in the nature of tillering, the shape of the segments of the leaf, their number and other vegetative features. All of them are practically used in medicine.
Geographical distribution. Valerian grows on peat and grass marshes, swampy and moist meadows, along the banks of reservoirs and ditches, among shrubs, in forest glades. It occurs in the European part of the USSR, except for steppe regions, and alternate-in the Siberia( from the Yenisei to the mouth of the Amur and the south of the Primorsky Territory).
Wild valerian is not enough, so it is cultivated in Belarus, Voronezh, Moscow, Novosibirsk and Kirov regions, Moldova, Krasnodar Territory. The main areas of harvesting are in Ukraine and Belarus, in the Krasnodar Territory, Rostov and Ulyanovsk regions in specialized state farms and pharmacy gardens with pharmacies. Her seeds quickly lose their germination, why they use only fresh ones. Sow them in late July - early August or under winter in moist soil( it is advisable to choose low sites with close groundwater).The sowing is carried out in a square-nest method with a width of between rows of 40 cm. The harvesting of raw materials at such sowing is carried out in the next year in July.
At the same time, valerian does not have time to blossom, forming only a powerful basal rosette of leaves, and the yield is maximized.
With late spring sowing, yield is negligible and plants must be left for the second year. In this case, they blossom. On the formation of the stem with leaves, flowers, and then fruits, the plant spends a lot of organic substances, the parent rhizomes die, instead of them, children are formed, small in size, why the yield decreases.
To prevent the plants from blooming, they produce several times per summer, that is, they remove the tip of the stem, plucking it.
In early spring sowing, seeds are preliminarily subjected to stratification, which is moistened with, mixed with 3-fold amount of wet sand and put the boxes with a mixture under snow for a month. In the spring before sowing, the mixture is dried in a warm room and stored until sowing in the cold.
During the summer sowing with fresh seeds, pre-sowing seed treatment is excluded.
Collection and drying. Harvest rhizomes with roots in the autumn after the ripening of fruits, usually from July - August, or in early spring. The plants are excavated with shovels, and in the marshes by forks( plowing on the plantations), shaking the earth, then cutting off the aboveground part, thick rhizomes are cut along in 2-4 parts, trying to preserve the roots. Halves of rhizomes with roots are separated, again shake the ground and quickly washed, and then rinsed with water. On thick uncut rhizomes with roots, land is always preserved, which increases the content of mineral impurities. When harvesting raw materials from wild plants prefer those plants that do not bloom. In the holes formed at the hood, shake the fruit, so that this place again grew valerian. If this rule is observed, the alternation of blanks can be made in a year.
Collected raw materials are left in a well-ventilated room for withering( can be in boxes with perforated walls) or lay out a layer not more than 15 cm and periodically ted. At the same time, enzymatic processes take place and the roots acquire a distinctive odor. After that, the raw materials of
are transferred to lofts, in well-ventilated sheds, under sheds and dried until they become brittle. When drying in dryers, the temperature should not exceed 35-40 °.The dried raw material is piled up and left for a few days. Due to hygroscopicity, the roots absorb moisture( they say, "go away"), cease to be brittle, which does not create an increased crumbling during packaging. To reduce the content of mineral impurities, in the case of an increased content of sand, earth, peat, etc., the dried raw material is sieved through a sieve. Wilting and drying valerian should be in places inaccessible to cats, on which it acts excitantly, and they can cause significant harm to the raw material, contaminating it and rasstaskivaya.
Medicinal raw material - rhizome with valerian roots( Rhizoma cum radicibus Valerianae) - short vertical rhizomes 2-4 cm long, with loose core or hollow with transverse septa corresponding to the nodes of this underground modified stem. Large rhizomes are often cut into 2 or 4 parts. Numerous subordinate roots from 6 to 15 cm long and more, 1-3 mm in diameter, extend from the rhizome. Outside, the roots are yellowish-brown, in the fracture light-brown. The smell is strong, peculiar;the taste is spicy, sweetish-bitterish.
Art.583 GPC allows a moisture content of not more than 16%;ash not more than 14%;rhizomes with stem remnants longer than 1 cm and not longer than 2 cm not more than 3%;organic impurity not more than 0.5%;mineral impurity not more than 3%;extractive substances extracted by 70% alcohol, not less than 25%.
Medicinal raw materials obtained from cultivated plants have longer roots and a stronger odor. The weight of the roots is much greater than the weight of the rhizome than that of the raw material obtained from wild plants, which makes the percentage of essential oil higher.
Chemical composition. Rhizomes with valerian roots contain 0.5-2% essential oil, the main component of which is the alcohol ester of borneol and isovaleric acid. In addition, free isovaleric acid and borneol, borneol esters with formic, acetic,
oleaginous and other acids, myrtenol, pinene, cam-phen, terpineol, limonene and other terpenoids are contained. An alkaloid actinidin was also found in the form of hydroxy-phenylethyl salt( leaves and fresh rhizomes contain also alkaloids valerine and hatinin).There is an unexplored glycoside valeride, tannins, sugars. Roots contain much more essential oil than rhizomes.
Unlike other types of raw materials, valerian has no main active substance. The effect on the body is explained by a complex of biologically active compounds, although the essential oil affects its organism more than all components.
Action and application. Valerian preparations have sedative, spasmolytic and weak choleretic effect. It used to be believed that the calming effect of valerian is related to the intensification of inhibition processes in the cerebral cortex. However, it is established that it acts on subcortical formations, in particular, on the ascending activating sirte of the reticular formation of the brainstem, decreasing its activity. Therefore, valerian preparations are widely used for the treatment of neuroses, various somatic diseases, accompanied by increased excitability. They increase the effect of hypnotics, neuroleptics, bromides and antispasmodics.
Valerian is prescribed as a tincture( 25-30 drops per reception), extracts of thick and dry in dragee( 1 - 2 dragees 3 times), and also infusion at the rate of 10.0 g. Per 200 ml of water. B. E. Votchal recommends using it in the form of tea: 8-10 grams of crushed root pour a glass of steep boiling water and hermetically close. Cool, filter and take at night 1/2 cup for insomnia;or drink the contents of the glass throughout the day( with increased irritability).
It's even better to cook the infusion in a thermos.
Rhizome with valerian roots is a part of the collections prescribed for insomnia, neurosis, neurasthenia, sciatica, menopause, epilepsy, tachycardia, hypertension, atherosclerosis, myocardial sclerosis, achilles, acute gastritis, peptic ulcer and duodenal ulcer, ulcerative colitis.