Valerian Herb Combinations and Side Effects

Valerian Usage:

The active ingredient in Valerian Root is Valpotriate Acid. This has been established by modern research as having value as a sedative medicine.  However, there are side effects to using Valerian, which is why it is not promoted much as a natural herbal sedative.

Valerian Side Effects:

If you are on any medication AT ALL, then using Valerian Root is not for you.  Valpotriate Acid in Valerian could have very toxic side effects if it is taken in combination with other medicines.  One example might be Warfarin, which is a blood thinner:  Many foods, spices, herbs and medicines react with Warfarin.   Ask your doctor for advice before trying any herbal medicine.

Valerian certainly has its uses, and it has stood the test of time.  It was used in World War I to treat soldiers suffering from shell shock, and  it was also used widely during the second WW to help people suffering from the effects of bomb raids in London.

However, Valerian use should always be for reserved for emergencies, when there is no  professional health care available, or medical help  to provide prescriptive medicine. 

Prolonged use of Valerian root can be damaging to the nervous system. It might also damage your kidneys if taken for long periods.

Taking commercial supplements over long periods should also be avoided, for the same reason.  Commercial products which contain Valerian can be just as  damaging to the nerves and to the kidneys and other organs as home-made remedies,  if  they are taken continuously.

Herbal Combinations Are More Safe To Use: For this reason, we have given some herbal combinations which include Valerian, at the end of this article.  These mixtures have only small amounts of valerian and are more safe to use than straight valerian root tea.  NOTE:  Moderate use of one of these teas is still recommended. From two to three weeks only is the maximum time one should use Valerian tea, in any combination.

Moderate use of  any one of these  Valerian combinations over a short period might be beneficial to someone who has a temporary need for a sedative or an insomniac medicine: One of these  soothing herbal teas may be helpful in soothing the nerves if it is taken only occasionally.

When these teas are taken over long periods, though, symptoms of poisoning may still occur.  Valerian has a deleterious effect on the nervous system if it is taken regularly.  Taken too often, it would have  much the same effect on the nervous system as  large doses of alcohol do, when it is consumed on a regular basis.

Drug companies and governments everywhere:  Please do not take this plant away from us, just because you wish to control the use of its herbal benefits.  One day we might need to use the plants and herbs available to us, because some world crisis might mean that there are no medicines available, or that they may become hideously expensive.  Keeping the knowledge alive about the uses of plants which grow in our environments is important:  These plants could be responsible for our survival at some stage, just as they have sustained life in the past, before the advent of modern medicine.

Valerian Herbal Combinations

These recipes are taken from John Lust’s herbal entitled ‘The Herb Book’, published by Bantam Books, New York, in 1974.

Recipe No. 1:

Herbal Tea For a Nervous Heart.  I am not sure exactly what is meant by a ‘nervous heart’, but here is the combination of herbs which John Lust recommends:

Take equal quantities of:

  • Fragrant Valerian root
  • Chamomile
  • Lavender flowers
  • Fennel.

Mix the herbs together.   Steep 2 teaspoons only  in ½ cup boiling water.  Let cool, then strain.   Take 1 to 1 ½ cups a day, sipping a mouthful at a time.

Recipe No. 2– Also for a ‘Nervous Heart’.

Note: only use ONE of these recipes at a time, and then, not longer than 2 to 3 weeks at the most.

Use a herbal combination of the following:

  • Arnica flowers 1 part
  • Borage leaves and flowers 1 part
  • Rue leaves 2 parts
  • Balm leaves 3 parts
  • Great burnet 3 parts
  • Mix the herbs up. then  Steep 1 teaspoon only of the mixture in ½ cup boiling water. Take just  1 cup a day of this herbal tea mixture, in mouthful doses.

Recipe No. 3:

Tea For Insomnia: Tea to Help You Sleep: This tea might be helpful to those who suffer from snoring or sleep apnoea.  Ask your doctor or health professional for advice.

Use the following herbal combination;

  • Fragrant valerian 1 part
  • Lavender flowers 5 parts
  • St Johnswort 2 parts
  • Hops 3 parts
  • Primrose flowers 10 parts.

Steep 1 ½ teaspoons of this herbal combination in half cup boiling water for 10 minutes. Let cool. Strain and add 1 teaspoon honey. Take before going to bed.

Recipe No. 4:

Tea To Help You Sleep:

This recipe has a higher percentage of Valerian root in it compared to the other recipes given here.  I would prefer to use Recipe Number 6 which has a portion of balm in it:  Balm is easy on the nervous system than is Valerian. Using a quantity of balm reduces the Valerian dose.

  • Hops 3 parts
  • Fragrant Valerian root 2 parts

Mix the hops together with the fragrant valerian root. Steep 1 teaspoon of the mixture in ½ cup boiling water.   Let stand until cool.  Strain.

Take ½ to 1 cup a day of this herbal tea,  unsweetened.  Sip it slowly,  a  mouthful at a time. Do not take for longer than 2 to 3 weeks without interruption.

This rule applies to all of these teas.  You would only use one of these combinations, and you would use it not more than 2 to 3 weeks at the most without interruption.

Ask your doctor before trying out any of these remedies.  Valpotriate Acid  which is found in Valerian root will probably have adverse effects if it is used in combination with drugs such as warfarin or other blood thinners, and many other medications.

Recipe No. 5:

Tea To Help You Sleep

  • Lavender flowers
  • Primrose flowers
  • St Johnswort
  • Fragrant Valerian root

Use  in equal parts. Take  1 heaped teaspoon of the mixture and steep  in ½ cup boiling water.  Let stand until cool.  Strain.  Take shortly before going to bed, a mouthful at a time.

Recipe No. 6

For Insomnia/Nervous Exhaustion/Neurasthenia This combination may be helpful to people who suffer from sleep apnoea or snoring. Ask your Doctor or Health professional.

  • Balm
  • Hops
  • Fragrant Valerian root

Mix in equal parts. Take 1 teaspoon of the herbal mixture.   Pour over  half cup of boiling water. Let steep for 10 minutes.  Cool and strain.   Drink before bed.

Valerian Dosage

Valerian Officinalis.

Fragrant Valerian is from the Valerian Family, the Valerianaceae.

The legendary Pied Piper of Hamlyn was reputed to have drawn the rats out of Hamelin, not just because of his enchanting music, but by putting magical Fragrant Valerian Root into  his pockets.  Rats,  cats, and obviously children too, just love Fragrant Valerian root, and this is why they simply could not resist the Pied Piper as he piped his way out of Hamelin.

Valerian Root was widely used during the 15th and 16th centuries, and was regarded as something of a ‘cure-all’. Because of its wide-ranging uses, is also known as  ‘All-Heal’.

Because of its anti-spasmodic properties, Valerian Root was commonly used to treat epilepsy in bygone times.  Other conditions of the nervous system, such as hysteria, nervous spasms, and convulsions were treated with Valerian root, or ‘All-heal’;   Lung infections which accompany colds and flu were often treated with Valerian root;   An infusion of the root has even been used as an enema to rid the intestines of thread worms.

Some of its other names are ‘Vandalroot’,  ‘Germain Valerian’,  ‘English Valerian’, and  ‘Great Wild Valerian’.

Valerian Side Effects:

There are some serious side effects to using Valerian root, so it must be used with caution. Valerian root for medicinal purposes should be reserved for use in the event of a crisis, when  there may be no  other help available.

Valerian was used in the First World War to treat soldiers suffering from shell shock.  Valerian was used widely also during the second World War period, to treat people suffering nervous disorders which often resulted from bomb attacks.

Valerian can be addictive, so it must not be used for long periods as a regular medicine. Symptoms of poisoning may occur if Valerian is used for long periods. For these reasons,  commercial products which contain Valerian should not be taken over long periods either.

The herbalist John Lust lists Valerian root for use as a mild sedative, and he also recommends that  the herb be used no longer than two to three weeks at the most, with a dose of one to two cupfuls of tea per day.

Because it is an antispasmodic, Valerian Root has been used in the past to treat cases of epilepsy.

Recipe for Valerian Sedative

Note: Only the rootstock of the Valerian plant is used.

I have found two different recipes for using valerian root as a sedative.

John Lust uses a method of infusion whereby 2 teaspoons of the freshly dug root is soaked for half a day in a pint of cold water.

Infusion of Valerian Dosage: Of this infusion, only one cup is taken per day.  Because you need to be careful with valerian, I would use only one cup per day, and  divide the cupful into two doses of half a cup each: Half a cup in the morning and half a cup at night to help treat anxiety, or insomnia.

Recipe Number Two  for Valerian Root Tea Sedative: Here is another  recipe for using valerian as a sedative. Again,  I have never tried this myself.  The recipe is adapted  from a New Zealand Herbal published in the 1980’s.

First, you dig up your valerian root.  This must be dried before using, according to this New Zealand herbal.  The best way to do this is by drying in a cool-to- warm oven for several hours.

Method:

Valerian Dosage:  Take only one teaspoon of dried Valerian root. Soak this in half a cupful of water for half a day. Strain the liquid off and discard the Valerian root. Drink this  tea at night.

Gluten Free Pasta

How To Make Gluten Free Pasta

Home-made  pasta is usually made with fresh eggs using four eggs to 2 and a 1/2 cups of standard flour.

Here is an adaptation of the standard pasta recipe which uses eggs, only this one is a  totally gluten free pasta which is equally as good as a wheat flour pasta, only more nutritious.  This home made egg pasta is very high in protein and is a good protein food for vegetarians, provided you can eat eggs.

Use Free Range Eggs: The first priority is to make sure that the eggs for your gluten free pasta  are free range eggs, for the sake of the chickens which produce them for us.  Caged chickens have such a miserable life, we should do everything we can to get them out of those cages.  NOT buying battery, barn-laid eggs and, instead, buying free range eggs  is doing heaps towards letting a chicken have a happy life. It is worth paying that little bit extra for them.  And then try to procure organic eggs for your pasta, if they are available.

Recipe for Gluten-Free Pasta

First of all, lightly beat up 4 fresh eggs in a pint-size bowl.Stand aside ready for use.

Into a larger mixing bowl put:

1 cup of rice flour

1 cup of besan flour, or chick pea flour

½ cup of either arrowroot flour or potato flour

1  heaped tablespoonful of soy flour

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon of olive oil

METHOD:

Stir the flours together, then make a well at the centre of the flours.

Into this well, pour the beaten eggs.

Add the tablespoonful of olive oil into the well.

Use a fork to begin gradually mixing in the eggs and oil into the flours. Then use the hand to mix and knead the ingredients together as it becomes a dough.

Lightly flour a board or working space with 50/50 rice flour and potato flour. Turn the gluten-free dough onto the floured board and knead lightly for between five to ten minutes. The dough should be nice and smooth and pliable, and not sticky.

Cover the kneaded dough with a clean tea towel and leave to sit for half an hour.

Reflour your working board with a little more of your gluten-free flours. Press out the ball of dough lightly with the fingers. Then proceed to roll out your dough with a wooden rolling pin. Keep lifting the sheet of rolled dough and turning it about 45 degrees clockwise every two or three rolls.

If you are making lasagne, then you can use the pasta immediately. If you wish to boil the pasta as in spaghetti, then let the pasta dry for 15 minutes before cutting it or running it through a cutter. You can hang the sheet of pasta over a broom handle and leave it between two chairs to do the drying.

To Boil the Pasta: Cook in the usual way for pasta, making sure that the water is completely boiling before you put the pasta in.  Make sure that it simmers once the pasta in.  If it boils too hard, then your gluten free pasta may break up.  Gluten free home-made pasta is more fragile than the usual shop-bought varieties of pasta.

Store Your Pasta: It is possible to store pasta which has been made with eggs, but it must be dried out completely to do so.

Drying the pasta for storage may take a day or more, depending on the humidity and air temperature. The pasta could be put into a very slow drying oven for several hours if the weather was damp. Dried out properly, egg pasta will keep for up to two months in an air-tight jar which stands in a dry cupboard.

Other Gluten Free Flours: You can experiment using  other flours in combination with your four eggs and  a tablespoon of olive oil. Any of these flours can be used, but you really need some arrowroot or potato or soy to give the pasta a smooth consistency which will hold together in the cooking.  Rice flour, cornmeal flour, fine millet, arrowroot flour, tapioca flour, soy and besan or chickpea flour are all gluten free.  Several of these can be combined to make a nutritious and protein-rich pasta.

Benefits of Celery

Is Celery Good For You

Celery is one of the most alkaline vegetables.  For this reason, tt is great for getting rid of body acidity. It is also a marvellous blood cleanser and rejuvenator.

Celery can be used to help remove dangerous toxins from the body, and help to restore a person;s health if they have been exposed to damaging poisons.

But remember that expectant mothers should not take too much celery.

The botanical name for celery is Apium graveolens.

Celery belongs to the Carrot Family, Apiaceae.

Celery stalks and leaves are an appetizer, a diuretic and an emmenagogue. The seeds are carminative and have a mild sedative effect.

A diet which consisted mainly of celery, garlic, and tuna fish in oil saved my life once when I almost died due to asbestos and heavy metal poisoning. I believe that this was because the celery neutralized the poisons and the extreme acidic state caused by this poisoning. It helped cleanse the blood and restore it to a healthy state. The high fiber content cleansed the digestive tract and the blood. It provided essential vitamins and minerals, along with the tuna fish nutrients and garlic, to restore the health.

Note: This celery diet worked for me because of the addition of tuna fish and garlic. I have since read about other people having success  in reducing heavy metal poisons in the body by using a tuna fish diet in combination with alkaline greens.

Candida Infections: Celery is the very best vegetable to eat raw for the treatment of candida infections. This is because celery is alkaline and has an antibiotic effect.  Its high fiber make it great for cleaning out the intestines, which is usually needed in candida infections.

Weight Loss: Celery is recommended for weight loss, and overeating.  John Lust lists it as a weight-reducing herb. Try eating a stalk of celery with lunch and dinner every day to help with weight loss.

Vitamin C and Skin Conditions: Nicolas Culpeper, the 17th Century herbalist, said that the leaves, when eaten in the spring, ‘sweeten and purify the blood and help the scurvy’. Celery stalks and leaves, eaten on a daily basis, is helpful for treating skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.

Celery has been used over the centuries as a herb to help gout, rheumatism and dropsy and cases of water retention.

Contra-indications of Celery:  Its diuretic effect make it good for these above conditions. However, John Lust advises that you do not use large amounts of celery if you have acute kidney disease, although he says that ‘moderate use is allowable when kidney problems are chronic’. He also warns that expectant mothers should take only moderate amounts of celery during their pregnancy. Celery has the ability to hasten menstruation, known as an emmenagogue, and any herb of vegetable which does this is usually best avoided during pregnancy. Pregnant women tend to urinate more than usual, so eating a lot of celery will accentuate this aspect of pregnancy.

Celery and Blood Pressure: John Lust also advises that people with high blood pressure should not consume too much celery, because celery has a high sodium content.

The effect of celery as a diuretic – one which makes you urinate more – is interesting, because celery grows naturally in wet and damp places, as it absorbs a lot of water in its stems. This is an example of a ‘like treats like’ effect – a water plant to cure a water problem in the body. The Reader’s Digest ‘Magic and Medicine of Plants’ says that the Latin name ‘Apium’ could be derived from a prehistoric Indo-European word for water. (p.151)

Celery is also beneficial to the health because it is one of the most alkaline vegetables of all our culinary vegetables. Alfalfa sprouts are probably the only thing that compares with celery in alkalinity. Celery’s extremely alkaline nature make it excellent for correcting acidic states of the body: Gout, rheumatism, arthritis and dropsy are often caused by acidic diets – too much wheat, bread, pasta, potatoes, dairy products,meats and fried and fatty foods, and not enough of the alkaline vegetables to balance the diet out.

Uses of Celery Seed:

Homemade Celery Salt:   Save that celery seed. It is a valuable culinary and medicinal item. You can make celery salt by using a 50/50 mixture of sea salt and celery seed.

To Use Medicinally: John Lust recommends one tablespoon of fresh celery juice be taken an hour before each meal.  This will help the digestion.

Decoction of Celery Seed: John Lust says that 1/2 teaspoon of seed should be boiled for 10 minutes in 1/2 cup of water.  Strain and take the decoction for bronchitis, colds and flu. (OF course see your doctor or health practitioner to check out any lung condition and to see if celery is right for you as an addition to your treatment)

Natural Cure For Gall Stones

Herbal Treatments for Gall Stones:

There are several ways in which you can treat gall stones at home, without medications.   A modified diet which consists mainly of raw fruit and vegetables helps to break down gall stones.  The olive oil and lemon juice treatment is another method.  The castor oil treatment is also effective. See my other posts on these treatments.  This post gives several herbal recipes which have been helpful in some cases of ridding the body of gall stones.

Operations for gall bladder removal should not be done unless it is absolutely necessary. It is possible to control the development of gall stones, and to eliminate them through detoxification treatments.   For most people, following some sort of cleansing diet several times a month, and occasionally  using herbal formulas,  will help to prevent  the occurrence of an emergency-operation situation.

Herbal Tea For Gall Stones

This is known as a ‘cholagogue’. A chologogue is a liver cleansing medicine.

Note: Ask your health professional for advice before you try this tea. This tea is no substitute for professional advice: It may not be suitable for you.

Birch Leaf Tea Combination: Combine equal quantities of birch leaf, chamomile flowers, calendula flowers and dandelion leaves. Make tea using one teaspoon of the mixture and one cup of boiling water. Let the mixture cool, then drink 20 minutes before breakfast. Make sure that you drink plenty of water during the course of the day.

This procedure can be repeated before lunch and before tea, using a fresh teaspoon of herbs each time. That’s up to three doses of the tea per day.

Keep taking the tea before meals as described for two weeks. Then stop taking the tea.

Castor Oil Pack to Help Eliminate Gall Stones: Use castor oil packs on the stomach over the liver and gall bladder area while you are taking the tea. Use a castor oil pack at night for three consecutive nights, and then leave off for three nights. Put the castor oil pack on again for three more nights in a row, then leave off for three more nights. Finish the last two nights of treatment with the castor oil pack.

How To Make a Castor Oil Pack;

To make a castor oil pack for the abdomen, use a piece of white linen or white flannel cloth about 18 inches long and about 6-8 inches wide. Fold the edges of the cloth in so that you have three thicknesses. Soak castor oil into the cloth until it is saturated. You can warm the castor oil pack up a little by wrapping some plastic around the pack and leaving it on a hot water bottle for a few minutes. Then unwrap the castor oil pack and put directly onto the skin of the stomach. Put over the plastic sheeting so that the oil does not transfer onto your clothes or bedding. Put a light tea towel over the top of the plastic. Then place the warm, but not too hot, water bottle on top of the lot. The water bottle will cool off, so take this off after half an hour or so. But try to leave the castor oil pack on the stomach for the duration of the night if you can.

Alternative Herbal Tea For Helping To Pass Gall Stones;  This tea is listed in John Lust’s Herbal Book.

Of course, you will choose only one herbal tea combination:  Use EITHER the one listed at the top of the page, or this one.  Do not take both teas.  You can use the castor oil pack to aid the healing process and to help eliminate gall stones for either of these herbal treatments.

Herbal Tea Recipe:

Equal quantities of St Benedict Thistle, Mallow Leaves, Calendula, Pansy, Alder Buckthorn bark, and Milfoil are combined.

1 to 2 teaspoons of the mix are put into a cup, and ½ a cup of boiling water poured over. Let cool and take. The dose can be repeated up to three times in the day. He does not specify how long you should take the tea for.

General Cholagogue For Gall Bladder Problems

This recipe is  another herbal recipe which is recommended by John Lust in his herbal “The Herb Book”. Combine the following:

1 part of Alder Buckthorn Bark

5 parts of Yellow gentian root.

5 parts of restharrow root

10 parts of peppermint leaves.

Take one teaspoon of the mixture and pour over half a cup of boiling water. Let steep until cool. Take between one cup to a cup and a half over the course of the day, taking just a sip at a time.