This plant seems to act primarily as an antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory and shows some pretty impressive results as an antihistamine for allergy sufferers and as a preventive and potential treatment for migraine sufferers in clinical trials.  It is not clear exactly how this herb works for allergies, but compounds in it appear to block the action of histamine and leukotrienes, inflammatory chemicals involved in allergic reactions, reducing symptoms of allergic rhinitis.  It was shown to be as effective as pharmaceutical antihistamines but without the side effects, namely drowsiness, which is obviously desirable for daytime use.

For migraine headaches, regular use can reduce the frequency by half, and decrease the severity of the symptoms as well.  This is likely due to Butterbur’s antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory effects.

The sticking point for the use of this herb is that it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids which can harm the liver.  Obviously, as overloaded and worked as our liver is, this is not a good thing.  Therefore, it is best to take this herb in capsule form where the alkaloids have been removed.  50 mg 3-4 times/day is the recommended dose to have effective antihistamine effects, and anywhere from 50 – 75 mg 2-3 times/day for preventing migraines.

One of the advantages of using Passionflower or a variety of other herbs for anxiety or sleep is that they don’t tend to produce a sense of dullness, grogginess, or otherwise impair mental function.  In research on the anti-anxiety effects of Passionflower, it was as effective as anti-anxiety medication, including benzodiazepine drugs, plus it had the added benefit of not impairing daytime performance and is not habit-forming.

Passionflower is in our Get Sleepy Tea (a great bedtime tea to send you off to a restful slumber) and in our Sleep Well Drops, a tincture blend of herbs including Passionflower, Hops, and Valerian.  We also have numerous capsule combinations for sleep and anxiety that contain Passionflower and often include it in our custom blends for stress, sleep, nervousness, restlessness, and pain.

Some nervines include: lemon balm, oat pods, chamomile, passionflower, california poppy, valerian, hops, St. John’s wort, and kava.

Many others abound, since herbs do seem to have a particular affinity for the human nervous system.  Since many people suffer from issues such as insomnia, anxiety, muscle tension, and stress (an all-encompassing word), these herbs can come in very handy.  For other nerve-related issues such as tingly or numb skin, damaged nerves from car accidents or other tissue trauma, digestive irritability, nervine herbs can also help restore nerve tissue, reduce nerve tingling, pain, or itching, and calm and soothe stomach or head aches.

Get Sleepy Tea is formulated to help relax the body and tense muscles, calm the mind, and promote sleepiness and the body’s ability to drop into deep, restorative sleep.  A tea can be a relaxing ritual to get into before bedtime, comforting and warm.

Contains: Lemon balm, Skullcap, Chamomile, Orange peel, California poppy, Passionflower, and Valerian.

Sleep Well Drops is a tincture blend (extract in alcohol and water) of passionflower, hops, valerian, and hawthorn berry.  These herbs in particular can help you get a more consistent, restful sleep.  A tincture can be ideal for those to whom tea doesn’t appeal, or who do not wish to consume a cup of fluids before bed, which can interfere with sleep.

Chill Out Tea is a relaxing blend of herbs formulated for daytime use because they don’t necessarily make you tired or reduce mental alertness.  This blend is great for anxiety, stress, tension, and to help the body relax and reduce muscle pain and spasm.  It also contains herbs that help restore and soothe the nervous system and can help reduce mental chatter and an overactive mind.

Contains:  Lemon balm, Oat pods, Kava root, Lemon verbena, Linden, Skullcap, and Rose petals.

Also, because of its action on mucus membranes, it has been used historically to relieve irritation of the gastrointestinal tract (throat, stomach, and intestines) and the urinary tract, as well as the lungs.

Cherry bark is also known to have a an effect on the circulatory and cardiovascular systems, increasing circulation to the extremities and helping to relieve heart palpitations and high blood pressure.  It seems to be useful for the heart when the nervous system is involved, such as in anxiety-induced palpitations or high blood pressure due to stress.

Contains: cyanogenic glycoside, benzaldehyde, eudesmic acid, p-couramic acid, scopoletin, tannins, sugars.

Primary actions: antitussive, expectorant, astringent, nervine, antispasmodic

Dosing: Large doses over prolonged periods of time are not recommended with Cherry bark, due to the cyanogenic glycosides that convert to cyanide in the body.  However, the amount of cyanide produced is very low and is not a concern when used appropriately.  For tea, it is recommended that 1 tsp of bark is simmered per cup hot water for 10-15 minutes and 3 cups are drank/day.  The doses can be divided (say 1/2 cup every 2 hours) for a cough.  For tincture, 2 dropperfuls 3 times/day.  Most of the time, Cherry bark is in combination with other lung and cough herbs, so the dose is not really an issue. Because it tastes nice, it gives a good flavor to tea and syrups.  It is often a part of cough formulas for children.

Hypericum perforatum is the Latin name; the species name refers to tiny oil glands in the leaves that can be clearly seen as “perforations” when held up to the light.  The flowers are a sunny yellow that produce a rich red resin at their base, which is extracted when infused into an oil fresh or made into a tincture.  This plant grows in “waste lands” such as highway medians, abandoned city lots, and edges of parking lots, as well as in lots of other areas outside urban areas. In Washington, this herb is considered a noxious weed, but as we herbalists know, many herbs that are known as weeds are supportive medicines.

St. John’s wort is used as a nerve tonic, restoring the nervous system and helping with anxiety and depression.  It can also help repair nerve and tissue damage, both internally when taken in a tea, capsule, or tincture, and externally when applied as an infused-oil or salve.  Because of its effect on nerves, this herb can also help reduce pain.  It also reduces inflammation and promotes tissue repair.  When applied topically, compounds in St. John’s wort can make the skin more sensitive to sunlight and increase chances of getting a sunburn.

Because St. John’s wort contains compounds that are metabolized through specific enzyme pathways in the liver, it can speed up metabolism of other drugs that also are metabolized via these enzyme pathways, making them detoxify out of the body faster.  Some drugs of concern are oral contraceptives, antidepressant drugs, and blood thinners.  If you are concerned about an negative interaction with St. John’s wort, always consult a health professional, an herbalist, or a reputable resource for a list of herb-drug interactions.

Contains: echinacea, lemon balm, elder berries, licorice, astragalus, mullein, boneset, peppermint, and ginger.

This herb has a long history of use as food and medicine in India and China and is considered a “rasayana” herb in Ayurveda, meaning it is a long-life supportive and tonic herb.

The primary constituents identified in gotu kola are saponins, alkaloids, and triterpene acids.  The triterpenoid saponins thought to exert the most effects are asiaticoside, madecassoside, asiatic acid, and madecassic acid.

Its primary actions are as a nervous system tonic, circulatory stimulant, anti-inflammatory, alterative, vulnerary, and mild adaptogen.

The vulnerary properties of gotu kola, both topically for wound-healing and internally for healing of gastrointestinal wounds, such as ulcers,  have been ascribed to asiaticoside,which seems to increase wound healing and scar reduction.  Gotu kola has been shown to increase the synthesis of collagen, which leads to its use topically in skin care.  Other effects, including its anti-inflammatory properties, seem to indicate an increase of connective tissue repair in general, so gotu kola is used to aid in healing of tendon, ligament, and muscle injuries and joint inflammation.

Gotu kola has long been used to decrease mental fatigue by increasing attentiveness and concentration, increase memory, and reduce premature aging.  As a nervine, gotu kola is used for balancing the nervous system to reduce symptoms such as insomnia, anxiety, and seizures.  It is considered an anti-stress herb because has been shown to reduce stress-induced ulcers, decrease adrenal enlargement and possesses corticosteroid-sparing effects, which leads to its categorization in some texts as an “adaptogen”, helping the body adapt better to stressful conditions and reducing stress-related negative effects on the body.

As a circulatory stimulant, this herb has been shown in studies to help with chronic venous insufficiency.  It is partly due to this effect that gotu kola is thought to increase focus, concentration, and memory because it allows more blood flow to the brain.  It is also traditionally used to increase venous health and strength in cases of varicose veins, hemorrhoids, and the like.

Potential adverse effects of gotu kola include skin irritation and photosensitization (increased sensitivity to light).  In large doses (over 1000 mg/day), headaches or sedation can occur (which may be desirable in the evening).  Because gotu kola may increase blood sugar and blood lipids, it may not be a good choice in high amounts for those with diabetes.

By increasing circulation throughout the body, but particularly to the head and brain, and improving energy in a sustainable way, this blend of herbs can help increase “mental clarity” over time, or perhaps immediately when you need a boost during a long or stressful day, or just need to “clear your head”.

Gotu kola is often used to improve mental function, which is does perhaps primarily by increasing circulation.  It also acts as an anti-inflammatory and helps with all types of connective tissue repair and function.  Ginkgo may be the most-recognized herb for memory and focus, and although results are mixed in studies, there is no doubt that it increases circulation and is a powerful antioxidant.  Rhodiola is an adaptogenic root that can help normalize body functions and is best known for increasing energy levels and helping improve recall and retention of information.  As an adaptogen, it somehow acts on the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis to balance the body and increase energy and mental function.  Rosemary is another potent antioxidant, cell protective, that increases circulation and is uplifting in its action.  Hawthorn leaf & flower helps improve cardiovascular function and circulation and is antioxidant.  You may notice a theme here.  Finally, peppermint and spearmint add their invigorating scent and taste to open the sinuses and clear the head to complement actions of the other herbs in this mix.

Contains: Gotu kola, ginkgo, rhodiola, rosemary, hawthorn leaf & flower, peppermint, & spearmint.

Meadowsweet is described in greater depth in another blog entry, so please refer there for more information, but suffice it to say here that it is in this tea blend as an anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving herb.  Two other herbs, feverfew and motherwort, have a long history of being used for headache relief, and in the case of feverfew in particular, migraine relief.  This effect on migraines is most noted when feverfew is consumed daily for a period of weeks (6 or more), when the severity and frequency of migraine headaches often decreases.  Some, however, notice its effects pretty immediately upon consuming this herb.  Peppermint is vasodilating and antispasmodic, both of which can relieve the spasm around blood vessels in the brain or vasoconstriction which can cause/contribute to headaches.  Licorice is antiinflammatory and has a sweet, harmonizing taste in the tea, helping to offset the bitter taste of feverfew and motherwort.  Lemon balm relaxes the nervous system, helping to relieve anxiety and tension.  Black haw is a great antispasmodic for smooth muscle cramping, such as in the case of menstrual cramps or  intestinal cramping.

Contains: Meadowsweet, Peppermint, Licorice, Feverfew, Lemon balm, and Motherwort.

Therefore, ginger root taken in therapeutic doses, can be a useful alternative to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin and acetaminophen, without the side effects such as gastritis/ulcers.  In fact, ginger root contains at least 17 compounds that have an anti-ulcer action.

Of the 477 compounds that have so far been identified in ginger root, many have varied desirable effects on inflammation.  It is the whole root that seems to work, as much as some would like to find the “active compounds”.

Primary actions of ginger: anti-inflammatory, anti-nausea, circulatory stimulant, warming, digestive, blood thinner (inhibits platelet aggregation), diaphoretic

Primary uses: sluggish or weak digestion, nausea, motion sickness, joint inflammation, arthritis, head aches, gastritis (inflammation of the stomach), high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, colds & flu to help break a fever and induce sweating