Common Names
Vervain, ma bien cao (Chinese), herb of grace. The name "vervain" comes from the Celtic ferfaen which meant to drive away a stone, referring to a traditional use of vervain for bladder problems and urinary stones.
Species Used
Family
Verbenacea
Habitat
Native to the Mediterranean. Grows wild in Europe, North America, China, and Japan. There are several other species that are also native to these areas.
Botanical Description
Vervain has small, pale lilac flowers arranged in spikes. It is a perennial with dull green, opposite leaves that are roughly ridged and bristled. There is not much of a smell, but the taste is astringent and bitter.
Parts Used
Aerial parts - leaves and flowering tops. The root is not used medicinally, but along with the entire plant, it has a huge history of sacred and healing uses in European, Christian, and Celtic folklore.
Historical Uses
Constituents
Bitter iridoid glycosides such as verbenin and verbenalin are among the main constituents. Verbenin is thought to be the constituent that stimulates milk production in lactating women. It is also purported to block sympathetic innervation of the heart, blood vessels, intestines, and salivary glands, leaving an unopposed parasympathetic state in these organs.
Vervain also contains volatile oils, alkaloids, mucilage, flavonoids, tannins, and caffeic acid derivatives.
The leaves contain adenosine and beta-carotene.
Medicinal Actions
Nervine, tonic, mild sedative, choleretic, mild bitter, galactagogue, emmenagogue, anti-inflammatory. There are dozens of traditional uses and actions of vervain but these were the chief uses in current literature. Good sources for a list of these other medicinal actions include the Fetrow and Avila text listed in the reference section of this monograph, the PDR for Herbal Medicines, and Grieve's herbal. Many of the more than 30 traditional actions noted in the old herbals have not garnered the clinical attention that the nervine and digestive uses have.
Medicinal Uses
Nervous tension/exhaustion, anxiety, headaches, premenstrual syndrome, insomnia.
Low breast milk production, especially associated with stress.
Digestive problems related to gastrointestinal atony, hypochloridia, indigestion. Stimulates appetite in anorexia nervosa cases.
Chevallier writes about the digestive tonifying properties of vervain working with the nervous system restoring actions to recover from long-term stress or chronic illness. Mills and Bone agree with this concept as far as vervain being a tonic to aid recovery from debilitating conditions, chronic fatigue syndrome, and general convalescence.
Please Note: The information contained in this section of the web site is directed toward people with technical knowledge in the botanical medicine field. We provide this information as a service to naturopathic physicians, pharmacognocists, pharmacists, midwives, plant chemists and medical herbalists and we encourage health professionals to obtain a more general education in the area before applying treatments to themselves or their patients. Bastyr University assumes no responsibility for the results obtained from using this information. If you have a serious or lingering health concern, it is important to discuss it with a health care provider.
