VERVAIN or HERB OF THE CROSS

Description
Herbaceous, vivacious perennial plant up to 0.7 m high; rigid, erect, thin with a whitish, spindle-shaped and branched root. Stem is branched, too, quadrangular with short, rigid and rough angles.

Leaves and stem have spread hairs. Dark green leaves are opposite and of a rough texture; basal ones are petiolate, with a triangular limb or up to 9 cm long, pinnate-shaped with lobes somewhat divided or toothed. The upper ones with a wreath-like edge have no petiole and are smaller and simpler. They are almost sessile. Inflorescences are long, narrow, lax multiflowered spikes, grouped in panicles. Flowers are small, 2 mm long sessile, with a tetramerous or pentamerous calyx, cylindrical, glandular, with a pentamerous corolla, forming a short tube (3-5 mm) that opens in 5 lobes, slightly bilabiated. Color varies from pure white to pink, mauve or purple. 4 stamens fused at the corolla and inserted in the corolla tube. The bicarpellate superior ovary gives a loment with small achenia (1,5-2 mm); it is dark brown and longitudinally ribbed. The fruit is a quadrangular capsule holding four seeds inside. It blooms in spring and is harvested during the summer.

Vervain grows throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. It’s very common and grows spontaneously in fallow land, wastelands, roadsides, rubble, curbs, always protecting itself from the wind.

Part used

Indications

Internal use:

• Digestive disorders: dyspepsia, gastrointestinal spasms, biliary dyskinesia, etc.
• Nervousness, insomnia, anxiety, physical and psychical tiredness, migraine and neuralgia.
• Kidney disorders: oliguria, urinary retention, edemas.
• Respiratory disorders: unproductive cough, pharyngitis, laryngitis, asthma, bronchitis, common cold.
• Dysmenorrhea.
• Other: tachycardia, rheumatisms, arthritis, arthralgia, gout.

External use:

• Buccopharyngeal disorders in mouth washes: stomatitis, pharyngitis, parodontopathies, oral ulcers.
• In poultices: dermatitis, itching, burns, hard to heal wounds, ulcers, sinusitis, abscesses, furuncles, bruises, etc.

Bibliography

Real Farmacopea Española, 1997.

British Herbal Pharmacopoeia, 1983.

Herbal Drugs and Phytopharmaceuticals. Norman Grainger Bisset (Ed). Max Wichtl. CRC Press.1994.

Plantas Medicinales y Drogas Vegetales para infusión y tisana. Edición española a cargo de: Salvador Cañogueral, Roser Vila, Max Wichtl.1998.

Plantas Medicinales. Margarita Fernandez y Ana Nieto. Ed Universidad de Navarra. EUNSA 1982.

Fitoterapia: Vademecum de Prescripción. Plantas Medicinales. Colaboran: Asociación española de médicos naturistas. Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos de Vizcaya.

Matière Médicale (tomo II). RR Paris- H. Moyse. Masson 1981.

The Complete German Commission E Monographs. Therapeutic Guide To Herbal Medicines. Mark Blumenthal. American Botanical Council 1998.

Fitoterapia Aplicada. J.B. Peris, G. Stübing, B.Vanaclocha. Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos de Valencia 1995.

Pharmacognosy, Phytochemistry, Medicinal Plants. Jean Bruneton. Lavoisier Publishing.

Plantas Medicinales. El Dioscórides Renovado. Pio Font Quer.

Guía de Campo de las Flores de Europa. Oleg Polunin. Ediciones Omega S.A. Barcelona, 1977.

Pharmacognosy 9th edition. Varro E. Tyler – Lynn R. Brady – James E. Robbers.

Jean Bruneton. Farmacognosia. Fitoquímica Plantas Medicinales. 2ª Edición. 2001. Ed Acribia. S.A.

Bulletin officiel Nº 90/22 bis" del "Ministère des Affaires Sociales et de la Solidarité, Médicaments a base de Plantes.

French Public Health Code.

Benigni, R; Capra, C; Cattorini, P. Piante Medicinali. Chimica, Farmacologia e Terapia. Milano: Inverni & Della Beffa, 1962, pp. 92-5.

Bézanger-Beauquesne, L; Pinkas, M; Torck, M. Les Plantes dans la Therapeutique Moderne. 2ª. Paris: Maloine, 1986, p. 330.