Name: Verbena officinalis
Verbena – Verbenaceae.
Parts Used: Entire above-ground mass (traditionally without roots).
Pharmacy name: verbena herb – Verbenae herba (formerly: Herba Verbenae).
Botanical description. A perennial plant with a tough, rough stem, 30-50(60) cm tall, branching at the top. Bears at the ends of the branches small pink or pale blue flowers, collected in rare spike-shaped inflorescences. The leaves are opposite, the lower ones are petiolate and slightly dissected, the upper ones are sessile, tripartite or pinnately lobed with a serrate margin at the tops of the segments. Blooms from June to September. This weed is common in vacant lots and heaths, along roadsides, in hedges and along fences.
Collection and preparation. Collect all the grass during flowering, air dry, hanging tied in bunches.
Active ingredients: iridoid glycoside (verbena-lin), essential oil (little), tannins, soluble silicic acid (little), bitterness, mucus.
Healing action and application. Thanks to tannins, verbena is used for mild stomach diseases, diarrhea and lack of appetite. For colds, you can drink verbena tea or gargle with it, although there are better remedies: centaury, wormwood, erect cinquefoil, coltsfoot, chamomile. The German National Health Service considers the medicinal value of verbena unproven, although it does not exclude that it enhances the effect of other medicinal plants in catarrhs of the upper respiratory tract.
Use in homeopathy. The initial tincture is prepared from fresh flowering plants. The homeopathic remedy Verbena is given for insomnia, nervous disorders, epilepsy, and kidney or gallstones. In the latest literature, this tool, however, is practically not mentioned.
Application in folk medicine. Much more often verbena is used in folk medicine, which still relies on the herbalists of the Middle Ages. It is used primarily for the treatment of wounds, but is also used for diseases of other organs. However, do not forget that there are better means. o Verbena tea: 2 heaping teaspoons of the herb, pour 1/4 liter of boiling water, infuse for 5 minutes and strain. This tea can be used both internally and externally.
Side effects are unknown.
Note. “Fragrant Verbena Tea”, “Real Verbena Tea”, “Verbena” – everything sold under these names is prepared from the leaves of the three-leafed lip-pia – Lippia triphylla (L’Herit.) O. Kuntze [Lippia citriodora Kunth, Aloysia triphylla (L’Herit.) Britt.]. They contain fragrant essential oil, and in France and Switzerland these teas are readily substituted for ordinary black tea. The leaves of this plant are credited with strengthening, diuretic, reducing excess weight and tonic effect. Lippia trifoliate belongs to the verbena family. Her homeland is Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. In Southern Europe, it is grown in gardens.