_Valerian Root_; F. _Racine de Valériane_; G. _Baldrianwurzel_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Valeriana officinalis_ L., an herbaceous perennial
plant, growing throughout Europe from Spain to Iceland, the North Cape
and the Crimea, and extending over Northern Asia to the coasts of
Manchuria. The plant is found in plains and uplands, ascending even in
Sweden to 1200 feet above the sea-level.
In England, valerian is cultivated in many villages[1394] near
Chesterfield in Derbyshire, the wild plant which occurs in the
neighbourhood not being sufficiently plentiful to supply the demand.
In Vermont, New Hampshire and New York, as well as in Holland, the
plant is grown to some extent, but by far the largest supply would
appear to be grown in the environs of the German town Cölleda, not far
from Leipzig.
Valerian is propagated by separating the young plants which are
developed at the end of runners emitted from the rootstock.
The wild plant, according to the situation it inhabits, exhibits
several divergent forms. Among eight or more varieties noticed by
botanists,[1395] we may especially distinguish α. _major_ with a
comparatively tall stem and all the leaves toothed, β. _minor_ (_V.
angustifolia_ Tausch) with entire or slightly dentate leaves, and also
_V. sambucifolia_ Mikan, having only 4 or 5 pairs of leaflets.
=History=—The plant which the Greeks and Romans called Φοῦ or _Phu_,
and which Dioscorides and Pliny describe as a sort of wild nard, is
usually held to be some species of valerian.[1396]
The word _Valeriana_ is not found in the classical authors. We first
meet with it in the 9th or 10th century, at which period and for long
afterwards, it was used as synonymous with _Phu_ or _Fu_.
Thus in the writings of Isaac Judæus[1397] occurs the following:—“_Fu
id est valeriana, melior rubea et tenuis et quæ venit de Armenia et est
diversa in sua complexione_....”
Constantinus Africanus[1398]—“_Fu, id est valeriana. Naturam habet
sicut spica nardi_....”
The word _Valeriane_ occurs in the recipes of the Anglo-Saxon leeches
written as early as the 11th century.[1399] _Valeriana_, _Amantilla_
and _Fu_ are used as synonymous in the _Alphita_, a mediæval vocabulary
of the school of Salernum.[1400]
Saladinus[1401] of Ascoli directs (_circa_ A.D. 1450) the collection in
the month of August of “_radices fu id est valerianæ_.”
[1394] Namely Ashover, Woolley Moor, Morton, Stretton, Higham,
Shirland, Pilsley, North and South Wingfield, and Brackenfield. From
the produce of these villages, one wholesale dealer in Chesterfield
obtained in 1872 about 6 tons (13,440 lb.) of root.
[1395] Regel, _Tentamen Floræ Ussuriensis_, 1862 (_Mém. de l’Académie
de St. Pétersbourg_).
[1396] _V. officinalis_ L. and nine other species occur in Asia Minor
(Tehihatcheff).
[1397] _Opera Omnia_, Lugd. 1515, cap. 45.—It must be remembered that
this is a translation from the Arabic. How the word in question stands
in the original we have no means of knowing.
[1398] _De omnibus medico cognitu necessariis_, Basil. 1539. 348.
[1399] _Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of early England_, iii.
(1866) 6. 136.
[1400] S. de Renzi, _Collectio Salernitana_, iii. (1854) 271-322.
[1401] _Compendium Aromatariorum_, Bonon. 1488.
Valerian was anciently called in English _Setwall_, a name properly
applied to _Zedoary_; and the root was so much valued for its medicinal
virtues, that as Gerarde[1402] (1567) remarks, the poorer classes
in the north of England esteemed “_no broths, pottage, or physicall
meats_” to be worth anything without it. Its odour, now considered
intolerable, was not so regarded in the 16th century, when it was
absolutely the custom to lay the root among clothes as a perfume[1403]
in the same way as those of _Valeriana celtica_ L. and the Himalayan
valerians are still used in the East.
Some of the names applied to valerian in Northern and Central Europe
are remarkable. Thus in Scandinavia we find _Velandsrot_, _Velamsrot_,
_Vandelrot_ (Swedish); _Vendelród_, _Venderód_, _Vendingsród_
(Norwegian); and _Velandsurt_ (Danish)—names all signifying _Vandels’
root_.[1404] Valerian is also called in Danish _Danmarks græs_. Among
the German-speaking population of Switzerland, a similar word to the
last, namely _Tannmark_, is applied to valerian. The _Denemarcha_
mentioned by St. Hildegard,[1405] about A.D. 1160, is the same. These
names seem to point to some connexion with Northern Europe which we are
wholly unable to explain.
Pentz, a pharmaceutical assistant at Pyrmont, was the first, in 1829,
to draw attention to the acid reaction of the distilled water of
valerian. Another German assistant, Grote, at Verden, showed in 1831
that the acidity was by no means due to acetic acid, but to a peculiar
kind of acid. The latter was identified in 1843 by Dumas with the acid
artificially obtained from amylic alcohol and that extracted in 1817 by
Chevreul from the fat of dolphins.
=Description=—The valerian root of the shops consists of an upright
rhizome of the thickness of the little finger, emitting a few short
horizontal branches, besides numerous slender rootlets.[1406] The
rhizome is naturally very short, and is rendered still more so by the
practice of cutting it in order to facilitate drying. The rootlets,
which are generally 3 to 4 inches long, attain ⅒ of an inch in
diameter, tapering and dividing into slender fibres towards their
extremities. They are shrivelled, very brittle, and, as well as the
rhizome, of a dull, earthy brown. When broken transversely, they
display a dark epidermis, forming part of a thick white bark which
surrounds a slender woody column. The interior of the rhizome is
compact, firm and horny, but when old becomes hollow, a portion of the
tissue remaining however in the form of transverse septa.
The drug has a peculiar, somewhat terebinthinous and camphor-like
odour, and a bitterish, aromatic taste. The root when just taken from
the ground has no distinctive smell, but acquires its characteristic
odour as it dries.
=Microscopic Structure=[1407]—In the rhizome as well as in the
rootlets, the cortical part is separated from the central column by a
dark cambial zone; the medullary rays are not distinctly obvious. In
old rootstocks, sclerenchymatous cells are met with in the cortical
tissue.
[1402] _Herball_, 1636. 1078.
[1403] Turner’s _Herball_, part 3 (1568) 76; Langham, _Garden of
Health_, 1633. 598.
[1404] H. Jenssen-Tusch, _Nordiske Plantenavne_, Kjöbenhavn, 1867. 258.
[1405] _Physica_, Argent. 1533. 62.
[1406] The morphological peculiarities of valerian root are well
explained in Irmisch, _Beitrag zur Naturgeschichte der einheimischen
Valeriana-Arten_, Halle, 1854, 44 pages, 4°, 4 plates.
[1407] The structure of the rhizomes and root of the different species
of valerian has been discussed by Joannes Chatin in his _Etudes sur les
Valérianées_, Paris, 1872, illustrated by 14 beautiful plates.
The parenchyme of the drug is loaded with small starch granules,
brownish grains of tannic matter and drops of essential oil. Numerous
oil ducts are met with in the outer layer of the tissue.
=Chemical Composition=—Volatile oil is contained in the dry root to
the extent of ½ to 2 per cent., yet on an average appears scarcely to
exceed ⁴/₅ per cent. This variation in quantity is partly explained by
the influence of locality, a dry, stony soil yielding a root richer in
oil than one that is moist and fertile. In the latter the plant may be
distinguished as the variety _sambucifolia_, which has a less vigorous
root, devoid of runners.
Schoonbroodt[1408] has shown that the most important influence is the
recent condition of the root. He states that if the root is submitted
to distillation when perfectly fresh, it yields a neutral water and
a large quantity of essential oil. The latter has but a very faint
odour, but by exposure to the air it slowly acidifies, especially if a
little alkali is added, and acquires a strong smell. _Valerianic Acid_
which is thus formed amounts to 6 per mille of the fresh root. The
dried root yields a distillate of decided valerian odour, containing
valerianic acid, but in proportion not exceeding 4 per mille of the
root calculated as fresh.
The oil of valerian is of a very peculiar yellowish or brownish,
sometimes even almost a little greenish hue, and possessing the
characteristic odour of the drug. We found it to deviate the plane
of polarization from 11° to 13° to the left when examined by Wild’s
Polaristrobometer in a column of 50 millimetres. By submitting it to
fractional distillation we noticed[1409] that it affords a magnificent
blue fraction. A superb violet or blue colour is produced if one drop
of the _crude oil_ dissolved in about 20 drops of bisulphide of carbon
is mixed with 1 drop of nitric acid 1·20 sp. gr. Other colorations are
produced if bromine or concentrated sulphuric acid are used;[1410] even
the tincture of valerian displays similar reactions.
Bruylants (1878) has isolated from oil of valerian—1st. A hydrocarbon,
C₁₀H₁₆, boiling at 157° C., yielding a crystallized compound with
HCl. 2nd. The liquid compound C₁₀H₁₈O, which by means of chromic acid
affords common camphor and formic, acetic and valerianic acids, which
are met with in old valerian root, owing no doubt to the slow oxidation
of the compound C₁₀H₁₈O. 3rd. There is also present a crystallizable
compound of the same composition, which is probably identical with
the camphor of Dryobalanops aromatica (see our article on Camphora).
It would appear that this substance is of alcoholic nature, being
combined in the root with the 3 organic acids mentioned under 2nd. On
distilling, these compound ethers are resolved partly into the alcohol
C₁₀H₁₈O (borneol) and the acids. This decomposition is fully performed,
if the root is macerated with alkaline water, and then, on distilling,
a slight excess of sulphuric acid is added. 4th. At about 300° a
greenish portion is coming over, which can be obtained colourless by
again rectifying it. This oil assumes intense colorations if it is
shaken with concentrated mineral acids; it becomes blue by distilling
it over potash.
[1408] _Journ. de Médecine de Bruxelles_, 1867 and 1868;
_Jahresbericht_ of Wiggers and Husemann, 1869. 17.
[1409] _Archiv der Pharmacie_, 209 (1876).
[1410] _Jahresbericht_ of Wiggers and Husemann, 1871. 462.
Valerianic acid as afforded by the root is not agreeing with normal
valerianic acid. It is, more exactly, _isovalerianic acid_, or
isopropyl-acetic acid: (CH₃)₂CH·CH₂COOH, which is produced by Valeriana
as well as by Archangelica officinalis and Viburnum Opulus. The same
acid also may be obtained from the fat of Dolphinus globiceps.
After the root has been submitted to the distillation of the oil, there
is found a strongly acid residue containing malic acid, resin, and
sugar,—the last capable, according to Schoonbroodt, of reducing cupric
oxide.
=Uses=—Valerian is employed as a stimulant and antispasmodic.
=Substitutes=—In the London market there has been offered “_Kesso_” the
root of _Patrinia scabiosaefolia_ Link,[1411] a Japanese herb of the
order Valerianaceæ. This drug consists of a very short rootstock giving
off a large number of rootlets about 5 inches long and ⅒ of an inch
in diameter. By the absence of a well-marked upright rhizome in this
_Japanese Valerian_ it is widely differing from our Valerian, although
at first sight it agrees to some extent with it. As to the odour and
taste we find Kesso almost identical with true Valerian.
The less aromatic and now disused root of _Valeriana Phu_ L. consists
of a thicker rhizome which lies in the earth obliquely; it is less
closely annulated and rooted at the bottom only. It resembles by no
means true Valerian.
[1411] According to Holmes, _Ph. J._ x. (1879) 22.