Is Verbena Poisonous? The Latest Answer Is Here
Verbena is a perennial upright herbaceous plant of the genus Verbena in the family Verbenaceae, native to Europe, mostly growing in the wild, and distributed in most areas of East China, South China and Southwest China. The whole plant is used medicinally and has the effects of cooling blood, dispersing blood stasis, promoting menstruation, clearing heat, detoxifying, relieving itching, expelling parasites and reducing bloating. Let us take a look below at whether verbena is actually poisonous!
Is Verbena Poisonous?
Verbena is mildly poisonous. Verbena is a toxic plant listed in the Chinese Plant Atlas Database, and the whole plant is mildly poisonous. Verbenalin mildly excites and in large amounts inhibits sympathetic nerve endings, can promote milk secretion in mammals, and its preparations can treat malaria, diphtheria, influenza and so on. Some people experience reactions such as nausea, dizziness, headache, vomiting and abdominal pain after taking it, but pregnant women are forbidden to take it.
Medicinal Value of Verbena
[Nature and Flavor] Bitter in taste, cool in nature, mildly poisonous.
[Meridian Tropism] Liver and spleen meridians.
[Effects] Clearing heat and detoxifying, invigorating blood and dispersing blood stasis, promoting diuresis and reducing swelling; treats exogenous fever, damp-heat jaundice, edema, dysentery, malaria, diphtheria, throat obstruction, gonorrhea, amenorrhea, abdominal masses, carbuncle swelling and sores, and dental gangrene.
[Contraindications] Pregnant women should take it with caution.
[Usage] Internal use: decocted in water, 0.5 to 1 liang (1 to 2 liang of fresh juice by pounding), or made into pills or powders. External use: apply pounded or wash with the decoction.
Clinical Applications of Verbena
1. Treating malaria: Take 60 to 150 grams of fresh verbena (halve the amount if dried), add water and decoct into about 300 milliliters, take 1 dose each 4 hours and 2 hours before the onset, for 2 to 4 consecutive days, and each time use 15 grams of dried whole plant (reduce the amount for children), 1 dose per day, decocted in water and taken in 2 divided doses, for 6 consecutive days. In 33 patients, 48 hours after symptoms disappeared, blood tests for malaria parasites all turned negative, with an effective rate of 92%.
2. Treating diphtheria: Take 30 grams of dried verbena (whole plant) and decoct into about 300 milliliters. Adults take 150 milliliters each time, 2 times a day; children aged 8 to 14 take 100 milliliters each time, 2 times a day; children under 8 take 50 milliliters each time, 3 to 4 times a day, all for 3 to 5 consecutive days. In the treatment of 50 cases of diphtheria, all were cured; after medication, the average fever reduction time was 15.3 hours, pseudomembrane disappearance time was 2.2 days, throat swab culture turning negative time was 2.4 days, and average hospital stay was 4.6 days.
3. Treating infectious hepatitis: Take 500 grams of verbena and make 800 milliliters of decoction; adults take 40 to 50 milliliters and children take 20 to 30 milliliters, all 3 times a day, treating a total of 80 cases. 77 cases were cured, 2 cases showed marked effect, and 1 case was ineffective. The average time for jaundice to disappear was 15 days, various digestive system symptoms disappeared in 3 to 12 days, liver enlargement regressed in 72 cases within 14 to 35 days, and liver function and transaminase tests returned to normal in 79 cases within 10 to 30 days. The average hospital stay was 23.6 days.
4. Treating influenza: Use 30 grams of verbena, 15 grams each of sweet wormwood and notopterygium, and decoct. Take 1 dose per day in 2 divided doses, or grind into powder and add flour to make a tea preparation to take with water. After medication, 51 cases were followed up: 46 cases were cured, 3 cases were effective, and 2 cases were ineffective.
6. Treating filariasis: Using verbena as the main ingredient, combined with perilla leaf and sweet wormwood, 81 patients with filariasis who were blood-test positive but had no obvious signs were treated. After 1 course of treatment, re-examination showed that the microfilaria negative conversion rate reached 90%, and the negative conversion rate at re-examination after 45 days was 81.4%. Take 30 grams of verbena, 15 grams of perilla leaf and 12 grams of sweet wormwood, add water, boil and concentrate to 50—80 milliliters, 1 dose per day, taken on an empty stomach in the morning and evening in 2 divided doses. For children aged 1 to 10 and 11 to 15, the dosage is about 1/3 and 2/3 of the adult total amount, taken for 10 consecutive days as 1 course of treatment. There were no serious side effects after medication; only a few patients experienced nausea, dizziness, headache, vomiting and abdominal pain, which recovered on their own.
7. Treating schistosomiasis: It has been reported that verbena ground into powder or made into pills and taken orally, 3 times a day, 1 pill each time (each pill contains 3 grams of verbena), for 8 to 10 days as 1 course of treatment, has a certain effect in treating early and mid-stage schistosomiasis, and some cases turned negative on stool re-examination.