Skullcap – Organic

Its Active Constituents are:

• Flavonoids

• Volatile oil – trace

• Bitter iridoid – catalpol

• Tannins

Its actions being:

• Tonic nervine – trophorestorative to nervous system

• Sedative

• Anti-spasmodic

• Anti-convulsant

• Mild astringent

• Diuretic

Its main area of use is in the Nervous System:

• Tension/Stress

• Anxiety

• Hysteria

• Nervous Exhaustion

• Insomnia

• Restless Sleep

• Depression

• Neuralgia

• Chorea

• Headaches of Nervous origin

• Epilepsy including Grand Mal

• Withdrawal Symptoms (tranquilizers & antidepressants)

• BHP (British Herbal Pharmacopia) Epilepsy Grand Mal

as well as the Musculoskeletal System:

• Arthritis

• Twitching/Jerking Muscles

Considered to be one of the finest nervines ever discovered. Utilized by the Cherokee and other tribes of North America to promote menstruation, skullcap was employed in the ceremonial transition of young girls to womanhood. The Cherokee also used infusions and decoctions of skullcap roots for treating diarrheoa, kidney problems and breast pains, and to help expel the afterbirth. In North American folk medicine, skullcap was used as a sedative and nerve tonic, or “nervine,” and skullcap tea was drunk for anxiety.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Eclectic physicians prescribed skullcap for nervousness caused by illness, teething, and mental or physical exhaustion; nervousness with muscular spasms; heart disorders of the nervous type with intermittent pulse; hysteria accompanied by uncontrollable muscular action; tremors; and subsultus tendinum (twitching of the tendons, notably the wrist, during low fevers). King’s American Dispensatory also recommended skullcap for convulsions, delirium tremens, intermittent fever, neuralgia, tremors, and chorea (involuntary, rapid, jerky, forceful movements). The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy includes the following additional uses for skullcap: twitching, nervous tics, epilepsy, paralysis agitans (a progressive, degenerative neurologic disease), and irritability and restlessness with nervous excitability and sleeplessness. Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, herbalists and naturopaths continue to use skullcap as an effective antispasmodic, nervine tonic and sedative.

Skullcap fluid extract was listed in the United States Pharmacopoeias from 1860 until 1900 and was included in the National Formulary from 1916-1942. The Health Canada Natural Health Products Directorate approved the oral traditional medicinal use of skullcap preparations equivalent to 0.25-12 g dried aerial parts per day to help relieve nervousness, as a sleep aid, and to help relieve the pain associated with menstruation. While not official, monographs published in both the British Herbal Pharmacopoeia (BHP) and the British Herbal Compendium (BHC) address S. lateriflora. The BHP lists skullcap as a mild sedative and the BHC recognises the use of skullcap for nervous disorders due to anxiety, tension or stress; headaches; migraine; neurasthenia (a mental disorder characterised by chronic fatigue and concomitant physiologic symptoms); neuralgia; panic attacks; restlessness; sleep disorders; premenstrual tension and period pain; and to assist withdrawal from benzodiazepines.

(The above is for informational purposes only, we recommend consulting with your professional health care worker)

Nutritional constituents:

• Vitamin C

• Vitamin E

• Calcium

• Potassium

• Magnesium

• Iron

• Zinc