SCULLCAP, VIRGINIAN

Botanical name: Scutellaria lateriflora (LINN.)
Family: N.O. Labiatae

Part Used: The whole herb, collected in June, dried and powdered.
The American species, Virginian Scullcap, flowering in July, with inconspicuous blue flowers in one-sided racemes, is one of the finest nervines ever discovered.

Constituents: A volatile oil, Scutellarin, and a bitter glucoside, yielding Scutellarein on hydrolysis. Also Iridoids, waxes, tannin, fat, some bitter principles, sugar and cellulose.

Medicinal Action : Anticonvulsive, sedative. Scullcap has strong tonic, nervine and antispasmodic action, and is slightly astringent.

Indications: In epilepsy, chorea, hysteria, convulsions, hydrophobia, St. Vitus's dance and nervous tension states, its action is invaluable. In nervous headaches, neuralgia and in headache arising from incessant coughing and pain, it offers one of the most suitable and reliable remedies.