The Big & Dandy Natural Psychotropics and Ethnobotanics Thread

All of the Pedicularis' are tranquilizers, muscle relaxants, powerful aphrodesiacs, and sedatives. They are often employed medicinally for muscle pain and tension, particularly back pain. Pedicularis are also used for their psychological effects, good for anger, fear, pain, anxiety. At least one Native American tribe is known to smoke the flowers of certain Pedicularis species for their medicinal effects and narcotic effects. These plants are a welcome addition to any smoking mixture both as flavor and a narcotic. Elephant's Head is claimed to have the best flavor but is the mildest, but every Pedicularis has an excellent taste. P. Densiflora being the most potent species.

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QUOTE said:

ELEPHANT'S HEAD
Botanical Name: Pedicularis groenlandica
Family: Scrophulariaceae

Parts Used: Flowering herb

Constituents: * Variable (see below). Volatile oil (mostly monoterpenes) Flavonoids, including luteolin; Phenylpropanoids including verbascoside, echinacoside.

Principal Actions: CNS depressant, voluntary muscle relaxant.

Pharmacy: Tincture of Dry herb 1:5, 50% alcohol. 5-10ml up to QID. Infusion flowers 5gms/250ml up to TID.

Pedicularis spp, are abundant in the NorthWest. Not to be confused with the European Wood Betony, they are commonly known as Louseworts; but morphological variation in the inflorescence has given rise to zoopomorphic common names such as Elephant's Head (P. groelandica), Parrot's beak (P. racemosa) and Cobra Head (P. bracteosa). Medicinally they are little studied or used other than by local herbalists who employ them as a mild sedatives with a pronounced relaxant action on skeletal muscle.

BOTANY
P. groelandica is a showy perennial Scrophulariaceae, with pink-white flowers on a racemose spike up to 60 cm tall. The leaves are fern like, the stem unbranched, and the individual flowers on the spike have a ³trunk² in between the three lobed ³ears²- hence the common appellation. It is found in damp meadows at middle to high elevations - in Oregon it is found on both sides of the Cascade mountains. The genus itself is abundant, and there are over forty species throughout North America, with representatives from Mexico to Alaska.

HARVESTING
The flowering herb is gathered and dried. For tincture, the whole herb is used, for infusions, the flowers are preferred.

PHARMACOLOGY
There are a very few studies on the constituents of the genus covering a range of about twenty species. There even fewer on the biological activity of the herb. An outstanding feature of the constituent analyses is the variability of different components. For example, P. groelandica has been shown to contain the isoquinoline alkaloid methyl cytisine (also found in Caulophyllum) whilst the pyrrolizidine alkaloid senecionine has been found in another species (1). A sensible, if unsubstantiated hypothesis to explain this has been put forward by Moore (2) - ie that the species is potentially parasitic, and when found in close association with other plants, has the capacity to absorb constituents of its neighbour. It is undoubtedly true that P. groelandica is commonly found in meadows which are abundant in Senecio triangularis, however they grow close to other alkaloidal species such as Aconitum, and Aconitine has not been recorded in the genus. The ³parasite² hypothesis remains speculative, if attractive.
One study has confirmed that a hot aqueous extract has both CNS sedative and hypotensive actions in vivo(3), although the species used was not groelandica.


ETHNOBOTANY
There is ethnobotanical evidence that a related species P canadensis was used by more than one tribe as an abortifacient taken as hot infusion.(1). The same sepecies was also used as a love charm, and as an aphrodisiac - the herb was chopped and sprinkled on the (spouse's) food to kindle their interest(4).

MEDICINAL USES
Willard (4) suggests the herb is a useful febrifuge and diaphoretic as a hot infusion, as well as a relaxing sedative. Moore(2) suggests that the relaxant action is primary, as well as having a thymoleptic effect. The extract has been used by massage therapists to help relax excessive muscular tension; the flowers have been incorporated into a relaxing smoking mixture.(5) It is seen by some herbalists to be an appropriate remedy for children who cannot sleep due to a state of overexicitation.(2)

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