Some quick notes on individual herbs....
SCULLCAP
This poor little herb has suffered much at the hands of herbalists and botanists over the last few centuries.
Not the herb itself, but the classification of it. It seems to have a real identity crisis.
Native to North America, it has come into most Pharmacopoeias quite late and therefore is up for debate.
It's just as well that the herb itself knows nothing of this dilemma and just keeps working regardless. It's tubular blue/purple flowers are the reason for the botanical and common names, but not because it looks like a 'skullcap' but because the lower saucer shaped lip of the flower resembles a 'Scutella' or little dish.
Scullcap grows well in Australia as long as you ignore the growing instructions from the northern hemisphere. In Australia it grows well in mostly shade with only a little morning sun and it prefers to have it's feet moist and shaded.
As a medicinal herb it is sedative and anti spasmodic. Herbal use is confined to the aerial parts which basically means everything above the roots. It is at it's most potent just as the flowers begin to bud, as with many herbs, and differs from the Baical Scullcap of Traditional Chinese Medicine which utilises the root.
Scullcap contains apigenin, hispidulin, luteolin, scutellarein and catalpol as it's volitile oils and glycosides. It stimulates the absorption of vitamin B3 which which helps protect the nervous system. It also regulates the balance of the hormones adrenalin and noradrenalin which means that conditions that are mistakenly thought to be nervous distress actually respond to the herb because of it's effect on the hormone balance. Homeopathic application of the herb is where we find it's greatest value.
The following summary is taken directly from Boerick's Materia Medica and we apply it where indicated......
This is a nervous sedative, where nervous fear predominates. Cardiac irritability. Chorea. Nervous irritation and spasms of children, during dentition. Twitching of muscles. Nervous weakness after influenza.
Mental. Fear of some calamity. Inability to fix attention. Confusion.
Head. Dull, frontal headache. Eyes feel pressed outwards. Flushed face. Restless sleep and frightful dreams. Must move about. Night terrors. Migraine; worse, over right eye; aching in eyeballs. Explosive headaches of school teachers with frequent urination; headaches in front and base of brain. Nervous sick headaches, worse noise, odor light, better night; rest, 5 drops of tincture.
Stomach. Nausea; sour eructations; hiccough; pain and distress.
Abdomen. Gas, fullness and distention, colicky pain and uneasiness. Light colored diarrhœa.
Male. Seminal emissions and impotency, with fear of never being better.
Sleep. Night-terrors; sleeplessness; sudden wakefulness; frightful dreams.
Extremities. Twitchings of muscles; must be moving. Chorea. Tremors. Sharp stinging pains in upper extremities. Nightly restlessness. Weakness and aching.
Relationship. Compare: Cyprip; Lycopus.
Dose. Tincture and lower potencies.