Valerian and Passionflower

Description

Valerian root with passionflower aerial parts, each standardised and each listed in milligrams on the panel. That is the specification worth paying for. A great many valerian and passionflower products print a combined herbal blend total, which tells you nothing about either plant, and this valerian and passionflower capsule gives the two figures separately.

What is in the capsule

Why the two amounts are printed separately

If several ingredients sit under one combined milligram total, the individual amounts are hidden, and a blend listing 600 mg could be 590 mg of the cheaper herb and a dusting of the other. There is no way to tell from the outside.

So both are given here with their marker standardisation, which is the rule across the whole range. The legal background to what a combined total is allowed to leave out is set out in what a proprietary blend is legally allowed to leave out.

About the smell

A bottle of valerian and passionflower smells of old socks, and that is isovaleric acid, a genuine constituent of the root rather than a sign of spoilage. The smell gets stronger as the root ages. A capsule contains it reasonably well until you open the bottle.

Nobody warns new buyers clearly enough, so here it is plainly: the bottle will smell when opened, and that is the plant rather than a fault with the lot.

What the valerian and passionflower literature measured

Valerian trials have mostly given 300 to 600 mg of root extract 30 to 120 minutes before bed, measuring sleep latency and sleep quality by diary and in some studies by polysomnography. Results are inconsistent across the literature, and the published meta-analyses say so, noting wide variation in preparations and trial quality.

Passionflower studies used 400 to 800 mg of extract, or the dried herb as a tea, and measured sleep diaries and anxiety rating scales. Those are the doses administered and the instruments read. Neither paragraph is a claim about this bottle.

Why valerian and passionflower are sold together

Tradition, mostly, and the fact that European herbal practice has combined them for a very long time. The trials, though, mostly studied each plant on its own, so a combination product sits one step away from the literature behind either ingredient.

That is worth knowing before assuming a valerian and passionflower capsule inherits the evidence for both. What it does inherit is the arithmetic: each amount is printed, so you can compare this valerian and passionflower listing against a single herb bottle and see what you are getting of each.

Single ingredient versions of both are stocked as well, for anyone who would rather take one plant at a known amount than two at smaller ones.

Marker compounds, named

Valerenic acid is the marker valerian extracts are calibrated against, usually at 0.8 percent. Passionflower is standardised to total flavonoids, often measured as vitexin and isovitexin. A botanical without a marker percentage is a weight with no specification behind it.

Interactions worth raising

Both plants are described in the pharmacology literature as having sedative effects, and combining them with alcohol, benzodiazepines or other sedating medicines is the situation to ask a pharmacist about. Neither should be taken before driving until you know how they affect you.

Testing

Every lot of valerian and passionflower goes to an independent laboratory, which confirms the species and plant part of both ingredients, measures each marker percentage, and screens heavy metals, pesticides and microbials on every lot. Off identity or under strength material is withdrawn and the certificate stays published.

Where it sits

This listing is on the sleep and calm page with the melatonin options down at 300 micrograms and the magnesium glycinate. For free government summaries of what has been studied in individual plants, including both of these, see the NCCIH herbs at a glance series. Your lot certificate is linked above.