Vervain

In one of the television shows I’ve been watching for about three years – The Vampire Diaries – the herb vervain (also known as verbena) is said to prevent vampires from compelling a person. The herb is also supposed to be a sort of poison to weaken vampires.

There’s nothing in Bram Stoker’s Dracula about vervain used against vampires, though garlic flowers are used and of course the wooden stake to kill them.

Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, published in 1652 as The English Physician  says that the herb is “cleansing and healing; it helps the yellow jaundice, the dropsy and the gout, kills and expels worms in the belly, and causes a good colour in the face and body, strengthens as well as corrects the diseases of the stomach, liver and spleen; helps the cough, wheezings, shortness of breath, and the defects of the reins (kidneys) and bladder, expelling the gravel and stone.” Culpeper also states that it “is excellent against venomous bites,” so perhaps that’s where L.J. Smith, the author of The Vampire Diaries books got the idea.

According to Wikipedia, vervain was said to have been used to staunch Jesus’ wounds. Also the flower is engraved on Italian charms against witchcraft.

There are around 250 annual and perennial varieties of the herb, many with hairy leaves and flowers that can be purple, blue, white or pink.

Nelson Coon in Using Plants for Healing (1963) states that, “The constituent which brings Verbena into the medical field is a bitter glucoside and tannin, a simple infusion (2 teaspoons to 1 pint) being employed as a diaphoretic, tonic and expectorant. There are, in herbal literature, no strong claims made for its efficacy.”  A diaphoretic causes sweating and an expectorant helps bring up mucous from the lungs, bronchi and trachea. Coon also quotes “an ancient couplet:

                “Vervain and dill
                Hinder witches from their will.”