Vervain

Verbena officinalis L. belongs to Verbenaceae, the verbena family, and was first published by Linnaeus in Species Plantarum in 1753. Kew’s Plants of the World Online (POWO) accepts the name, describes the species as a perennial of the temperate biome, and gives its native range as “Old World to Australia”: most of Europe, North Africa, much of Asia from Türkiye to China and Japan, parts of eastern and southern Africa, and Australia. POWO records it as introduced in Great Britain and Ireland, much of the United States, parts of Central and South America, and New Zealand. The German Arzneipflanzenlexikon describes the plant as originally Mediterranean and now spread through temperate zones worldwide, reaching north to central Sweden. Kubica and colleagues (Planta Medica 2020) list the Latin synonyms Verbena sororia D. Don and V. spuria L. and common names including common verbena, simpler’s joy, turkey grass, verveine officinale in French, Eisenkraut in German, kumatsuzura in Japanese, and ma bian cao in Chinese. They note that most Verbena species are American, and that V. officinalis and V. supina are the two found on every continent.

Vervain is an upright, rather sparse plant. Kubica and colleagues describe stems 75 cm to 1 m tall, while the Arzneipflanzenlexikon gives 20 to 60 cm, often woody at the base. The stems are four-angled and rough with stiff hairs, branching toward the top. The leaves are opposite: the lower ones stalked and deeply cut into pinnate lobes, the middle ones three-parted, and the upper ones small, unstalked, and toothed. The European Pharmacopoeia description, quoted by the University of Zurich’s veterinary phytotherapy database, notes bristly hairs along the leaf veins and many small flowers in a loose, elongated spike, each in the axil of a leaf-like bract, with a tubular five-toothed calyx and a pale pink or lilac corolla about twice its length. The corolla is faintly two-lipped, and the fruit is a brown schizocarp that splits into four nutlets; flowering runs from July to September (Arzneipflanzenlexikon). Maud Grieve’s A Modern Herbal (1931) adds that the plant has no perfume and tastes slightly bitter and astringent. It is a ruderal species of sunny fields, stony rubble, roadsides, embankments, and walls.

The medicinal part is the flowering herb. The European Pharmacopoeia, which added a Verbena herb monograph in 2008 (Kubica), defines it as the whole or cut dried aerial parts collected during flowering, with at least 1.5% verbenalin, and warns that a lemon smell indicates adulteration with lemon verbena. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2025) defines ma bian cao as the dried aerial parts cut in June to August, with at least 0.50% hastatoside plus verbenalin. The Zurich database summarizes the chemistry: iridoid glycosides at 0.2–3%, chiefly verbenalin (also called cornin, C17H24O10), hastatoside (C17H24O11), and dihydrocornin; about 0.8% caffeoyl phenylethanoid glycosides, mainly verbascoside (also called acteoside), isoverbascoside, and martynoside; and flavonoid glycosides of luteolin, apigenin, and acacetin. There are only traces of essential oil, whose composition varies widely with origin; Italian plants were rich in citral and isobornyl formate (Kubica). Hastatoside was first described in 1979 from both V. officinalis and American blue vervain, V. hastata. Commercial vervain comes from wild collection in southeastern Europe (Arzneipflanzenlexikon).

Vervain was a sacred plant in Rome. In his Natural History, Pliny the Elder wrote that no plant enjoyed a more extended renown among the Romans than hierabotane, the “holy plant,” also called peristereon and, more generally, verbenaca. In John Bostock and H. T. Riley’s 1855 translation, he describes it being borne by envoys treating with the enemy, used to cleanse the table of Jupiter, and used to purify houses; the translators identified one of his two varieties as Verbena officinalis. Pliny reported that people in the Gallic provinces used it for soothsaying, and he mocked the magicians who claimed that rubbing oneself with it won one’s desires, kept away fevers, and made friends, and who insisted it be gathered at the rising of the Dog Star, unseen by sun or moon, after a circle was traced around it with iron. More practically, he noted that it was bruised in wine for snakebites. The Arzneipflanzenlexikon explains that the Romans used the word verbena for branches carried in religious ceremonies, and that Romans and Gauls believed the plant protected against wounds from iron weapons, a belief echoed in its German name, Eisenkraut, “iron herb.”

Medieval and folk traditions built on that reputation. In her Physica, the medieval abbess Hildegard of Bingen described ysena as more cold than warm and used it externally: boiled in water and laid warm over a linen cloth on festering wounds and ulcers, renewed until the putrefaction cleared, and warmed and bound over a swollen throat until the swelling went down. Grieve (1931) recorded the names herb of grace, herbe sacrée, and herba veneris, and a derivation of vervain from the Celtic ferfaen, “to drive away a stone,” for its use in bladder complaints. She wrote that the druids included it in their lustral water, that ambassadors used it in making leagues, and that it was worn around the neck against headaches and snakebites, all of which she linked to the legend that it was found on Mount Calvary and staunched the wounds of the crucified Christ, so that it was crossed and blessed with a verse when gathered. Grieve said it had been recommended in upwards of thirty complaints, including intermittent fevers, ulcers, eye inflammation, and pleurisy, as a poultice for headache and rheumatism, and as a promoter of breast milk. Her druid claims are not referenced, and Pliny spoke only of Gaul.

Later history split between continents and systems. King’s American Dispensatory (1898) used the name vervain for the root of the native American Verbena hastata, a tonic, emetic, and expectorant, and described the European V. officinalis as having similar but weaker properties. Kubica and colleagues note vervain monographs in older British and German pharmacopoeias, the Chinese Pharmacopoeia since 1995, the Pharmacopoeia of the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1897, and the European Pharmacopoeia since 2008. Germany’s Commission E published a negative monograph on 1 February 1990, and the Zurich database recorded no ESCOP, WHO, or EMA monograph as of 2019; EMA’s current list of assessed herbal substances includes lemon verbena leaf but not vervain. Vervain is also one of Edward Bach’s flower remedies, which the Bach Centre describes for perfectionists with fixed principles who find it hard to switch off. US food regulations list “Vervain, European” as a natural flavoring permitted in alcoholic beverages only.

Vervain’s reputation as a calming herb has been tested only in animals. Makino and colleagues (Sleep and Biological Rhythms 2009), as summarized by Kubica, gave rats a water extract of vervain through a stomach tube and found that non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep increased by 25.7% over the following 12 hours. Hastatoside and verbenalin given alone, at high doses, at first shortened NREM sleep and then lengthened it in the early morning hours, while verbascoside had no effect, and the rats showed agitation and diarrhea for up to two hours. In mice, Khan and colleagues (Frontiers in Pharmacology 2016) found that a crude extract at 50–300 mg/kg increased time spent in the open arms of an elevated maze and in the lit side of a light-dark box, behavior read as reduced anxiety, and shortened the onset and lengthened the duration of sleep induced by the barbiturate thiopental; at 100–500 mg/kg it delayed drug-induced seizures. Rashidian and colleagues (2017) found that the anticonvulsant effect was reversed by flumazenil and naloxone, pointing to benzodiazepine and opioid receptors (Kubica). These doses dwarf a cup of tea, and no human trial has tested them.

Anti-inflammatory effects are also an animal and laboratory story. Speroni and colleagues (Planta Medica 2007) gave rats three different vervain extracts by mouth and found that all reduced paw swelling caused by carrageenan, protected the stomach lining from alcohol damage, and, applied as gels, sped the healing of small skin wounds; a supercritical carbon dioxide extract was the most active for swelling and wounds. Calvo (Journal of Ethnopharmacology 2006) found that creams containing 1–3% of a vervain extract reduced paw swelling in rats, with the 3% cream similar to piroxicam gel three hours after the injury, and had a pain-relieving effect weaker than methyl salicylate ointment. Kubica and colleagues summarize laboratory studies in which vervain extracts inhibited a range of bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and in which a fraction rich in verbascoside showed the strongest antioxidant activity. These findings make a mouth rinse for inflamed gums plausible, but the gingivitis trial did not measure how the decoction worked, and Commission E considered vervain’s effect on mucus, which it described as secretolytic, the most plausible contribution it could make to combination products.

Some laboratory findings bear on safety rather than benefit. The Zurich database cites German handbooks that list uterus-contracting, abortive, emmenagogue (period-inducing), and antithyrotropic effects for vervain, without human data, and Kubica and colleagues note that vervain has been investigated in China as a possible herb to end early pregnancy, in a laboratory study of cells from the pregnant uterine lining. In Fateh and colleagues’ 2019 prenatal study in rats, described under contraindications, high doses harmed fetal development. A water extract was mutagenic in two strains of the Ames bacterial test, with or without metabolic activation, but did not increase chromosome damage in the bone marrow of rats given up to 2,000 mg/kg for three days (Fateh and colleagues, Journal of Ethnopharmacology 2019). Finally, the polyphenols that dominate vervain’s chemistry bind iron: in a laboratory model of digestion, Zaida and colleagues (Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism 2006) found that vervain tea reduced the availability of iron, an effect that added vitamin C counteracted.

Gingivitis is the only use tested in a human trial of vervain alone. Grawish and colleagues (Quintessence International 2016) randomized 260 patients with chronic generalized gingivitis into two groups of 130. Both groups were told to brush and floss, and the test group also rinsed with a vervain decoction; Kubica and colleagues describe the regimen as 10 ml twice a day, 30 minutes after brushing, across five dental centers. Gum inflammation, measured by the Gingival Index, and plaque, measured by the Plaque Index, improved in both groups by day 14 and day 28, but significantly more in the vervain group at both points (P < .001), and no adverse effects were reported. The trial is labeled double-blind, yet the abstract describes no placebo rinse for the control group, so the extra rinsing itself may have contributed. It is a single trial of a home-style decoction, it has not been independently repeated, and it lasted four weeks. Vervain has a traditional reputation for mouth and throat inflammation, but no trials in sore throat or in oral mucositis, the mouth sores caused by cancer treatment, were found in the research for this monograph.

Sinusitis is where vervain has its largest audience, as one-fifth of a combination. BNO 1016, a higher-dose member of the Sinupret family of products, is a dry extract of gentian root, primula (cowslip) flower, sorrel herb, elder flower, and verbena herb in the ratio 1:3:3:3:3. Jund and colleagues (Acta Oto-Laryngologica 2015) pooled two similar placebo-controlled trials in acute viral rhinosinusitis, known as ARhiSi-1 and ARhiSi-2, with 589 patients taking 160 mg three times daily or placebo for 15 days. Both groups started at about 10 points on an investigator-rated major symptom score, and at the end of treatment the score was 1.16 points lower with BNO 1016 (2.47 versus 3.63; p < 0.0001), and patient-rated quality of life was also better (p = 0.0015). The original Sinupret tablets and drops (BNO 101) have the same five ingredients at a lower dose. The Arzneipflanzenlexikon notes that the combination is licensed in Germany for acute sinus inflammation in adolescents from 12 and adults. These results belong to the product: there is no trial of vervain alone for sinusitis, and Commission E judged vervain’s efficacy in respiratory disease undocumented.

Sleep, stress, and low mood are the uses most often claimed for vervain today. Kubica and colleagues list depression, insomnia, stress, anxiety, nervous exhaustion, and headache among its traditional uses, and the animal studies described above are consistent with a mild sedative effect. But no human trial of vervain alone for sleep or anxiety was found, and no regulator recognizes such a use. Some of the confusion comes from lemon verbena, a different plant that EMA does accept as a traditional herbal medicine for mild symptoms of mental stress and to aid sleep. Vervain also appears in multi-herb products: in a 1993 trial by Weizman and colleagues (Journal of Pediatrics), a tea of chamomile, vervain, licorice, fennel, and balm mint eliminated colic in 19 of 33 infants, against 9 of 35 given a placebo drink, but the trial cannot show what vervain added. The Bach flower remedy called Vervain is a separate tradition; a systematic review by Thaler and colleagues (BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2009) found no benefit of Bach flower remedies over placebo in four randomized trials for examination anxiety and ADHD.

Other traditional uses are long-standing but unproven. Kubica and colleagues record vervain in European, North American, and Chinese folk medicine for colds, fever, cough and bronchitis, urinary stones and infections, menstrual disorders, stimulating milk flow, colic, jaundice, diarrhea, and intestinal worms, and externally for slow-healing wounds, bites, and gum inflammation. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia uses traditional Chinese medicine terms, describing ma bian cao as bitter and cool, acting to activate blood and dispel stasis, clear toxins, promote urination, reduce jaundice, and check malaria, and lists it for abdominal masses, painful or absent periods, sore throat, abscesses, edema, jaundice, and malaria. LactMed calls vervain a purported galactagogue, or milk booster, with no scientifically valid clinical trials to support the use. Laboratory work on nerve cells and cancer cell lines has attracted attention, but Kubica and colleagues caution that such studies are still a long way from use in human treatment, and conclude that folk uses such as diuretic, fever-reducing, expectorant, and digestive effects still demand scientific confirmation.

Because no European monograph exists, there is no officially assessed dose of vervain on its own. The Arzneipflanzenlexikon lists the forms sold in Germany: cut herb for tea, powdered herb and dry extracts in tablets, and water-alcohol extracts in syrups and drops. Its tea method is to pour about 150 ml of boiling water over 1.5 g of the herb, strain after 10 minutes, and drink a cup three times a day, though the same source advises against using vervain alone because its efficacy and side effects are not adequately documented. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia gives 5–10 g of the cut herb as a decoction. Old Western doses are historical curiosities rather than guidance: Grieve gave half to one drachm of fluid extract, or 2 ounces of herb boiled in a quart of water and drunk over a day for diarrhea. In the gingivitis trial, patients rinsed with 10 ml of decoction twice a day after brushing (Kubica), but the published abstract does not state how strong the decoction was, so there is no validated home recipe.

Sinupret products are a different matter, with fixed doses tested in trials. In the pooled BNO 1016 trials, patients took 160 mg of the five-herb dry extract three times a day for 15 days. Formulations and brand names differ between countries, so anyone looking for the tested product should check that the label names BNO 1016 or lists gentian root, primula flower, sorrel herb, elder flower, and verbena herb. Vervain also turns up in many multi-herb teas and calming blends, usually without a stated dose. The Bach flower remedy Vervain is made and used within Edward Bach’s own system, which the Bach Centre describes in emotional terms, and it is not a substitute for, or a dose of, vervain tea. In the United States, the federal food regulations permit European vervain as a natural flavoring only in alcoholic beverages, and Kubica and colleagues note that vervain oil and extracts are also used in cosmetics and perfumes.

Buying vervain means checking the botanical name. “Verbena” on a label may mean lemon verbena, Aloysia citrodora, which EMA lists as verveine odorante in French and verbena odorosa in Italian, and whose leaves are widely used for tea; the European Pharmacopoeia treats a lemon smell in vervain as a sign of this mix-up, and the Zurich database notes that confusion between the two is possible. Blue vervain, Verbena hastata, is a North American species with its own herbal history. Look for Verbena officinalis, herb or aerial parts, ideally of pharmacopoeial quality. Keep use short, avoid it entirely in pregnancy, take vervain tea between rather than with iron-rich meals or iron supplements, and do not give it to babies or young children without a pediatrician’s advice. A sinus infection that is getting worse, or gums that bleed persistently, needs a clinician or dentist rather than a stronger tea.