01 Identity and provenance
- Accepted binomial
- Valeriana officinalis
- Common names
- Valerian
- Family (APG IV)
- Caprifoliaceae
- Part used
- Rhizome
- Verification tier
- Tier 2 · Verified Clinical columns reviewed and a source is on record.
- Reviewer note (2026 audit)
- Reference not supplied - claim unverified against primary literature.
02 Constituent chemistry
| Chemical class | Marker compound | Synthetic analogue in use |
|---|---|---|
| Sesquiterpenoid,iridoids | Valerenic acid, valepotriates Rhizome
|
None |
The analogue column is what makes the interaction reasoning tractable: where a constituent has a marketed structural counterpart, the counterpart's interaction profile is the starting hypothesis for the plant.
03 Stated application
- Reported activity
- Mild insomnia, anxiety, stress relief, sedative muscle relaxation
- Marketed in
- Valerian root capsules, natures bounty valerium root,himalaya sleep care, herbal sleep supplements and teas
- Reported adverse effects
- Gastrointestinal upset, liver toxicity
04 Interaction matrix
Source column, verbatim: Sedative and hypnotics, CNS depression, Antihistamines
Normalised onto 2 canonical drug classes below.
Curated from the reviewed source
| Drug class | Severity | Mechanism type | Provenance | Expected effect | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Sedatives, hypnotics and benzodiazepines
CNS
|
3Major | PD-additive | curated B | Excess sedation, psychomotor and driving impairment, falls, respiratory d… | why ▾ |
Class mechanism. Valepotriate, kavalactone, apigenin, sesquiterpene and alkaloid constituents act at GABA-A, adenosine and histamine sites, summating with prescribed CNS depression. Some also inhibit CYP3A4 and raise benzodiazepine exposure.
| |||||
|
Antihistamines
Immunology
|
2Moderate | PD-additive | curated B | Drowsiness, impaired coordination, dry mouth, urinary hesitancy, confusio… | why ▾ |
Class mechanism. Sedating antihistamines add to botanical CNS depression, and their antimuscarinic component adds to tropane alkaloid burden.
| |||||
05 Hazard register
The audit recorded no hazard beyond the interaction profile. The controlled-vocabulary field reads not assessed, which means the assessment has not been done rather than that it came back clear.
06 Confusable material
These entries could be mistaken for this one in trade, in the herbarium, or in a prescription. Powdered material is often indistinguishable, so the check is macroscopic, microscopic and chromatographic rather than nominal.
| Valeriana jatamansi
Tagar |
Caprifoliaceae | Same genus (Valeriana) |
07 Mechanism map
Chemistry sorts to the left, pharmacology to the right. Dashed edges are predicted. Drag nodes, scroll to zoom, export at 3× for a figure.
08 Open literature
Abstract-scoped query built from this binomial, its common names and its marker compounds, run live against Europe PMC, PubMed and OpenAlex, then ranked locally against an evidence hierarchy.
09 Isomechanistic neighbours
Species whose interaction profile overlaps this one, ranked by shared severity weight rather than by count — a shared contraindication counts for more than a shared minor signal. Practical use: these are the plants you should not stack with this one, because the mechanisms summate.
| Species | Family | Shared classes | Weight | Jaccard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nardostachys jatamansi
Jatamansi |
Caprifoliaceae | 2 | 0.22 | |
| Valeriana jatamansi
Tagar |
Caprifoliaceae | 2 | 0.25 | |
| Chrysopogon zizanioides
Vetiver |
Poaceae | 1 | 0.50 | |
| Papaver somniferum
Opium Poppy |
Papaveraceae | 1 | 0.25 | |
| Matricaria chamomilla
Chamomile |
Asteraceae | 1 | 0.25 | |
| Lavandula angustifolia
Lavender |
Lamiaceae | 1 | 0.25 |
10 References and notes
No citation is on record for this entry. That is itself the finding: the audit flagged it, and it is why the entry does not carry an A evidence grade.
Curator notes
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