valerian trail

Around the lake Härzlisee you will find different medicinal herbs and alpine plants.

Well known medicinal herbs:

Valerian 

The Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) grows up to one and a half meters high and likes to grow along streams. In the Alps it grows in mountain forests and in wet, rocky places.

As a remedy the short rhizome with roots are used as tincture, finished preparation or as a tea. Valerian taken in the evening promotes readiness to sleep, shortens the sleep time and improves the quality of sleep. Ingested by the day, it has a calming effect and increases the ability to concentrate, which can help excited students to calm down for a test. 

Important is the correct dosage. Valerian tends to stimulate with less than 200 mg of extract. Effective preparations, especially as a sleep aid, should contain around 600 mg of valerian extract or ½-1 teaspoon of valerian, or 2-3 g of valerian roots.

Peppermint 

Mints have been used medicinally since antiquity. Today, the intensely fragrant and tasting mint is grown all over the world. It grows in damp places as well as on the shores of our Härzlisee. 

Peppermint has a disinfecting, calming and antispasmodic effect, especially in the gastrointestinal area. Colds with a blocked nose or headache are relieved with peppermint, for example by inhalation. Menthol, the main constituent of peppermint essential oil, stimulates the skin's cold receptors. In tension-type headache, peppermint oil with a menthol content of 5% to 20% is considered equivalent to paracetamol as an analgesic. The peppermint oil is gently massaged on the forehead and temples, advantageously repeated after 15 and 30 minutes.

St. John's Wort 

The excellent effect of St. John's Wort extracts in mild to moderate depression and the healing properties of the oils are proven. For the treatment of mood disorders or the "baby blues" after birth, tea preparations are often sufficient, while for the successful treatment of depressive diseases the use of finished medicinal products (usually capsules) with a sufficiently high dosage is necessary. 

The most well-known folk-medicinal use of the St. John's wort is the wound treatment with the oil which is often prepared from flower buds and flowers themselves. It should also help with rheumatic pain. Likewise the St. John's wort tea is used. It works, for example, on stomach and intestinal cramps and menstrual cramps (premenstrual syndrome, PMS).