Indian Valerian

Indian valerian is a rhizome herb of the genus Valeriana, formerly known as Valeriana wallichii and also called tagar-ganthoda. The page says not to confuse it with ganthoda, the root of Indian long pepper. It is native to India, Nepal, Pakistan and China, and the page says it is an important substitute for the European Valeriana officinalis. It is used in Ayurvedic medicine as an analeptic, antispasmodic, carminative, sedative, stimulant, stomachic and nervine. The page says Ayurvedic texts, the Charak Samhita and Susruta, and Unani medicine describe its use in obesity, skin disease, insanity, epilepsy and snake poisoning, and that the crude drug from roots and rhizomes is used as a mild sedative. It describes the plant in Uttarakhand, in the north-western Indian Himalaya.