Convallaria majalis - Lily of the Valley
"CONSTITUENTS: Convallarin, Convallamarin, both Glucosides.
PREPARATIONS: Extractum Convallariae Fluidum, Fluid Extract of Convallaria. Dose: from five to twenty drops. Tinctura Convallariae. Dose: from five to thirty minims. Specific Medicine Convallaria is always made from the fresh root. It may be given in doses of from one to five minims in water, frequently repeated, giving good results, prescribed from one-half to two and one-half drams, in four ounces of water.
Therapy: It strengthens the heart's action, slows a rapid and feeble pulse, corrects the rhyme and rhythm, improves the tone and increases the power of the heart, as evidenced by increased tonicity throughout the entire capillary circulation. It may be given for a few days and then discontinued for as many days when its influence remains. Its influence is exercised in a regular, steady and permanent manner.
Its efficiency in dropsy is evidenced when there is sluggishness of the general circulation, with extreme inefficiency of the capillary circulation and greatly diminished blood pressure. In these cases, if the kidneys are not seriously diseased, it can be made to induce extreme diuresis and give prompt relief.
It can be given with impunity and small doses should not be relied upon in extreme cases. If prompt effects are desired the tincture in full doses can be given in hot water, or an infusion of the entire herb will yield the best results.
In some cases of chronic nephritis the kidneys will fail to respond to the action of the agent. But these cases are necessarily extreme ones, as in many cases of Bright's disease most beneficial results are obtained from the use of this agent.
It overcomes general depression, favors elimination, adds power and regularity of action to the heart, overcomes distress of breathing, conduces to rest and sleep, and induces a general sense of improved well-being. It is an excellent remedy with which to improve the tone and vigor of the heart after the depressing effects of protracted fevers or violent acute inflammation, especially of the lungs and bronchi. It is useful also in the enfeebled heart of phthisis pulmonalis.
It is of much value in rheumatism, especially when the heart is involved. In rheumatic carditis or pericarditis it serves a double purpose. It strengthens and improves the tone of the heart, and favors the elimination of morbific products which cause the inflammation. But few remedies will act more efficiently. If there is effusion within the pericardium its influence will be quickly observed.
To sum up the influences of convallaria: It is used to excellent advantage in the tobacco heart from cigarette smoking; in the bicycle heart from overstrain; in asthmatic breathing from enfeebled heart, especially in chronic asthma. It does not, like digitalis, irritate the stomach unpleasantly. On the contrary, it is of much service in that form of dyspepsia in which there is extreme torpor of the stomach, with pale, flabby mucous membranes of the mouth, broad, thick tongue, with a heavy, dirty white coating. In conditions where the tongue is red and thin, with elongated papillae, redness of the tip and edges, it is contraindicated. It is contraindicated also in fatty degeneration of the heart. ..."
(Finley Ellingwood: The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1915)