Vitex agnus castus

Vitex agnus castus

These are some healthy looking vital berries just before we picked them. The berries have a spicy note to them, one of the reasons they are known as Monk's pepper. They contain an essential oil molecule called Piperine - also found in pepper.This adds to the primary pungent spicy and secondary cooling nature of the herb.

The other reason they are called Monk's pepper, or Chaste tree, is because they were grown around cathedrals and taken by monks to help allay any wanton desires. I once heard a story of these being added to the drinking water at a yoga retreat - highly unethical but makes me giggle.

Vitex is used to regulate the menstrual cycle and it is beneficial for assisting with hormone regulation.

Actions: Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, dopaminergic agonist, galactagogue, indirectly progesterogenic, prolactin inhibitor

Indications: Amenorrhoea, breast cysts, corpus luteal insufficiency, dysfunctional uterine bleeding, dysmenorrhoea, endometriosis, fluid retention, hyperprolactinaemia, insufficient lactation, infertility, irregular menstrual cycle, mastalgia, mastodynia, menorrhagia, menopause, oligomenorrhoea, painful ovulation, perimenopause, PMS, polymenorrhoea, postnatal depression, sexual irritability, threatened miscarriage, uterine fibroids

These beauties were picked in Maleny on the Sunshine Coast in QLD. Made into tinctures.

From Dean William Turner: The vertues of Chaste tre.

I T hath vertue to heate and to binde. The sede of it dronken / is good for the bitinge of venemous beastes / for them that haue the dropsey / and the swellinge of the milte. It increaseth also milke / and bringeth doune floures. If it be dronken wyth wyne in the quantite of a dram / it resolueth and wasteth awaye the sede. It vexeth the heade and maketh a man slepe. The broth of the leaues and sede made to sit in / helpeth the inflammationes and diseases about the mother. If it be dronken with pennye ryall / and the sede made after the maner of a perfume / and also layd to / stereth vp a purgation. If it be layde in / it easeth also the head ache. It is good to poure it vpon the head / when a man hath a phrenesyc / or forgetfull euell / beynge menged wyth vinegre and oyle. The leaues of it made in a perfume / and strowed vnder vpon the ground / driue awaye venemous beastes / and if they be layde to / they are good for the bitinges of the same. Wyth the leaues of the vynde and butter / they soften the hardnes of the stones. The sede also layd to wyth water / swageth the payne of the nickes / or ryuinge of the fundamente. But wyth the leaues it healeth it that is oute of ioynte and woundes. It appeareth also to be good for chansyng in a iorney / if a man carye a rod of it in his hande: it is called agnos / that is chaste / because weomen kepinge chastite / in the sacrifices of Ceres / vsed to straw this bushe vpon the ground / and other places. It is called ligos / that is a twige / because the twiges of it are so stronge.