by Steven Foster
Since the days
of Hippocrates, chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus)
has been used for gynecological conditions. The Greek
physician Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) wrote, "If blood
flows from the womb, let the woman drink dark wine in
which the leaves of the chaste tree have been steeped."
With a rich traditional of use, modern research supports
historical wisdom, and has made chaste tree fruit preparations
a phytomedicine of choice by European gynecologists for
treatment of various menstrual disorders, PMS, and other
conditions.
Chaste tree was associated
with ancient Greek festivals. In the Thesmophoria, a festival
held in honor of Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture,
fertility and marriage, women (who remained "chaste"
during the festival), used chaste tree blossoms for adornment,
while bows of twigs and leaves, were strewn around Demeter’s
temple during the festival.
In Rome, vestal virgins
carried twigs of chaste tree as a symbol of chastity.
According to Greek mythology, Hera, sister and wife of
Zeus, regarded as protectress of marriage, was born under
a chaste tree. Ancient traditions associating the shrub
with chastity were adopted in Christian ritual. Novitiates
entering a monastery walked on a path strewn with the
blossoms of the tree, a ritual that continues to the present
day in some regions of Italy.
Vitex agnus-castus
L., commonly known as chaste tree, is native to West Asia
and southwestern Europe. The shrub was introduced throughout
Europe at an early date. It was known in English gardens
as early a 1570, and now occurs throughout the European
continent. Introduced to American gardens by European
immigrants in the early nineteenth century, the shrub
has become naturalized in much of the Southeastern United
States, occurring in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, southeast Oklahoma, north
to Maryland. Chaste tree is a shrub growing from nine
to seventeen feet tall, though specimens can reach twenty-five
feet high in the deep South.
Use for gynecological conditions
are noted in the works of Pliny and Dioscorides (1st century
A. D.), as well as Theophrastus (3rd century A.D.). "The
trees furnish medicines that promote urine and menstruation,"
wrote Pliny, "They encourage abundant rich milk.
. ."
These recommendations survive
to the time of sixteenth century English herbalist John
Gerarde, "The decoction of the herbe and seed is
good against pain and inflammations about the matrix,
if women be caused to sit and bathe their privy parts
therein; the seed being drunke with Pennyroiall bringeth
downe the menses, as it doth also both in a fume and in
a pessary. . ." (Gerarde 1633).
