Calamus Tincture

Calamus, also known as sweetflag, has a long history of use throughout cultures both domestic and abroad, and is something of a wonder herb, being used for so many things by different peoples. It is an extremely interesting, yet often precarious plant, and not everyone will experience its more subtle effects. 

The history of Calamus can be traced as far back as the Han dynasty, China, in the third century BC. Turks were said to carry to thwart infection diseases; Benedictine and Chartreus liquors were flavored with it; Dutch children were given rhizomes to chew as a type of gum, and Ancient Egyptians used it in perfumes. Magically, it has a long history of use in bringing luck, healing, money, and protection — it was thought that placing the root in corners of the kitchen would protect against hunger. Walt Whitman wrote 39 poems for calamus in his Leaves of Grass. 

Medicinally, calamus has been used to treat gastrointestinal diseases and pain, as well as for its cognitive enhancing properties and in treating neuropathic pain. Calamus has a potent interaction with GABA receptors, and is thought to be a powerful aphrodisiac as well. 

In European folk medicine, calamus was often used to stimulate the appetite and aid digestion; in North America, it was more commonly used as a decoction to treat fevers, colic, and stomach cramps, while chewing the rhizome was said to ease toothaches. In Ayurveda it was used not just for treating digestive disorders but also for its ability to rejuvenate the brain and nervous systems. 

Calamus works as a carminative and digestive bitter, stimulating digestion by promoting bile production, stimulating peristalsis of the intestines, and getting the stomach ready for food. Calamus has anti-anxiety and anti-emetic properties, and is good for all kinds of colds — throat, chest, head colds — due to its antibacterial and antiviral properties, and is great for taking when you’re around other people who are sick, in order not to pick up their sicknesses. It can also help a person overcome the feeling of being rundown after getting a cold, and it is a powerful natural antihistamine. 

Calamus can treat motion-sickness, allergies, stuffy head and mucous congestion; chewing the root can fight infections. It is great for anyone feeling dizzy, nervous, or like they’re leaving their body psychologically — panicked, don’t know which way to go, or otherwise frozen by fear or disassociated. Calamus’ anti-anxiety effects also make it helpful for quitting smoking, though that is no easy task, as anyone with a nicotine habit can testify.

But some of the most interesting effects of calamus are more subtle: it can help a person shift more easily into the parasympthateic nervous system and leave behind the tension of fight-or-flight behavior. It can help open up one’s perception and escaping the myopia that stress can bring on; it can also aid meditation, and is great to take on long hikes. 

Native Americans held calamus to be a very sacred plant and used it in rituals to better see the spirit world and in large amounts, calamus can provide an altered state, something that is easily missed if you are in a stimulating environment. Rather, these effects are best felt out in nature, or in some form of solitude. 

Another interesting aspect of calamus is its ability to be both stimulating and relaxing. It does this by putting one’s energy into balance, getting you energetically resonating as whole. In this way it’s able to increase energy and stamina, and even allay hunger in situations like a long hike, or a long night at the library; yet it can calm the central nervous system and even stave off panic and anxiety attacks, particularly the small, daily anxieties that so many of us experience from time to time, which is not to say it can’t help in full-on panic attacks, but only that it’s not always easy to remember to take it in those situations. It can also help following traumatic situations, to help a person recover and work through the aftermath with more wherewithal and without completely following to pieces; it unscatters energy. 

It goes without saying that it’s one of our favorite herbs here, for its variety of uses. Something that can be both stimulating and relaxing; a grounding influence and yet open up the one’s access to the spiritual world. It is a potent herb, best used in small amount, and with intention. There is a reason calamus is revered across every culture that has used it in its pharmacopoeia. 

There are some questions about the safety of calamus, primarily one of its primary active compounds, B-asarone. However, the European and American varieties, which we use, have very low toxicity compared to Indian varieties, and there is a lot of questions about the way those studies were done with regards to mega-dosing amounts that, in human equivalency, no one could ever take.