Valerian Root and the affect on Human,

Daphnia, and Blackworm Heart rate

TA: Marvin Wright

Section:030
Meeting time: Wednesday 12:30-2:20
Author: Max
Lab Partners: Kelsey, Emily, Hannah
Introduction
Human beings are complex and difficult things to fully understand. For instance, the fact

that we are at the top of the food chain without the ability to have a natural way of

defense or to hunt unlike a lion for example. The reason for that would be our highly

evolved mind which gives us an edge over the rest of the animal kingdom. We can craft

and think complex thoughts in order to learn to make up for the lack of natural ability.

Though Humans are not without faults and the mind while it can be the biggest strength,

we have can also be our greatest weakness. Humans have devolved such a complex

net of neurons that there is no way that there could not be a chance of something going

wrong. For example, social anxiety is where one struggles to interact with the rest of

society due to a physiological and psychological response. The heart rate increases,

and the mind can start to race as the individual gets overwhelmed in social settings.

Panic can ensue causing an anxiety attack and making it difficult of the individual until

they are able to get away from the stimulus and could cause a social phobia (Rapee et

al. 1997). So, humans have thought up and created a way of dealing with the issue and

many more like it. The creation of medical treatment to try and mitigate the effect of

social anxiety. In these medicines to combat social anxiety is an ingredient called

valerian root. This root also could be an important treatment or ingredient for those who

suffer from insomnia as the decrease in heart rate could help people fall and stay

asleep. With it being in medicine that is meant to slow down the mind and heart rate and

help with over stimulation it could be responsible for affecting the heart. If valerian root

is a sedative and it affects the heart as well as the rest of the body then it should

decrease the heart rate of humans, daphnia, and blackworms. These species were

chosen to see if it would affect them all in the same manor. Humans being a point of
interest since medicine is administered to them. The daphnia and black worm being

chosen due to their opposite speeds of heart beats. Daphnia have a very fast heart beat

which valerian root may or may not be able to decrease and the black worm for it’s slow

heart beat that may be too slow to have a response to the drug.

Methods

This experiment was completed using human information already done by another lab.

The blackworm and daphnia where being tested in this experiment. This was done by

taking the baseline heart rate for the animal before introducing the valerian root into its

system. Four of each animal were tested to get an average pre and post drug

administration heart rate. The animals were placed on a microscope slide and had their

heart beats manually counted for 30 seconds. They were then given three drops of

valerian root and left to take in the drug for 10 seconds. After which the process of

counting their heart beat was repeated.

Results

The effect of valerian root on the heart rate of all three species was a decrease for all of

them as seen in figure (1). Humans experienced the least amount of change going from

an average of 61 beats per minute (bpm) to 56 bpm (p-value 0.0438). Daphnia

experienced the largest decrease out of the three species having 218 bpm before the

drug was administered dropping all the way down to 143 bpm (p-value .0001769).

Surprisingly the slow heart rate of the blackworm was still affected and to a sizable
difference despite it already being far below the rest. The blackworm had a pre drug

bpm of 21 and after the administration a bpm of 10 (p-value .0037172)

250

200
Beats per Minute

150

Human Heart Rate

Daphnia Heart Rate
100
Blackworm Heart Rate

50

0
Pre Post
Heart Rate

Discussion

Valerian root decreased each of the heart rates across all species regardless of where

the starting bpm was. This means that it is a sedative and confirms our hypothesis

meaning that it may be the responsible ingredient for lowering the heart rate. This also

concurs with Brent et al. (2006) study where valerian root was shown to lower the heart

rate when taken before sleeping in order to keep those who suffer from insomnia

asleep. While the data does show a correct correlation there are some limitations that

came from this experiment. The first being that humans were not tested but instead

previously found by another lab which could have incorrect bpm measurements.
Though as it does follow what was found it can be safe to still conclude. The second

being that the other ingredients are different social anxiety and insomnia medications

were not tested meaning that it may only share a part of responsibility for the decrease

in heart rate and assisting with the negative affects rather than the only drug that does

that. The third is that we are unaware of how long the affect will last in a person. Mineo

et al. (2017) sates that it says in the system for six hours which makes sense for the use

of a sleep aid but short on the time for anxiety. The next step would be to test the other

ingredients found in social anxiety and insomnia medications in order to get a clear

result for what valerian root’s primary role is. As well as seeing how long the effect of

valerian root lasts in the human body.

Citations

Bent S, Padula A, Moore D, Patterson M, Mehling W. 2006. Valerian for Sleep: A

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. The American Journal of

Medicine.119(12):1005–1012.

Mineo L, Concerto C, Patel D, Mayorga T, Paula M, Chusid E, Aguglia E, Battaglia F.

2017. Valeriana officinalis Root Extract Modulates Cortical Excitatory Circuits in Humans.

Neuropsychobiology. 75(1):46–51.

Rapee R, Heimberg R. 1997. A Cognitive-behavioral Model of Anxiety in Social Phobia.

Behavior Research and Therapy. 35(8):741-756