Vacha Acorus calamus herb review and benefit

Vacha is a well-known herb that grows worldwide wildly along swamps, rivers, and lakes. The roots and rhizomes of Vacha have been used in for the treatment of various neurological conditions, colic pain and diarrhea. See a list of Ayurvedic herbs and their health benefits.

Vacha inhibits the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines through multiple mechanisms and may be a an effective anti-inflammatory agent for the treatment of skin diseases.

Vacha contains

Blood pressure effect of Vacha herb
Blood pressure-lowering and vascular modulator effects of Acorus calamus extract are mediated through multiple pathways.
J Cardiovasc Pharmacol. 2009 Jul; Shah AJ, Gilani AH. Drug Discovery and Natural Products Research Division, Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Aga Khan University Medical College, Karachi-74800, Pakistan.
This investigation was aimed to provide a pharmacologic basis to the medicinal use of Acorus calamus in cardiovascular disorders. In normotensive anesthetized rats, crude extract of Acorus calamus and its ethylacetate and nHexane fractions caused a fall in mean arterial pressure. In rabbit aorta rings, crude extract was more potent against high K (80 mM), ethylacetate against phenylephrine, whereas nHexane fraction was equipotent against both precontractions. Crude extract exhibited a vasoconstrictor effect on baseline. Pretreatment of aortic rings with crude extract and its fractions shifted Ca concentration-response curves to the right, similar to verapamil. Crude extract and ethylacetate fraction suppressed phenylephrine peak formation in Ca-free medium. Our data indicate that crude extract possesses a combination of effects, relaxant effects mediated possibly through Ca antagonism in addition to a nitric oxide pathway, although the associated vasoconstrictor effects may be meant by nature to offset excessive vasodilatation, thus providing a pharmacologic rationale to its cardiovascular medicinal uses.

Vacha and epilepsy
Inhibitory role of Acorus calamus in ferric chloride-induced epileptogenesis in rat.
Hum Exp Toxicol. 2007 Dec; Hazra R, Ray K, Guha D. S. N. Pradhan Centre for Neurosciences, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India.
Data presented in this study clearly show that vacha possesses the ability for preventing the development of FeCl(3)-induced epileptogenesis by modulating antioxidant enzymes, which in turn exhibit the potentiality of vachas to be developed as an effective anti-epileptic drug.