Bugleweed

NERVINES Relieve nervous irritation and pain.—Black Haw, Bugleweed, Mistletoe, Scullcap, Valerian. 

Lycopus, Bugleweed sweet bugle water bugle. Whole plant of Lycopus wrginicus L-. Labiatae. Habit- N. America. Constit. Volatile oil. resin, tannin, glucoside. 

Lycopus americanus Muhl. ex W.P.C. Barton SCN American bugleweed OCN water horehound... 

Bugleweeds should not be used with thyroid medications except under the supervision of a qualified healthcare practitioner (Beer et al. 2008 Winterhoff et al. 1994). 

Long-term use of "high" doses (standard dose listed as 1-2 g as a tea) of bugleweed or European bugleweed has been... 

Lycopus virginicus L. SCN bugleweed OCN Virginia bugleweed Part herb... 

In an open label study, patients with a basal thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) value less than 1.0 mU/1 and hyperthyroidism-associated symptoms were administered one tablet containing 20 mg of European bugleweed daily for approximately 15 weeks. In treated patients, an increase in urinary thyroxine (T ) excretion was observed, along with a reduction in symptoms related to hyperthyroidism, notably, a reduction in heart rate in the morning. In this study, European bugleweed was generally well tolerated, with only minor adverse events reported in the study. Of these, only one adverse event, subjective "disturbances of the cardiac rhythm," was reported after 7 weeks of treatment (Beer et al. 2008). 

In hyperthyroid rats treated with an ethanol extract equivalent to 400 mg/kg of European bugleweed alone or 10 or 400 mg/kg of European bugleweed with 0.7 mg/kg T4 daily for 56 days, no significant changes of thyroid hormone concentrations or TSH levels were observed. Treatment reduced the increase in heart rate and blood pressure induced by T4 administration, alleviated cardiac hypertrophy, and reduced the density of P-adrenoceptors in heart tissue (Vonhoff et al. 2006). 

In rats orally administered 1 g/kg of an aqueous extract of European bugleweed, a decrease in triiodothyronine (T3) levels (lasting over 24 h), not related to TSH levels, and due to peripheral T4 deiodination, was observed. The decrease in T3 levels was accompanied by a decrease in luteinizing hormone (Winterhoff et al. 1994). 

Changes in the estrous cycle in mice and rats and a reduction in the number of offspring in the animals were reported after administration of European bugleweed. Extracts, doses, and duration of administration were not listed in the available English language translation (De Smet 1993). 

In mice, intravenous administration of a dose of 3 ml of pressed juice of Virginia bugleweed was lethal, while a dose of 1 ml orally administered did not cause any toxic symptoms (De Smet 1993). 

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