What is Chasteberry?
Chasteberry is a shrub with violet flowers that grows on the hills and rivers of areas such as the Mediterranean and central Asia. Its Latin name is Vitex agnus-castus. The small brown fruit of the chasteberry plant is used medicinally. The chasteberry’s fruit is about the size of peppercorns and it has a peppermint-like scent. The word, chaste, which means sexually pure, was used by the ancient Romans to name this herb as they prepared chasteberry seeds for a drink to reduce the human sex drive. The plant is also called monk’s pepper or monk’s berry as monks in the Middle Ages also drank chasteberry mixtures in the hopes of reducing their sexual urges. In modern times, the medicinal use of chasteberry began in the 1950s in Germany. The German Madaus Company manufactured an extract used in Europe for treating cyclic mastalgia, is premenstrual breast tenderness. The chasteberry used in the medicine is thought to stop the hormone, prolactin, from being released from the pituitary gland.
Chasteberry (vitex) is a perennial plant that is said to have beneficial medicinal properties. It is used for various conditions, such as infertility, menstrual irregularities, and low breast milk supply. Chasteberry got its name because it was traditionally used by celibate monks to reduce sexual desire.
