Valeriana wallichii Valeriana wallichii Valeriana wallichii is a rhizome herb of the genus Valeriana and the family Valerianaceae also called Indian Valerian or Tagar-Ganthoda, not to be confused with ganthoda, the root of Indian long pepper. It is an herb useful in Ayurvedic medicine used as an analeptic, antispasmodic, carminative, sedative, stimulant, stomachic, and nervine. It grows in the Northwest Himalayas in places like Astore (Northern Pakistan) and forests in the region. The genus Valeriana, with about 200 species, belongs to the family Valerianaceae and has a distribution throughout the world. The Indian Valerian has long been used in Ayurveda (Charak Samhita
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets of 1975) and extraterrestrial peoples, the former International Space Station has been added to until its mass threatens to cause it to fall out of orbit. Relocated to deep space using a set of thrusters, it becomes Alpha, a space-traveling city inhabited by millions of species from thousands of planets. A special police division is created by the "United Human Federation" (a world government formed by a federation of Earth's countries) to preserve peace through the galaxy, including happy-go-lucky Major Valerian and his partner, no-nonsense Sergeant Laureline. En route to a mission, Valerian dreams of a planet, Mül, where a