Yellow gentian - Gentiana lutea. Family Gentianaceae.
Gentian got its generic name from the ancient Greek king Gentius, who supposedly treated the sick with gentian. Gentian yellow is a perennial herbaceous plant with a tall stem (40-140 cm) and tapering oblong leaves. The abundance of large bright yellow flowers of Gentian yellow, located in the axils, makes it very colorful (Fig. 34). Gentian yellow is becoming increasingly rare, is now subject to strict protection and is even included in the Red Book of the USSR. Yellow gentian is found in the mountains of western and middle parts of Europe, but in the USSR - only in the Ukrainian Carpathians, where the northeastern border of its range is located. Gentian yellow lives on mountain-meadow peaty soils, in conditions of abundant surface moisture. In the mountains it rises to a height of 900-1900 m above sea level. м. Gentian grows in single individuals or large clumps.
It is curious how the yellow gentian grass has adapted to protect its flowers from the constant inclement weather so common in the mountains. And while most flowers of other plants close their petals before bad weather for 45-50 minutes, gentian does it much faster, and several times a day. The sun appeared - the flower of the gentian plant opens, it hid and is going to rain - the petals of the gentian flower twist screw-shaped and close the flower.
Medicinal raw material of gentian is a thick (up to 20 cm in diameter) rhizome. Glycosides are found in the roots and rhizomes, causing their bitter taste. There are two alkaloids in them, one of them is genzianine. Gentian yellow as a medicinal plant has been known since antiquity. Back in the day.
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Roots and rhizomes of yellow gentian were used to treat plague, later (in the Middle Ages) - tuberculosis and malaria. Studies have established that the bitter substances of gentian herb stimulate the secretion and motor function of the gastrointestinal tract; hence its use in loss of appetite, dyspepsia, achilia. Good gentian and as a choleretic, improving digestion and assimilation of food. The rhizome of this gentian is used in homeopathy, allopathic medicine and in veterinary medicine.
Due to its high therapeutic efficacy and rarity, yellow gentian is increasingly being introduced into culture. There are plantations of it in many countries of Western Europe and in the Leningrad region.
Yellow gentian is also used in the liquor industry. To get rid of bitterness, its roots are pre-fermented before drying. For this purpose, they are put in piles for 8-10 days, after which they become brown-red and acquire a peculiar odor. Yellow gentian is also part of the famous Riga balsam, and in brewing gentian is used to give beer a "velvet flavor".
Quite close to the described gentian lungwort (Fig. 35), which occurs in the European and Asian parts of the USSR, except in the extreme northern and southern regions. Its typical habitats are wet meadows and shrublands. In the Caucasus Mountains, gentian lungwort rises to 1,200 m altitude. This gentian is also very beautiful. The short, many-leaved stem terminates in a large, bright blue flower. By the way, blue flowers are characteristic of many other species of gentian. About one of them - Bavarian gentian - N. А. Cholodkowski wrote poems like this:
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Where the snow hardly melts,
On the cold heights,
The gentian blooms
In dark blue beauty.
Everything is wild, everything is huge,
So far away from people
But my heart is so happy
So free, so light
