Consumer cooperatives and pharmacies collect medicinal plants. Every year only Donetsk Regional Consumer Union procures 420-480 tons and pharmacies 90-100 tons of medicinal raw materials, including rose hips and pumpkin seeds. However, medicinal raw materials are in short supply. There are enthusiastic collectors who annually harvest 500 kg or more of medicinal raw materials, such as, for example, N. А. Kuzel from the village of. Yasnoborodovki, Yasynovatsk district. Some hospitals stock medicinal raw materials for themselves: in Donetsk (23rd - head of the department, doctor V. К. Lavrenov, 5th - doctor S. С. Chubenko), in Dimitrov (doctor S. К. Musket). For many years we have annually procured about 200 kg of cultivated and wild plants for the hospital pharmacy. Pensioners, employees of pharmacies, hospitals, foresters, schoolchildren, university and technical school students could be of great help. If each schoolchild and student at least 1 kg of medicinal raw materials, it would be of great help to the sick.
Medicinal plants are not difficult to collect, but it is necessary to know them well and follow the rules of collection, drying and storage. These rules can be found in pharmacies and rural shops, as well as from reference literature ("Handbook on the preparation of medicinal plants" - Kiev, Urozhay, 1989).
Some area pharmacies hold courses for stockers in the winter. The first to start this was E. М. Voytenko from Khartsyzsk. Seminars on procurement of medicinal raw materials are regularly organized in production associations "Pharmacia" of regional executive committees and in regional trade unions.
Every year at the city's flower show, N. И. Sslom-chenko distributed seedlings and seeds of some medicinal plants.
Local procurers should scout and study in advance the places of growth and approximate stocks of herbs. In advance it is necessary to prepare the necessary equipment (knives, scissors, pruners, pruners, sickles, scythes, shovels and containers - bags, baskets), as well as prepare rooms for drying (attics, barns, sheds) and stock up on paper, film, tarpaulin, on which to dry the harvested material. Do not collect medicinal plants in areas that have been chemically treated, as well as near factories, power plants, highways with heavy traffic and other polluted places.
All above-ground plant parts should be collected only in dry weather from 8-9 to 16-17 hours. Do not collect plants that are dusty, dirty, discolored, damaged by disease, pests or animals. The raw material should be put into bags or other containers at once, but not tightly stuffed.
Biologically active substances in plants accumulate in its various parts during certain periods of development. Therefore, only those parts of the plant that contain the greatest amount of medicinal substances (buds, bark, leaves, flowers and inflorescences, fruits and seeds or roots and rhizomes) are collected.
Buds (birch, poplar, pine) - collected in March - April, when they are strongly swollen, but not yet blossomed. Harvested by hand, and the pine buds are cut with sharp knives in the form of crowns. Birch buds are removed along with the branches and then threshed.
The bark (oak, calamus, cherry, willow) is harvested in early spring before the budding of leaves, when it is well separated from the wood. It is removed only from young severed or cut trunks and branches of trees by making circular cuts at a distance of 25-50 cm one from the other, connect them with one or two longitudinal cuts, and then remove it in the form of grooves or tubes. Bark is harvested in places of sanitary cuttings, during forest clearing.
Leaves are collected during budding and flowering of plants. The leaves of bitter wormwood are collected together with the petiole.
Herbs are harvested at the beginning of flowering or full bloom, (and in succession before flowering), cutting with a knife tops 15-30 cm long, without rough ground parts. Grass thickets are mowed with scythes or sickles.
Flowers and inflorescences are collected at the beginning of flowering by hand, plucking them and cutting off the pedicels. Chamomile is sometimes harvested with rifled scoops.
Fruits and seeds are plucked by hand selectively, when fully ripe, without stalks. Fruits of mountain ash, caraway, dill are collected in umbrellas or shields, and then after drying separate from the stalks. Hawthorn and rosehip are particularly difficult to collect.
Some pickers themselves make special scoops for harvesting rosehip fruits, which allows them to avoid damaging their hands and increases labor productivity.
Roots, Rhizomes of the plant are dug out with shovels in early spring and during the period of dying off of above-ground parts (late summer - fall). Clean off soil, stems, dead and woody parts and then wash with cold water. Thick roots and rhizomes are cut lengthwise into 2-4 pieces, long - across, or better cut them finely with a knife or herb cutter.
Proper drying of raw materials is important. It must be of high quality (not lose its natural color, smell), otherwise pharmacies and village stores will not accept them. Before drying, the raw material is carefully sorted, unnecessary plant parts and foreign impurities are removed. The buds are dried slowly in a cool room so they don't bloom.
Dry herbs as soon as possible and only in the shade at a temperature of 30-40 ° C in well-ventilated rooms. They are laid in a thin layer and gently turned over 3-4 times as they dry. Leaves of mother-mache and plantain are spread out in such a way that they do not fall on each other. When drying, make sure that the raw material is not exposed to rain and does not turn brown. Fragrant herbs (thyme, oregano) dried slowly at a temperature not exceeding 30-35 ° C. Raw materials containing cardiac glycosides (goricolor, lily of the valley, foxglove) should be dried at a temperature of 50-60 ° C. Rhizomes with roots, fruits and seeds can be dried in the sun, and in bad weather - in dryers, stoves and ovens, maintaining the right temperature (except those containing essential oils). The attics of livestock buildings, as well as rooms where products and materials with odor, mineral fertilizers and toxic chemicals are stored are unsuitable for drying.
When drying herbs, care must be taken to ensure that they are not over-dried. The raw material should be handed over as soon as possible in paper or cloth bags. Raw materials collected for themselves should be stored in bags, boxes, crates, jars with a label that indicates the name of the plant and the year of collection. Raw materials containing essential oils should be stored in glass jars with a lapped plug or in metal jars with a tightly closed lid. Store raw materials in dry and clean rooms, do not allow them to get damp.
With scientifically based planning, organized harvesting and rational use of natural resources, the stocks of raw materials of wild medicinal plants can remain almost unchanged for a long time (D. С. Ivashin). However, with intensification of agriculture, grazing of plants by cattle and due to uncontrolled collection of medicinal plants by the population for personal needs and sale, there is a significant impoverishment of natural reserves and almost complete disappearance of some species. Many of them are listed in the Red Books of the country and the republic, in the Red Book of Donbass.
By advocating for the widespread use of medicinal plants, we are talking about the responsibility of all people to preserve natural resources. Stocks of medicinal plants are not limitless, and it is necessary to use them carefully, so that there is enough not only for us, but also for our descendants (S. Л. Sokolov). Everyone who cares about the native nature and is not indifferent to its future fate should protect it.
Raw materials should be collected only by special procurers under permits and certificates of forestry and agriculture authorities, pharmacies and consumer cooperative societies. It is necessary to create sanctuaries for endangered plant species, to explain to the general public the need to protect medicinal plants.
Preparers must observe the basic rules of raw material procurement:
1. Collect buds from clearings, not from growing trees and shrubs.
2. Bark should be removed only from cut or felled trees and shrubs or individual cut branches in forest clearings.
3. Do not pluck or cut off the leaves completely, but only from 1/4th of the bush.
4. Perennial herbs should be cut, not plucked from the roots (goryflower, St. John's wort, oregano, immortelle).
5. When harvesting flowers, leave part of them for insemination, especially in annual and biennial plants (chamomile, caraway).
6. When harvesting flowers and inflorescences from trees and shrubs do not cut and do not break branches (linden, hawthorn, elderberry);
.7. Roots and rhizomes should be harvested after ripening and falling of seeds and fruits (althea, elecampane, valerian), young specimens should be left to grow. The remaining holes should be buried and the seeds of these plants sown in this place.
8. After harvesting St. John's wort, oregano and thyme, it is necessary to observe breaks for 3-4 years.
It is necessary to make sowing and planting of scarce plants, shrubs and trees in field protection plantings, forests, beams and on lands unsuitable for agricultural use (oregano, St. John's wort, motherwort, goldenseal, hawthorn, elderberry, joster, Japanese quince, linden, mountain ash, suckers, rose hips). The most valuable species of wild medicinal plants should be cultivated (astragalus, elecampane, valerian, steelhead, St. John's wort, cumin)..
