Sunflower annual
.The annual sunflower is a well-known annual cultivated plant in the complex flowering family, with bright yellow flowers gathered in large baskets. It blooms in July - August, fruits ripen in August - October (Fig. 59).
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The annual sunflower is native to North America. In the former USSR it is widely cultivated in the steppe and forest-steppe zones of the European part of the CCCR less frequently in Western Siberia, Kazakhstan and the North Caucasus.
Sunflower leaves with or without petioles no longer than 3 cm and marginal tongue flowers 4-6 cm long, collected at the beginning of flowering, are used. Sunflower leaves have no odor, and their taste is bitter. The flowers have a faint, honeyed odor, the taste is bitter with a mucilaginous sensation.
Chemical composition
.Carotene (up to 100 m %), rubber, resinous substances, flavonoids have been isolated from the leaves. Flowers contain flavone glycoside, anthocyanins, choline, betaine, bitters, organic acids, etc.
Action and application
.How annual sunflower acts is not fully understood. A liquid extract from sunflower leaves and marginal flowers is used as a bitter to improve appetite. Versenate antidotal properties of sunflower pectin have been established in cobalt and strontium poisoning. Sunflower flowers, leaf and oil were included in the State Pharmacopoeia of the USSR in 1961.
In Bulgaria used yellow marginal tongue yellow flowers of sunflower in malaria, bronchial spasms and gastrointestinal colic, as antispasmodic in the form of infusion (3 -4 g to 250 ml of boiling water - daily dose).
In domestic folk medicine, alcohol tincture of flowers and leaves is used to improve appetite and as an anti-fever remedy for malaria.
Sunflower oil is used to prepare emulsions, serving as a good enveloping agent for coughs and stomach aches. The oil obtained from the fruit is used as a laxative and is recommended in the treatment and prevention of sclerosis due to its unsaturated fatty acids.
Sunflower oil is included in various ointments.
The marginal flowers of the annual sunflower are used by us as an anti-fever remedy for malaria, influenza and upper respiratory catarrh.
Bitter Wormwood
.Wormwood is a perennial herbaceous herbaceous plant of silver color with a strong aromatic odor, from the family of complex flowers, 50 - 125 cm high. The stem is erect, branched in the upper part. Leaves are silky grayish-lobed, ordinary, petiolate, twice pinnately dissected. The flowers are small, yellow. The corms are globular, in a panicle inflorescence. Bitter wormwood blooms in June-July (Fig. 60).
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Bitter wormwood is distributed throughout the former USSR, except in the Far North. It grows in glades, slopes, hills, near roads, near fences, in vacant lots. Cultivated as a medicinal plant in the GDR and FRG.
It is used oblate flower-bearing stem tops, not longer than 25 cm, collected at the beginning of flowering (without thick stems) with lower stem leaves. The whole plant has a very bitter taste, spicy strong aroma, which are retained after drying. Wormwood is the most bitter herbaceous plant.
Chemical composition
.The terrestrial part of Artemisia contains bitter glycosides absinthine and anabsinthine, essential artemisia oil (0.5-2%) containing thujone, thujol and a number of bicyclic terpenes, proazulene, vitamins B6, K, ascorbic acid, carotene, tannins resinous, protein substances, organic acids, etc. Mugwort herb has phytoncidal properties.
Action and application
.It has been experimentally established that bitters (Absinthe) have the ability to stimulate the function of digestive glands, secretion of bile and pancreatic juice, increase the secretion of gastric juice. The action of this, as of other bitters, is due to increased excitability to food stimuli. Wormwood essential oil is similar to camphor in its energizing effect on the central nervous system.
Hamazulene obtained from bitter wormwood has the property of activating the reticulo-endothelial system and phagocytic functions, and also exhibits anti-inflammatory effects.
Infusion, tincture and extract of wormwood herb are used to stimulate appetite and to improve digestion. Hamazulene is used in the treatment of bronchial asthma, rheumatism, eczema and X-ray burns.
The same drugs are also used as an emollient. Bitter wormwood is included in choleretic, appetite-increasing and flatulence-reducing collections.
In Indian medicine, the herb mugwort is used as an anthelmintic and tonic. In Bulgaria it is used for gastritis with increased secretion of gastric contents, liver disease, gall bladder disease, anemia, insomnia and bad breath.
In the Middle Ages, the herb wormwood was considered one of the most healing and was used in the form of an infusion for women's diseases to enhance menstruation, fresh grinded herb, infused with wine - as an abortifacient, as well as for bloating of the intestines with gas, as a diuretic and as an antidote for some poisonings ("Salerno Code of Health", 1964).
In the GDR wormwood herb is used in the form of decoction, tincture and powder for gastrointestinal diseases, flatulence, and is also used as a spice for sauces.
In France, wormwood is found wild and cultivated and is called the "herb of health". In medicine, the leaves and flowering tops are used as an anthelmintic, appetite stimulant and digestive aid. Leclerc recommends the following prescription: wormwood leaf powder - 2-3 g, licorice powder - 2 g, green anise powder - 0.50 g, eaten with prune pulp. Take 5 days in a row on an empty stomach. You can prescribe beer with wormwood (1 part wormwood leaves, 30 parts beer). Both of these drugs have indications against ascarids and pinworms.
For many years in France, the herb wormwood bitter has also been used as a tonic for the digestive organs. Absinthine contained in wormwood is a non-toxic substance, but may cause atonic constipation with prolonged use. Wormwood tincture is difficult to drink due to its very bitter taste. French doctors recommend preparing tincture, extract (0.25-0.50) or wine: dry leaves of wormwood - 30 g, alcohol 60 °-60 g, white wine - 100 ml. Infuse with alcohol for 24 hours, then add wine, strain after 10 days. Take no more than 100 g per day, as in this drug in the essential oil is a toxic substance and use in large doses can lead to the appearance of convulsions such as epilepsy.
R. Paris, a professor at the Pharmaceutical Institute, believes that wormwood herb contains0.30% borneol essence, tannin, saponins and 20% of a bitter substance, gradenin. According to him, this plant can also be used as an antispasmodic and expectorant. Other French physicians use wormwood for neurasthenia and anemia, in the form of tincture or extract.
In Poland, wormwood is used as a digestive and wound-healing agent.
Abu Ali Ibn-Sina widely used bitter wormwood for the treatment of various diseases: for chronic inflammation of the eyes, as a choleretic, diuretic, anthelmintic and for menstrual disorders - in the form of decoction of the herb. Juice of fresh herb - to stimulate appetite, from jaundice and dropsy; wormwood wine - to improve the activity of the gastrointestinal tract.
Artemisia herb is an official raw material in 24 countries (Klan, 1948), including the USSR.
In domestic folk medicine decoction of wormwood herb is used for fever, diseases of the liver, stomach and spleen, with dropsy. Fresh juice mixed with alcohol - for kidney stone disease, insomnia, as an anthelmintic and wound-healing agent. In the folk medicine of Central Asia, infusion of wormwood from its flowers is used for ulcerative colitis, inflammatory process in the blind intestine, hemorrhoids, bad breath, epilepsy, ozena and a number of other diseases.
The essential wormwood oil obtained from the plant is used in liquor production, but cases of "wormwood epilepsy" have been noted with prolonged use of wormwood tincture.
The above-ground flowering part of wormwood bitter, without rough stems, we use as an aromatic bitter, as regulating the secretion and excitation of the secretory nerve centers of the stomach, as reducing flatulence, anti-inflammatory, stimulating biliary secretion. Wormwood herb for malaria, influenza, catarrh of the upper respiratory tract and other diseases..
