Section 5

Aloe tree (stoloniferous) is an evergreen succulent plant of the lily family, with fleshy and sessile leaves 30-40 cm long, covering the stem with a broad base. The edges of the leaves are spiky, the lower side convex, the upper side flat, with a yellowish sap on the cut. It blooms after 5-6 years, and even later in room conditions. The flowers are orange-yellow, gathered in a rather dense brush at the end of the peduncle. The juice is used, from which sabur is obtained (evaporated, condensed and hardened juice of aloe leaves), giving when rubbed yellow-green powder with a peculiar odor and bitter taste.Useful properties of aloe are often used to treat various ailments. Aloe juice contains anthracene derivatives in the form of glycosides and free aglycones (aloe - emadin), resinous substances, traces of essential oil. Juice from fresh leaves is rich in enzymes, vitamins and has a bactericidal effect.

Althea medicinalis (from Greek "alcea" - healing) is a perennial herbaceous plant of the mallow family. The stem is one or several, erect, grayish-green, felted and fibrous, woody below, up to 1.5 m tall. Leaves are three to five-lobed, alternate, long-petiolate. Flowers are pale pink, five-petaled, located in the axils of the upper leaves at the top of the stems, forming spike-like inflorescences. The rhizome is thick, short, multi-headed, with a strong stem, in the upper part of a single-trunked root, reaching 50 cm in length; the roots are fleshy, whitish. Flowering medicinal marshmallow from June to August. Honey bee. The medicinal properties of althea help to cure ailments due to active beneficial elements.The medicinal properties of althea have a favorable effect on the human body. The flowers contain essential oil, which contains acids with an odor reminiscent of valerian root. The leaves contain mucilage, carotene, ascorbic acid, traces of essential oil.

Anise is an annual herbaceous plant of the umbrella family with a height of 30-60 cm. The stem is straight, rounded, branching from above. The lower leaves are entire, notched-toothed or lobed; the middle leaves are long-petiolate, triple, with cuneate, often two-lobed lateral segments and a three-lobed terminal segment; the upper leaves are sessile and dissected into narrow lobes. Flowers are small, white, gathered in compound umbrellas.Watermelon is a well-known herbaceous annual plant native to South Africa. It blooms from May to August. The fruit is berries (the largest). Watermelon is cultivated in the southern and middle regions of the European part of the USSR, in the Crimea, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Basil mint (basil camphor basil) is a perennial semi-shrub from the family of sponges with a height of 50-80 cm. The stem is erect and branched. Leaves are suprotic, short-petiolate. Inflorescence is a simple brush 7-20 cm long, the corolla is white, less often pink. The whole plant is pubescent and has a strong specific odor. Basil mint blooms from July to late fall. Good nectariferous.Basil mint has the ability to excite the central nervous system, especially the center of the medulla oblongata, and enhance the activity of the heart, low toxicity, in large doses causes convulsions clonic character. Treatment with basil locally has an irritating and antiseptic effect.

Common barberry is a perennial branching shrub of the barberry family, up to 2-3 m tall. Branches are equipped with three-divided prickles, young yellowish, gray in the second year. Leaves are alternate, obovate, finely spiny-toothed along the edges with a network of veins on the lower surface, narrowed into a petiole. Flowers are light yellow in simple multicolored drooping clusters. The fruit is an oblong, cylindrical, red sour berry with 2-3 seeds. Common barberry blooms in May-July. Fruits ripen in September - October. Treatment with barberry is carried out comprehensively and in the collection from several species of plants. Tincture of leaves of common barberry, as well as Amur barberry, has styptic, increasing blood clotting and choleretic effect. The most active properties of barberry are alkaloids berberine, which has antibacterial activity.

White birch is a tree up to 20 m tall from the birch family, with white, smooth, parchment-like bark with characteristic dark lines. The white birch grows wild and is cultivated as an ornamental and landscaping plant. In total, there are up to 120 species of birch, in the USSR grows about 65 species, differing from each other in some features, in medicine they are used equally. Treatment with birch has been practiced for many centuries. Infusion and decoction of the buds have diuretic, antiseptic, choleretic properties. Some clinicians have observed a significant increase in urine output under the influence of this decoction and a sharp reduction in edema, even in cases where other cardiac and diuretic remedies did not help.

Immortelle sandy (cumin) is a perennial herbaceous plant, 15-40 cm tall, with whitish hairy stem and leaves, from the family of compound flowers. Flower baskets of lemon-yellow or orange color are gathered in a dense shield-shaped inflorescence. Immortelle sandy blooms in June and August. The properties of immortelle are known to many phytotherapists and are widely used in folk and traditional medicine. In the inflorescences found flavonoids in the form of glycosides and free aglycones, vitamin C, carotene, essential oil, organic acids, sterols, coloring substances of phenolic character, bitter and tannins, resins, fatty oils.

Blood-red hawthorn (the name crataegus means hardness, rigidity), prickly hawthorn (oxyacantha from Greek oxys sharp, prickly, akantha - thorn). Blood-red hawthorn is a shrub or tree up to 4 m high with purplish-brown shiny shoots, few straight thick prickles up to 4 cm long, from the family Rosaceae. Blood-red hawthorn is distributed in the forest-steppe zone, in the European part of the USSR, in Western Siberia, in Eastern Kazakhstan. It grows in sparse forests, along forest edges and river banks, in wall gullies. Properties of hawthorn are used in traditional and folk medicine. There are indications that the chemical composition of hawthorn prickly and blood-red are equivalent. The use of hawthorn is widespread in pharmacology. Hawthorn preparations (infusion of fruits and flowers, liquid extract from fruits, tincture of flowers is part of cardiovalen) reduce the excitability of the central nervous system, have a tonic effect on the heart muscle.

Lingonberry is a perennial evergreen semi-shrub of the lingonberry family, 10-30 cm high, with a creeping rhizome and erect branching stems. The use of cranberries in medicine is due to the useful substances contained in it. The use of cranberries is recommended as an infusion. This remedy from the leaves has diuretic and astringent properties. Mature berries have antirotinous and vitamin properties, juice - sedative property. Budra ivy - a perennial herbaceous plant from the family of sponges. Properties of buddleia are known to many pharmacologists and phytotherapists. In the herb found essential oil (0.03-0.06%), which contains aldehydes, tannins and bitter substances, choline, saponins, resin. In the leaves, 78.9 mg% of ascorbic acid is found. However, the properties of buddleia are poorly understood.

Bouquila medicinalis is a perennial herbaceous plant of the spongy family. The stem is tetrahedral, up to 60 cm tall. Leaves are petiolate, oblong-ovate, covered with short hairs. Flowers are large, irregular, sitting in the axils of the upper leaves, multiflowered half-mutuals, collected at the end of the stem in the form of a spike-like inflorescence. The properties of Bouquila are used in medicine with great caution. Bitter and tannins, stachydrin, betonitsin, choline (Norre, 1958), and alkaloids have been found in the herb. We use the above-ground part of Bouquila as a hypotensive, reducing the excitability of the central nervous system, improving metabolism, in hypertension, atherosclerosis and kidney disease.