Chamomile useful properties
Useful and curative properties of pyrethrum Cineraria( dalmatian chamomile)
Synonyms: chamomile.
Description. A perennial plant of gray-silver color of the family of astroids( Asteraceae) about 50-80 cm in height. The rhizome is large, with a chief multi-headed root, deepening into the ground for 2-3 m, and a large number of accessory roots. In the first year of culture, an outlet with a variety of radical leaves develops. In the second year 40-100 or more stems are formed. Leaves petiolate, twice- and thrice-drained, with leaves gray-green on top, and ash-gray beneath. Inflorescence is a basket with a diameter of up to 5-6 cm, consisting of marginal reed infertile female flowers of white color and middle tubular bisexual yellow flowers. Fruit is a small ribbed narrow seed. Blooms in May-June. Fruits ripen in June-July. Weight of 1000 seeds - 0,5-1,2 g.
Medicinal raw material : inflorescences and upper parts of stems-
Biological features. Camomile Dalmatian is a drought-resistant plant. On the one hand, it can withstand a drought for a long time, and on the other hand, it easily adapts to a humid climate, although the excess moisture in the soil is bad. Under the snow cover can withstand fairly low temperatures( up to -20- -30 ° C).In the absence of snow, it easily freezes even at a higher temperature.
Places of growth. Grows in mountainous areas at an altitude of 500-2000 m above sea level on stony, well-lit, dry limestone and mountain slopes.
Distribution of .Pyrethrum Cineraria in the wild grows in Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece. In the southern regions of Ukraine it is grown as a medicinal( insecticidal) plant. Sometimes it is wild( Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Crimean and other regions).
Chemical composition. The aerial part of the plant contains pyrethrins, cinerines, essential oil, flavone glycosides, phytosterols, sesquiterpene lactones and fatty acids.
Application. Pyrethrum Cinerarius is used as an insecticide. Its insecticidal properties are due to the presence of pyrethrin and cinerin, which are the poison of contact action. For plants, warm-blooded animals and humans, they are not harmful. Powder from flower baskets( pyrethrum) and white spirituous tincture( flizidum) is used to combat bugs, fleas, lice, cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes, pests of vegetable and fruit crops, and parasites of animals.
Contains the alkaloid anulin. In folk medicine, decoction of herbs is drunk with gastric diseases, as a soothing nervous system, like a laxative, with women's diseases: from whites.
Application of
Infusion: 2 teaspoons of herbs with flower baskets, infuse 4 hours in 1 cup of boiling water, take 1 tbsp.spoon 3-4 times a day.
Drink infusion and with hernia, cold, cough, fever, bladder relaxation, with small and flat worms. External use for infusion with skin rashes.
Agrotechnics of cultivation. Site selection. Pyrethrum Cineraria grows in one place for 8 years or more, but the most productive period is from 3 to 6 years of culture. In this regard, it is better to place it on the prefilled areas, and if there are none, then on sites with an even relief and a deep groundwater table.
For a plant the most suitable are non-swaddling chernozems of light mechanical composition having a good structure. On heavy low-lying and sandy soils, it grows poorly. The best precursors in field crop rotations are winter crops for fertilized steamed, early leguminous and tilled crops.
Soil treatment. If the field is used after winter crops, the preparation of the soil for chamomile Dalmatian is carried out according to the system of autumn plowing with the preliminary peeling of stubble. The depth of plowing is 25-27 cm. After plowed crops plowing is carried out immediately after harvesting. In the early spring, the field is harrowed, cultivated before sowing and harvested again. If the field is difficult to treat or the soil is not compacted well over the winter, it should be harnessed and harrowed. This treatment contributes to the formation of a fine-grained structure, proper( shallow) seeding and the emergence of amicable shoots.
Application of fertilizers. The main fertilizer is manure( 20-25 t / ha).With its lack, half can be mineral fertilizers.
Reproduction of .Propagated mainly by seeds, which are sown in the spring, immediately after the beginning of field work. Seeds are pre-soaked for 7-8 hours in water at room temperature. The seeding rate is 6-7 kg / ha, the depth of embedding is 2-3 cm. When sowing under winter, the seeds are not sealed, but they are sprinkled with humus 1 cm thick, and the seeding rate is increased by 10-15%.Pyrethrum is recommended to sow in a bandwagon with winter cereal crops. To do this, grains are sown with stripes with an interval of 70-100 cm. During the spring wind storms, winter crops protect the pyrethrum from puffing and soil drifts. On liberated after harvesting winter streaks, the next spring they sow feverfew.
Care for plantations of the first year of culture is reduced to systematic loosening and weeding of weeds. During the summer, 4-5 times machine spacing and 2-3 weeding are performed. Winter crops march early in spring, and spring crops immediately after the emergence of sprouts( to a depth of 5-6 cm), on the plantations of the first year of culture loosened the soil again after emergence, and on transitional - after the appearance of stems( to a depth of 10-12 cm).During the first paddling, shoots are fed, adding 60 kg of phosphorus per hectare and 30 kg of nitrogen and potassium per active ingredient per 1 hectare.
Harvesting. Inflorescences are collected by chamomile-collecting machines as soon as at least half of the tubular flowers bloom. Cutting height not lower than 20-25 cm.
Drying. Dry raw materials in attics under an iron roof or in dryers, in clear weather. - In the sun, spread out on a tarpaulin. If the plant is harvested with stalks, the chamfered mass is first podvyalivayut in piles, the next day, taken to the current for drying. Dried chamomile is stacked and covered with straw to avoid moisture. The average yield of dry inflorescences is 5-6 c / ha, sometimes reaching 10-15.
Packing. Flowers are packaged in bags, and stems, pressed with a conventional hay press, into bales.
Storage .In a dry, well ventilated area.
Quality requirements. The raw material must meet the requirements of GOST 2628-53.In the marketable weight of camomile flower baskets, it is allowed: 12% moisture, 5% aged parts, flower stems longer than 2 cm - 5%, organic impurities( parts of other plants) - 2.5%, mineral - 1%.Whole flower baskets should be not less than 65%, pyrethrine in flower baskets - not less than 0,3%;biological activity for flower baskets - 10 min, and for flower baskets with peduncles - 15 min.(Biological activity is determined by the time during which the flies die, the powdered plants of fine grinding).To obtain an insecticide powder, grind dry flowers are ground in special stone mortars. The finer the grinding, the higher the toxicity of the powder.
Seed growing. To do this, either lay special areas or allocate plantations with the best grass stand. Achenes are collected in the stage of wax ripeness by specially equipped harvesters. The cut inflorescences are collected on a canvas or burlap and dried on the current, threshed with threshing and cleaned with grain-cleaning machines to the sowing condition. The average yield of seeds is 2-7 q / ha.