Useful and medicinal properties of tansy of common( wild ashberry)
Family Compositae( Asters) - Asteraceae
The generic name comes from two Greek words: tanaos - long and aceomai - to live, as dried flowers persist for a long time. Species definition in Latin means "ordinary" and is associated with the prevalence of the species.
Botanical description. Perennial herbaceous plant with a horizontal multi-headed rhizome. Stem is rounded, erect, branched, 50-150 cm high. In young plants it is one, and old stems are numerous. Leaves are regular, neparnope-ristorassechennye, lower - petiolate, and middle and upper - sessile. Segments oblong-lanceolate with a serrate or sharp-edged margin. Flowers tubular, orange-yellow, collected in hemispherical baskets, with a diameter of 7-10 mm, which form the corymbose inflorescences.
Fruit is an oblong achene without a tuft. The whole plant has a strong, peculiar odor.
Blossoms from the end of June to September. Fruits ripen in August - October.
Geographical spread. It grows on the meadows, meadows, near roads, ditches, among shrubs, on fringes, felling, in birch forests, near housing. It occurs almost throughout the entire territory of the USSR, except for the north and north-east of Siberia, the east of the Transcaucasus, deserts and semi-deserts of Central Asia. The main areas of
blanks are in the Baltic States, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and many areas of the RSFSR.
Collection and drying. Collect baskets at the beginning of flowering plants, when the inflorescences have a depressed middle. They are torn off by hand or cut off the shields and then tear off the baskets without flower stalks or with a remainder of their length not more than 4 cm. It is often recommended to do this after drying, although it is more difficult to perform. Do not delay with the collection, because over time the baskets on top become slightly bulging, increase in size, and when drying under natural conditions, flowering continues and the flowers bloom. Such raw materials contain much less biologically active substances than collected at earlier times.
Collected baskets are dried in the shade, under canopies, in attics or dryers at a temperature of 25-30 °, scattering them in a thin layer at a rate of 1 kg of raw flowers per 1 sq. Km.m area, periodically mixing. Drying is done until the crochet is leathery. Do not overdo it, as the flowers can crumble.
Medicinal raw materials. Ready-made raw materials - tansy flowers( Flores Tanaceti) consists of hemispherical baskets with yellow tubular flowers from 6 to 8 mm in diameter. Flowers are located on the bare, imperishable, slightly convex receptacle surrounded by a common wrapper on lanceolate with a filmy edge of leaflets.
The odor is peculiar, the taste is spicy, bitter.
GOST 16801-71 allows: moisture not more than 13%;ash is not more than 9%;ripened baskets not more than 8%;leaves, parts of inflorescences with peduncles longer than 4 cm and individual peduncles longer than 4 cm not more than 7%;crushed parts passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 2 mm, not more than 10%;organic and mineral impurities not more than 1%.
Chemical composition. Flowers tansy contain from 0.1 to 0.3% essential oil, which includes bicyclic ketone thujone, thuyl alcohol, camphor, borneol and pinene. In addition, they have tanning agents, bitter substance tanacetin - sesquiterpene lactone;flavonoids( luteolin-7-glucoside, luteo-lin, quercitin, etc.), tanacetic, gallic, coffee and chlorogenic acids, 0.04% volatile alkaloids, etc.
Action and application. Flavonoids tansy have cholagogue and antispasmodic effect. Essential oil tones up the muscles of the gastrointestinal tract and increases its secretion, has anthelmintic and antimicrobial action, but it does not find application in medicine because of the toxicity of thujone.
Apply the flowers in the form of a fine powder in 1/4 teaspoon and infusion of 5-10 g. Per 200 ml of water for 1 tablespoon 3-4 times a day for 20 minutes before meals.