Useful and medicinal properties of ephedra two-colony( kuzmic grass)
Perennial dioecious plant, shrub up to 30 cm( sometimes up to 50 cm) in height. The root is thick, long, branchy. The stem from the base is branched, rustic, with articulate smooth green branches. Leaves are scaly, reduced, opposite, fused at the base. The flowers are small, same-sex, collected in small spikelets. Seeds are overgrown with juicy scales, similar to berries. Blooms in May-June.
Distributed in the Zavolzhsky districts of the Southeast, less often in the Right Bank, is also found in Orel, Tambov, Penza regions. It grows on clay, steppe slopes, sandy massifs and stony slopes.
The plant is poisonous!
The medicinal raw material is the whole plant or the aerial part collected during the flowering period. Collect in the summer, dig up with the root or cut only the grass. Dry in the shade. It is stored in glass or porcelain jars with lids under lock.
Kuzmicheva grass contains alkaloids ephedrine and its isomers( pseudoephedrine, methylephedrine and norpseudo-ephedrine).The alkaloid of ephedra has an exciting effect on the central nervous system. Ephedrine, a drug of anti-oxidase action, increases the tone of the sympathetic nervous system, arterial pressure, enlarges the bronchial lumen, slightly increases the sugar content in the blood. In connection with the fact that the blood pressure rises, coronary vessels, vessels of the lungs expand. In the action of ephedrine on the body there is a great similarity with the action of adrenaline. Unlike epinephrine, ephedrine has a more persistent effect and excites the central nervous system.
In medical practice, mainly used is the hydrochloride salt of ephedrine in solutions for injection( 5%) or in eye drops( 2-3%), and also in tablets of 0.025-0.05 g. Green sprigs of ephedra
are included in the composition of anti-asthma charges and are also applied in a pure form for the preparation of infusions on the recommendation of a doctor.
Ephedrine is prescribed for bronchial asthma, with conditions accompanied by hypotension, for the treatment of hypotension, with spinal anesthesia, intravenous injections of novarsenol, for drug poisoning, opium-group drugs, scopolamine, place-as hemostatic, with nosebleeds andvasoconstrictor with rhinitis-pharyngitis, etc. It is indicated for hypertension and glaucoma( dilates the pupils), chronic rhinitis.
In folk medicine Kuzmicheva herb is used with reduced blood pressure, allergies, bronchial asthma, hay fever, urticaria, diseases of the digestive system, dysentery, rheumatism, apply as a diaphoretic, antipyretic, reducing the separation of sputum agent, etc. Decoction of woody branches and trunk reduces sweating.
Application of
Decoction: 8-South shredded herbs for 600ml of water, boil to 1/2 of the original amount;1 tbsp.spoon 3 times a day.
Infusion: 2 g of raw material per glass of water( daily dose).
Tea: 1 teaspoon of the crushed raw material is brewed in 2 cups of boiling water, insist 10-15 minutes and drink 1/2 cup 2-3 times a day with bronchial asthma, hypotonic disease.