Useful and medicinal properties of alder
Family Birch - Betulaceae
The generic name is formed from Celtic al-at and Ian-shore, since alder often grows along river banks. Species definition in the first species means "sticky" in Latin because of the properties of young leaves, and in the second - "gray" because of the silvery-gray bark and pubescent leaves.
Botanical Description. Alder glue is a deciduous tree with a height of 20-25 m, less often a shrub with a black-brown bark. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, broadly ovoid, with uneven, as if ragged, top, bare. Young leaves are sticky, especially from below, and shiny. Flowers are same-sex, but are located on the same specimen. Staminate - in long, drooping, thin earrings, collected on 3-5.The pistil earrings, located 3-8 at the ends of branches on a short stem, are short, oval. That and other inflorescences are formed from autumn, and in the spring they are blossoming even before the formation of leaves. Pollinated by the wind. After fertilization, male earrings fall off, and women grow larger, forming an ornate, often called "cones"( bumps are an attribute of gymnosperms, and alder refers to angiosperms).Of these, when maturing in February and March, flat nuts with a filmy wing are scattered and carried by the wind. Blossoms in March - April. Fruits ripen in September-October, but at this time they are still glued to the overgrown scales of the perianth.
Alder gray - a tree with a height of 5-15 m or a bush. As a rule, the shrub form has a southern part of its range.
The bark is light gray, the ovoid crown. Leaves are pointed-elliptical or ovate with a double-filamentous margin and pinnate venation. Young - densely pubescent on both sides, quite developed - from above smooth, from below gray-green, pubescent. The pistillate inflorescence is sessile, except for the terminal one.
Blossoms in March - April. During the flowering of alder in the forest, snow still often lies.
Geographical distribution. Alder glue is a forest and forest-steppe species, which enters along the river valleys into the steppe zone. It forms black alder forests along the river floodplains, on boggy and well-moistened soil.
Alder gray grows along the banks of rivers, on fringes, glades, along roads and on low-lying meadows, forms pure plantations - gray alder forests at a latitude of 55 ° and north. It occurs in the forest zone of the European part of the USSR, in the Caucasus, goes beyond the Urals to the Sverdlovsk and partly Chelyabinsk regions.
The main raw material procurement areas are in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Pskov, Novgorod, Vologda, Perm, Sverdlovsk and other areas of the RSFSR.
Collection and drying. Collected in the late autumn or winter from the trees without frost and until the melting snow, the aplicata of alder gray and sticky. It is more convenient to collect the fertilizer from the gray alder, if it looks like a bush. Branches are tilted and tear off the fertilizer by hand or cut off the ends of the thin branches, and then lay the bumps in baskets or sacks and direct to drying.
Dry fruit in the sun, in attics, under canopies or in dryers at a temperature of 30-40 °.With good ventilation, drying takes place quickly. In fact, the raw material has to be dried and not dried, especially during the autumn harvest.
Medicinal raw materials. Finished raw materials - fruiting alder( Fructus Alni) consists of ovoid or oval cones, solitary or assembled several, dark brown or dark brown in color. There are individual scales and fruits. On the axis of the nozzle are numerous fan-shaped scales with a thickened and darker edge. In the sinuses of the scales there are flattened winged nuts, which are poured out when the bud is triturated. Noots without seeds contain less active substances.
Smell weak, taste astringent.
FS 42-850-74 allows: moisture not more than 12%;ash not more than 3.5%;branches and separated pedicles not more than 1%;stems with a length of a branch more than 2 cm from the lower point to the point of attachment, as well as shredded parts passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 1 mm, not more than 3%;organic impurity not more than 0.5%;mineral - no more than 1%;tannins not less than 10%.
Chemical composition. Aplods contain tannins, including up to 2.5% tannin, up to 3.7% free gallic acid, flavonoids, etc.
Action and application. Tannins of alder have astringent and disinfectant properties.
Decoction from 15-20 g. Aplod of alder on 200 ml of water is applied to 1 tablespoon 3-4 times a day for acute and chronic enteritis and colitis, accompanied by diarrhea. At the same time, the frequency of acts of defecation decreases, the stool is normalized, pain in the abdomen disappears.