Useful and medicinal properties of a large burdock
Family Compositae( Asters) - Asteraceae
The generic name comes from the Greek word arktos - a bear because of the size of the leaves. Species definition is formed from the Celtic lappa - hand, as the fruits cling to the clothes and animal hair with numerous curved "paws" in the form of a hook.
Botanical description. A biennial herbaceous plant with a rod-shaped, branched root. In the first year of life he is juicy, and on the second spends nutrients and becomes flabby and hollow inside. Plants of the first year of life have only a root rosette of large petiolate leaves, and on the second - an erect, ribbed, reddish, above branching stem 60-180 cm in height. The cauline leaves are regular, less radical, heart-shaped, ovate, with sparse hairs on top, and grayish-felt from below.
Flowers are collected in spherical baskets. The wrapper of the basket is naked, green, consisting of stiff, hook-bent leaves, clinging to animal hair, clothing of a man, which promotes the spread of the plant. All flowers are tubular, lilac-purple. Fruits are oblong achenes with short tufts, from easily falling hairs.
Blossoms in July - August. Fruits ripen in August - September.
Geographical spread. Growing near housing,
roads, reservoirs, on vacant lots, weedy places, borders, margins of fields. Almost all over the USSR.
Collection and drying. Collect the roots of plants of the first year of life, which do not have a stem. Plants of the second year with stems are not used. Their root consumes nutritious, and with them, biologically active substances. The collection is carried out in September-October. Plants dig up with shovels, shake off the ground, cut off the above-ground part and thin roots, separated from the main root thick lateral and washed. The washed roots are cleaned of the cork. Often this is done after withering. The thick ones are cut along and dried in the sun, in attics or other ventilated areas. Dried roots break, but do not bend.
Medicinal raw materials. The raw material - burdock root - Radix Bardanae( Radix Arctii lappae) consists of cylindrical, partially cut longitudinally, peeled grayish-brown outside, pale gray in the fracture of the roots. Smell weak, peculiar, taste sweetish. When wetted with an iodine solution, it does not give color.
OST 7907/370 allows: moisture not more than 13%;Roots with remains of stems no more than 1%;Root roots no more than 5%;pieces of roots less than 2 cm in length not more than 5%;organic impurity not more than 0.5%;mineral impurity not more than 1%.
A raw material defect is an admixture of roots harvested from plants of the second year. They are flabby, light-weight, often with an air cavity inside, woody.
Chemical composition. Burdock root contains glycoside arctinine, which during hydrolysis is split into glucose and lactone arctigenin, up to 45% of inulin polysaccharide, fatty oil;up to 0.17% of essential oil, flavonoids, tannins, mucus, organic acids, including coffee, apple and citric acid, sitosterol and stigmasterol, a bit of bitter substances, etc.
Action and application. Burdock root has a diuretic effect, which, apparently, is associated with glycoside arctinin. Has an anti-inflammatory effect and the property to enhance hair growth. In view of the high content of inulin, which turns into fructose during hydrolysis, it is useful in diabetics.
Decoction of roots at the rate of 20 g. Per 200 ml of water is prescribed by 1/2 cup 2-3 times a day to stimulate metabolism and as an anti-inflammatory agent for arthritis and arthrosis, articular rheumatism, gout. As a diuretic, the decoction is indicated in patients with nephrolithiasis.
Oil extract on peach or olive oil, perfumed with essential oils, called burdock oil, is used as a means to strengthen and grow hair.