Useful and therapeutic properties of Icelandic cetrarium( Icelandic "moss")
Family Parmelia - Parmeliaceae
The generic name comes from the Latin word cetra - a round leather shield of Roman soldiers. The name is given in the form of organs of sporulation - apothecia. Therapeutic properties of the plant were first learned from the Icelanders, as indicated by the species definition.
Botanical Description. It is a lower plant and therefore its body is thallus, or thallus, not dissected into vegetative organs and only remotely similar to a leafy plant. Tallum is bushy, whitish or greenish-brown in color, consisting of flat, grooved-wrapped or almost tubular blades up to 10 cm high and 0.5-4 cm wide. Below the blades are reddish or with separate red spots. The edges of the blades are usually cilia, sometimes they are absent on the tops of the blades. From a 5-10% solution of potassium hydroxide, thallus turns yellow.
In cetarium, like other lichens, two organisms with opposite properties are combined: algae( more often green), which creates an organic matter in the process of photosynthesis, and a fungus that consumes this substance. Instead, the fungus supplies the seaweed with a sufficient amount of water and the mineral salts dissolved in it, which it absorbs from the environment.
Propagation of cetrarium spores, which, germinating and interwoven with filaments( hyphae), form a rudimentary thallus of lichen. To further from it a real lichen appeared, contact with a certain species of algae is necessary. In addition, asexual reproduction is also observed - in groups of cells( soybean) containing fungal hyphae and alga cells.
Geographical spread. It grows on sandy soils and light pine forests, where it has the appearance of curtains or individual specimens, on swamps among mosses. It occurs almost throughout the territory of the USSR, with the exception of steppes, semi-deserts and deserts. More widely distributed in the European part of the USSR.It is one of the most common lichens. One of the main food plants for reindeer.
Collection and drying. They collect thallus during the whole summer. They are detached from the substrate, cleaned of foreign impurities and sand. Dry in the sun or in dryers at a temperature of 40-50 °.
Medicinal raw materials. Finished raw materials - Lichen islan-dicus consists of strongly branching thallus bushes, from above greenish-brown, olive, from below light gray, and at the base of dark brown with dark-brown cilia. The thalluses are rigid, narrowed at the base, widened, irregularly lobed, with narrow or broadly curved blades up to 10 cm in length and up to 0.5 mm thick in a tube or groove. Blades are glabrous, ciliate along margin.
Smell weak, peculiar, taste bitter, with a sensation of mucous.
GOST 13727-68 allows: moisture not more than 14%;ash not more than 2%;organic impurity not more than 5%;mineral - no more than 0,5%.
The organic admixture includes, above all, other species of cetrarium.
Cetraria SN6ZHN & I Cetraria nivalis( L.) Ach., Pine - S. pinastri( Scop.) S. Gray - poisonous! Contains vulvinic acid, juniper - S. juniperina( L.) Ach., Blackish - C. nigricans( Retz.) Nyl.solution of potassium hydroxide is not stained. Delis's Cetarium - S. delisei( Bory) Th. Fr.under the influence of alkali, first turns yellow, and then turns red. Cetrarium golden - C. chrysantha Tack.
is not bushy, but leafy thallus. In the cetra-ria of the crocheted S. cuculata( Bell.) Ach. The blades are folded into a groove and can grow together with their edges into hollow tubes. Its color is greenish or straw-yellow.
Chemical composition. Icelandic cetarium contains 30 to 70% of mucous substances, which include polysaccharides lichenin and isochinine( lichen starch).These substances are extracted with hot water, and upon cooling the solution gelatinizes, forming a gelatinous mass. Antibiotic properties are possessed by secondary lichen substances, which used to be called lichenic acids( protolikhesterinovaja, lichesterinovaya, paralykesterinovaya, prototsentrarova, fumaroprototsetrarova).It also contains 2-3% of bitter cetaric acid, up to 3% of proteinaceous substances, up to 2% of fats, up to 1% of waxes, about 4% of gums, enzymes, pigments, etc. This species, like others,, cadmium, tin, lead, silicon, than other plants.
Action and application. Mucous substances of cetrarium have enveloping action and are therefore indicated in disorders of intestinal activity.
Assign a decoction of 20 g. Per 200 ml of water to 2-3 tablespoons with diarrhea, atony of the stomach and intestines, chronic constipation, gastritis, peptic ulcer of the stomach, with bronchial asthma, cough, bronchitis, and lack of appetite.
Broth from the thallus, previously washed from the bitterness of cold water, is of interest as a dietary diet for diabetics.