Useful and medicinal properties of the laxative
Family Krushinovye - Rhamnaceae
The generic name in translation from Ancient Greek means "prickly bush", since the plant has spines. Species definition in translation from Latin - "laxative"( on the effect of fruits).
Botanical description. Dioecious bush, rarely a tree, up to 3-5( 8) m in height with a spreading crown. The branches are branching and ending with spines. Leaves opposite, petiolate, ovate or pointed-elliptical with a serrate margin. From the main vein go 3, less often 4 pairs of arcuate lateral veins( in contrast to the buckthorn alder).
Flowers are four-membered, same-sex. The calyx is cone-bell-shaped with a four-bladed fold. Corolla greenish, 4 petals shorter than sepals. In the male flowers there are 4 stamens, in female flowers there is one pestle with a four-bladed stigma. Ovary upper, four-cavity. Fruit - globular, shiny, almost black, juicy four-seeded drupe.
Blossoms in May - June, fruits ripen in August - September. They are formed only on female specimens and do not crumble for a long time.
Geographical spread. It grows on dry open places among thickets of bushes, it is found as an undergrowth in deciduous forests, along the edge of floodplain oak forests, on forest edges, along stony slopes of mountains. In the mountain gorges of the Caucasus and Central Asia it often forms large thickets. Distributed in the middle and southern strip of the European part of the USSR, except the North Caucasus. The northern border of its range passes through the cities of Leningrad, Moscow, Gorky, Kirov and Perm. Eastern enters the Urals in the Chelyabinsk region. The southern passes through the cities of Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, Uralsk and Aktyubinsk. Western - coincides with the State border of the USSR.In the Caucasus, the laxative zoster is found in the foothills and in the Transcaucasus. In Byelorussia it is often found in floodplain oak forests.
In the western and southern Transcaucasia Zhoster imeretinsky - Rhamnus imeretina Booth - is often found.
Its fruits are not used, but the bark is used on a par with the bark of the buckthorn alder.
Collection and drying. Gather fully mature fruits without peduncles in September and October, tilting the branches and tearing the fruits with their hands. Do not break or cut off branches, as this plant suffers.
Dry fruits in ovens or dryers at a temperature of 50-60 by spraying them with a layer 2-3 mm thick, and often mixed.
Medicinal raw materials. Finished raw materials - jostler fruits( Fructus Rhamni catharticae) - rounded, with a wrinkled surface, shiny, almost black fruits with a diameter of 5-8 mm. In the lower part of them often remains the remainder of the peduncle or a trace at the site of its attachment. In the brown pulp are 4, rarely 3 dark-brown bones of a triangular shape. The smell is weak, unpleasant;the taste is bitter.
Art.292 ГФ X admits a moisture no more than 14%;ash not more than 4%;underdeveloped fruits not more than 4%;Burned fruits not more than 5%;extraneous fruits and twigs not more than 2%;mineral impurity not more than 0.5%.
Of extraneous fruits, the fruits of the buckthorn are often found - algae Frangula alnus Mill. They are black, not shiny, with a matte surface. The taste of the pulp is sweet. Bones two, less often one or three with a cartilaginous coracoid outgrowth.
Chemical composition. Jostera fruits contain anthraglycosides, which determine their action, flavonoids, pectin substances, etc.
Action and application. Zhostera antraglikozidy and the products of their cleavage( mainly emodin and chrysophosphoric acid) irritate the nerve endings of the intestine, enhance peristalsis, the advantages of the thick part, and accelerate its emptying, have a mild laxative effect, without side effects. Fruits are used for atonic and spastic constipation. Emptying of the intestine occurs within 10 hours after ingestion. Assign a decoction of 20 g. Raw materials for 200 ml of water for 1-2 tablespoons morning and evening.