Useful and medicinal properties of the hyssop of medicinal
Synonym: hyssop pharmacy.
Description. The long-term half-shrub of the family of yenotkovyh( Lamiaceae) about 30-60 cm in height. The root is woody, rod-shaped, branched. The stems are tetrahedral, erect, below the woody. Leaves opposite, sessile, linear-lanceolate, entire, pubescent, 2-4 cm long. Flowers are dark blue, violet, rarely pink or white. The fruit is dry, consisting of four small single-seeded nuts, dark-brown color, 2-3 mm long. The mass of 1000 seeds is about 0.9 g. The flowering period is July-September.
Medicinal raw materials: grass.
Biological features. Hyssop officinalis is a winter - and drought - resistant plant. After the first cut, the young branches grow again and in September they again blossom, i.e. Hyssop during one summer can yield two crops.
Because of the extended flowering period in one bush, all phases of the development of the flower and all phases of fruit ripening are encountered. Starting from the second year of culture, hyssop can produce products up to ten years in one place.
Distribution. In the wild it occurs in southern Europe and Western Asia. In the CIS it grows in the Caucasus, in the Crimea, in the Altai and in the Central Asian countries. It grows on rocky places, on the slopes of mountains. Cultivated in many countries of Western Europe, especially in Hungary, where it receives essential oil.
In Ukraine, hyssop is not widely spread;it is cultivated mainly in botanical gardens, at experimental stations and vegetable gardens.
Chemical composition. The herb contains essential oils, flavonoids, triterpenic acids, tannins and bitter substances, and colorants.
Application. Flowers and upper herbaceous parts of hyssop are used in folk medicine as an expectorant for chronic catarrh of the respiratory tract, asthma, rheumatism. Infusion of hyssop is recommended as a wound-healing agent. It is also used as a spice to salads, sauces, soups, vegetable and meat dishes;in liquor and vodka production, it goes for the manufacture of herbal liquors. Hyssop is cultivated in apiaries as a good honey plant, from which bees take a lot of nectar and pollen.
Agrotechnics of cultivation. Site selection. Under the hyssop, solar open areas should be removed. The most favorable are light, loose soils with good aeration, medium-fertile soils, rich in lime. Hyssop should be placed on the drinking grounds as a perennial plant.
Soil treatment. The main autumn plowing is carried out to a depth of 25-27 cm. If the predecessor was winter, the processing begins with stubbling, and if the crop is cultivated, deep plowing is necessary immediately after harvesting the tilled crop. In the early spring, the plot is harrowed, and before sowing or planting the soil is plowed to a depth of 10-12 cm. When cloddy soil should be used for catheting.
Application of fertilizers. Organic fertilizers contribute from the calculation: 20-30 t / ha of manure for autumn plowing in the southern regions of Ukraine and 30-40 t / ha manure in the forest-steppe zone;2-3 c / ha superphosphate and 0.8-1.0 c / ha potassium salt.
Reproduction. Hyssop reproduces by dividing bushes into parts, by cuttings and by directly sowing seeds in the soil. With a limited number of seeds, green cuttings are used in early spring in greenhouses or in warm ridges, followed by planting seedlings in a permanent place. Seed sowing is carried out in the early spring or autumn in the ridges, and when the emerged seedlings are well strengthened, they are planted in permanent places at a distance of 25-30 cm from each other with a row spacing of 60-70 cm and seed depth of 2-3 cm. Sowing can be done by a seeder. Seeding rate is 9-10 kg / ha.
Reproduction by dividing bushes is produced in early spring. In this case, some bushes are planted somewhat deeper than the mother's bush, in order to better develop the root system. When hives multiply by division hyssop develops faster than when sowing seeds.
Care of plantations is the systematic three-five-fold loosening of rows during the summer and the weeding of weeds. To obtain a high yield, one or two additional fertilizing with local organic fertilizers should be made in the form of slurry at a rate of 3-5 tons / ha or a chicken drop in the amount of 4-5 centners per hectare. In the absence of organic fertilizers, the latter are replaced by mineral fertilizers - 20-35 kg / ha of nitrogen, 20-35 kg / ha of phosphorus and 20-35 kg / ha of potassium active ingredient.
Harvesting. Hyssop, intended for medicinal purposes, is removed before flowering, and the one from which the essential oil is obtained - at the beginning of flowering. Cleaning consists in cutting off the aboveground parts of plants.
Drying. After removing thick lignified and bared stems and darkened leaves, the hyssop herb is dried in attics under an iron roof, under canopies and in dryers.
The average yield of hyssop grass, depending on the climatic and agro-technical conditions, varies between 12-30 centners per hectare.
Packing. Well-dried herb hyssop is packed in bales or bales weighing 50-75 kg.
Storage. Hyssop should be stored in a dry, well-ventilated area;Do not allow the shredding of leaves and flowers during storage.
Other species of hyssop in the eastern part of Ukraine occur wild in the Cretaceous outcrops of hyssop Cretaceous( N. cretaceus Dubjansk.).According to its physical and chemical properties, it resembles an ordinary hyssop.