Useful and medicinal properties of cornflower blue( cornflower field)
Family Compositae( Asters) - Asteraceae
The generic name is derived from Greek mythology - one of the centaurs used the juice of this plant to treat wounds. Species definition in Greek means dark blue( in color).
Botanical description. Annual herbaceous plant with a thin stem root. Stem erect, roundish, 30-60 cm high. Leaves regular, sessile, linear, entire. Flowers are collected in single baskets about 3 cm in diameter, located on the top of the stem and axillary branches. The marginal flowers are larger, funnel-shaped, sterile, blue or blue;internal - bisexual, purple. The calyx is absent, instead of it - a short crest. The basket has a common wrapper consisting of tufted overlapping brownish filmy leaves. Fruit is a seed with a tuft. Blooms in June - July, fruits ripen in August.
Geographic distribution. It grows in the fields as a weed of spring and winter crops, especially in rye and crops of perennial grasses. Occurs in the European part of the USSR, in the south of Western Siberia, less often in the Caucasus. The main areas of procurement are Belarus and Ukraine.
Collection and drying. Collect marginal funnel-shaped flowers in the period of full flowering of the plant, tearing them off with hands, in June - July. Sometimes they cut the baskets with scissors, deliver them to the drying site and, plucking the edge flowers, spread them on racks or gauze hammocks into a single layer. The collected raw materials are dried in well-ventilated rooms, in attics under an iron or slate roof with good ventilation, scattering very thinly. With slow drying, the flowers lose their blue color. It is interesting that unlike other flowers, cornflower flowers can be dried in the sun, if the weather is good, sunny and windy, and raw materials are not distributed in a thick layer. The color is also retained when quickly dried in ovens or dryers at a temperature of 40-50 ° C.After drying, discard flowers that have lost their normal color.
Medicinal raw materials. The finished raw material - the flowers of the cornflower( Flores Cyani) contains only bright blue puffs up to 2 cm long, with 5-8 sharp blades and a tubular at the base of a whisk with a small admixture of blue-violet inner flowers about 1 cm in length. They are odorless, bitter,astringent in taste.
FS 42-346-72 allows moisture not more than 14%;flower baskets not more than 1%;tubular flowers not more than 40%;flowers that have lost their natural coloring, no more than 10%;organic and mineral impurities not more than 0.5%.
Chemical composition. The flowers contain cyanarine glycosides, Centurin and chicorin, anthocyanins of pelargonium and cyanidin, flavonoids of luteolin, astragaline, kaempferol, apion, cosmosyne, quercetin, rutin.
Action and application. Flowers of cornflower have a diuretic, choleretic and antimicrobial effect. With diseases of the urinary, biliary tract, liver, a teaspoon of flowers is poured a glass of boiling water, insist for 30 minutes, cool, filter and take 2 tablespoons 3 times a day for 15-20 minutes before meals.