Useful and medicinal properties of clary sage
Description. A perennial herbaceous plant of the family of the clearing( Lamiaceae) 40-100 cm high( in culture up to 1.5-2.0 m), with a deep-reaching( up to 1.5 m) rod root. Stems quadrangular, red-violet, with pubescence above. Leaves 7-20 cm long, wrinkled, opposite, ovoid. Flowers are collected in false whorls, forming inflorescences up to 40 cm long. Calyx bell-shaped, corolla bilabiate, white or pink-lilac. Blooms in May-June in the second year of life( although 7-10% of plants bloom in the first year).The fruit consists of four nuts( seeds) of brown color. The weight of 1000 seeds is about 3 g.
Medicinal raw materials: grass.
Biological features. Sage Muscat is grown as a one-, two- and three-year-old plant. After harvesting, inflorescence is repeated. Harvest is usually obtained in the second year of culture. As the sage
hour is in full bloom and in the first year already in the year of sowing you can get a harvest. Sage is characterized by drought resistance.
Distribution. In the di. It is found in southern and central Europe, in North Africa, Asia Minor, and so on. It grows in the Crimea and Kirghizia. It lives in mountainous and foothill places on rocky soil, in xerophytic conditions. In culture, it is cultivated in France, Italy, Spain, Romania and other countries. Cultivated in the Crimea, Moldova and the Caucasus.
Chemical composition. Essential oil of clary sage is found, mainly, in inflorescences( 0,7-1,3% on a dry matter).The main active substance of the essential oil of the plant is linalyl acetate( 59-84%).In addition, the grass contains coumarins, flavonoids, saponins, organic acids.
Application. Essential oil of clary sage is used in perfumery industry, soap making and confectionery production. The aroma of oil resembles the smell of muscat, amber, lavender. The essential oil of sage is also valuable in that it is a good fixative and often replaces expensive ones such as amber and musk.
Used in combination with synthetic musk aromatic substances and natural musk, with lemon and orange oil, is used in winemaking for the preparation of Muscat and Vermouth wines and in alcoholic beverage production.
Agrotechnics of cultivation. Site selection. Under , the muscatine sage draws well-sunlit areas. In shaded places, plants are stretched, resulting in a decrease in the yield of inflorescences and oil content-
. The deepest chernozem soils, loamy loamy and sandy loamy soils, and soils rich in lime are more favorable for clary sage. The best predecessors are: pure couples( for winter sowing), cereals and row crops( for sub-winter planting).
Soil treatment. After the wintering of winter crops no later than the first ten days of September, plowing plowing to a depth of 25 cm with a plow with a skimmer is necessary. When sowing under winter, pre-sowing is performed 8-12 days before sowing.
Application of fertilizers. If sage comes after an unskilled winter wheat, then fertilizers are brought under autumn plowing at a rate of 20 tons per hectare of manure or compost. Simultaneously with organic fertilizers also make: 2 centner / hectare of superphosphate, 1.5-2.0 centner / ha of ammonium sulfate and 1.0 centner / ha of potassium salt. In the absence of organic fertilizers, the doses of mineral fertilizers are increased by one and a half to two times.
Reproduction. Salvia is propagated by direct seeding in the soil for the winter under grain tractor or special vegetable seeders with a row spacing of 45 cm. The seeding rate is 6-7 kg / ha, and the depth of embedding is 2-3 cm. The sowing period is late( before freezing) so, so that the seeds do not sprout before the onset of frost. Good results are also obtained with the winter planting time, which falls on the end of August or the beginning of September.
Care of plantations. The first harrowing is carried out with light harrows early in the spring before emergence. Then the cultivators loosen row-spacing to a depth of 10-12 cm and the weeds are weeded in rows. Thinning of plants in rows is made only in the case of excessive thickening of crops when two pairs of leaves appear at a distance of 10 cm. During the summer, the rows between rows are loosened, the weeds weed in rows as necessary, and the plants are fed with local and mineral fertilizers.
Harvesting. Inflorescence of sage is removed when the seeds are bitten in two or three lower whorls of the central inflorescence. Most plants are equipped with a re-equipped forage harvester SK-2,6.The harvested crop immediately goes for processing. The storage of inflorescences on plantations or plants leads to large losses of essential oil. The average yield of inflorescences of clary muscatine with high agrotechnics 8 during the first two years reaches 90-110 c / ha.
Seed growing. To obtain seeds, special areas are allocated, where testes are grown with high-quality agrotechnics. During flowering, all atypical and underdeveloped plants are removed.
Sage harvesting on seeds is made by harvesters with full ripeness of seeds, and in small areas - header or manually with 70-75% seed ripening. Testicles on an ordinary threshing ground are threshed;seeds are cleaned by sorting. The average yield of seeds is 5-6 c / ha.