Useful and medicinal properties of mother-and-stepmother
The generic name comes from the Latin words tussis - cough and agere - to drive, since the plant has long been used for coughing. Species definition is derived from the Latin words far-flour and fero-bear, as the leaves of this plant are sprinkled with flour from below because of the abundance of white hairs.
The Russian name - mother-and-stepmother is explained by the fact that if you attach the sheet to the body with the underside,
it seems warm( mother), and the upper one - it's cold( stepmother).
Botanical description. A perennial herbaceous plant with a long horizontal rhizome. Early in the spring, erect erect flower-bearing stems grow, extending to 25 cm during flowering, and then fruiting. They carry sessile scaly leaves pressed against the stem. The stems end with single baskets, which contain on the edge reed, and in the center tubular flowers are golden yellow. In appearance, the inflorescence is somewhat reminiscent of dandelion baskets. During flowering, there are no real leaves; they appear after flowering and are radical, long-petioled;leaf blades are round-heart-shaped with a notched-toothed edge. Above, the leaves are slightly pubescent at first, but then the hairs fall and they become bare, from below - with pubescence.
Blossoms at the end of March - April. Blossoms after the ephemeroids - the first flowering plants in the spring, which in everyday life are called snowdrops. Fruit is a seed with a tuft. Fruits ripen in May-June and are carried by the wind.
Geographic distribution. It grows on sufficiently moist soils, preferring loams to other types of soil, occurs on drained peat bogs, along coastal cliffs, along melioration canals, along the banks of rivers and streams, along railway embankments, along slopes of clayey and other quarries, in ditches and ravines, on drainedpeat bogs.
Distributed almost throughout the European part of the USSR, except the lower Volga region, the Caucasus, Central Asia, except deserts and semi-deserts, and in Western Siberia. Plants with especially large leaves( gigantic), little prone to fungal diseases, we observed in the Baksan gorge of the Greater Caucasus. The main areas of blanks are in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and in many regions and regions of the RSFSR.
Collection and drying. Collect the flower baskets at the beginning of flowering plants - in March - April, tearing them away and removing the remainder of the stem.
Dry them in the shade, laying a thin layer in one row. Raw materials of the best quality are obtained with
drying on racks with stainless steel mesh shelves.
The leaves are harvested after the flowering of the plant, from the moment when the rare hairs on the upper side of the leaf blade die and fall off, the leaves from the top become completely bare. The collection is conducted during the first half of the summer. Later, the plants are affected by the fungus, which manifests itself in the form of brown spots at first on the upper side of the leaf, and then on the lower side. Such leaves are not subject to collection.
Typically, only leaf blades with a short remainder of the petiole are usually ripped off, sometimes they are cut with scissors.
When harvesting leaves in June-July, even a complete collection of them does not harm plants, since by this time the fruits have been sown, and the rootstock already has a supply of nutrients.
Collected leaves are poured into sacks or baskets and quickly delivered to the dryer.
Dry leaves in the shade, in attics, under canopies or in dryers at a temperature of 35-40 °, spreading in one layer, but with a large amount of collected can be laid out a layer no thicker than 2-3 cm and periodically stir. Before drying, remove foreign impurities and leaves with brown stains.
Medicinal raw materials. Finished raw materials are of two types.
Flowers of mother-and-stepmothers - Flores Farfarae are flower baskets without a stem or with the remainder of its length not more than 1 cm. At the edge of the inflorescence there are several marginal vaginal pistillate flowers, and in the center - a few tubular flowers. Those and others are yellow. Baskets in a diameter of 10-15 mm. Receptor is flat, naked with a common single-row wrapper made of linear leaves. All flowers with a tuft.
The odor is peculiar, weak, the taste is bitter with a sensation of mucous.
GOST 21568-76 allows: moisture not more than 15%;baskets with the remainder of the stem more than 1 cm long, not more than 4%;fluffy, that is, discolored baskets, not more than 3%;crushed parts passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 2 mm, not more than 2%;organic impurity not more than 0.5%;mineral - no more than 1%.
Leaf of coltsfoot - Folium Farfarae is round-heart-shaped, the margin is notched and unevenly sparse and fine-toothed. Above leaves are bare, bottom-white from the abundance of tangled long hairs, 8-15 cm long, about 10 cm wide. Petioles about 5 cm long. Leaves should not have pubescence from above. Their color is green on top, whitish-gray from below.
Odor is not present, the taste is slightly harsh with a sensation of mucous.
GOST 13382-67 allows: moisture not more than 13%;ash not more than 20%;having burned leaves no more than 5%;leaves, strongly affected by brown stains of rust, not more than 2%;organic impurity not more than 2%;mineral - no more than 2%.
Organic impurities include parts of other plants. Only the most inexperienced collectors can collect instead of the mother-and-stepmother leaves of a white-speckled( blubber) hybrid - Petasites hybridus( L.) Gaertn., Mey.et Scherb.and an ungainly pet fossil - Petasites spurius( Retz.) Reichb., whose leaf blades are larger, almost triangular in shape. The large burdock Arctium lappa L. and the cobweb mite Arctium tomentosum Mill, the leaves are also very large, broadly oval or ovate, sometimes with a heart-shaped groove at the base.
Chemical composition. The flowers of mother-and-stepmothers contain triterpenes of faradiol and arnidiol, tetra terpene tarak-santine, stigmasterol and sitosterol, hept-tacosan hydrocarbon and tannins.
The leaf contains up to 2,63% of the bitter glycoside of tussily-ligine and other glycosides, up to 160 mg% of flavonoids, including rutin and hyperoside, there are sitosterol, organic acids, tannins, saponins, carotenoids, up to 250 mg% of vitamin C.
Action and application. Flowers mother-and-stepmothers have an expectorant effect. Leaves of mother-and-stepmother are more often than flowers, used as an expectorant, emollient, disinfectant and anti-inflammatory agent. They are prescribed for bronchitis, cough, pleurisy, laryngitis, pharyngitis, bronchiectasis in the form of infusions from 15 g of raw materials per 200 ml of water for 1 tablespoon in 2-3 hours. Included in the collection of charges prescribed for hypertensive "disease, asthma, bronchial asthma, coughing and others."