Useful and healing properties of blue cyanosis
Family Sinyukhov - Polemoniaceae
The generic name is given in honor of the Greek ruler Polemon of Pontus, who allegedly discovered the medicinal properties of the plant( which we sometimes call Greek valerian).Species definition in Latin means "blue" - in the color of flowers.
Botanical description. A perennial herbaceous plant with a short, unbranched, and in young plants with a vertical rhizome, from which numerous subordinate accessory roots leave. In the first year of life it forms a rooted outlet of leaves, and on the second and subsequent - stalks. In young plants
stems are single, and in old ones there are several, with a height of 35-120 cm. Leaves are alternate, non-paranasulary-dispersed with lanceolate entire segments. The stems and leaves are bare. The flowers are blue, bluish-purple or violet, collected on the tops of the stem into paniculate inflorescences. They are correct, with a double perianth. Calyx with five ovate-lanceolate lobes. Corolla 2-3 times longer than calyx, 2-3 cm in diameter, rotate-campanulate, with five-bladed limb. The corolla tube is whitish, hairy in the throat. Stamens 5, attached to the corolla tube and alternating with its lobes. Pistil one, with the upper three-cavity ovary, a long column and a three-parted stigma. Fruit is a broad-shaped capsule surrounded by the remaining calyx. Seeds are small, almost black.
Blossoms in June - July. Fruits ripen in August-September, and in culture - in July.
Geographical distribution. It grows on humus-rich soils along the banks of rivers, on damp meadows, among shrubs. It occurs in the forest and forest-steppe zones of the European part of the USSR, in the Transcaucasus, in Siberia to Lake Baikal and in the Tajik SSR.
Cyanosis does not form large thickets, the collection of raw materials from wild plants is difficult, in old plants rhizome inside rot. It is cultivated in Byelorussia, in many regions of our country.
Collection and drying. Collect underground organs at the end of August - September or in the spring during the formation of stems, when the roots contain a maximum of biologically active substances. Gather only young plants. Plants that have several stems produce poor raw materials, they are left for seed reproduction. The plants are digged with shovels, and in culture they plow with plows in the first or second year of the crop, shake them off the ground, cut off the entire aboveground part with a knife, cut the roots 2-4 parts long, cut out parts of the rhizome that are rotted or damaged by pests, and quickly wash in running water. With prolonged washing, the water becomes frothy, since saponins are washed out - the main active substances. If the raw material is preliminarily well processed, cut into parts, the soil remains washed out quickly, and the residence time of the raw material in the water is reduced. Well washed raw materials have yellowish-white roots.
Dry in the sun, in attics, under canopies or in dryers at a temperature of 50-60 °.
Medicinal raw materials. Finished raw material - rhizome with cyanotic roots( Rhizoma cum radicibus Polemonii) consists of thick, creeping or direct rhizomes of grayish-white color with remains of stems no longer than 1 cm or without them. The rhizomes are usually cut along, in the fracture yellowish-white. The roots are thin, branching, mixed among themselves, yellowish, in the fracture, white.
The smell is very weak, peculiar. Dust when packing or grinding raw materials causes sneezing. The taste is bitterish.
complies with GOST 3557-69: moisture content is not more than 14%;ash not more than 13%;crushed parts passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 1 mm, not more than 5%;fragments of rhizomes and roots( talus) not more than 15%;remains of stems longer than 2 cm not more than 5%;ripening in the fracture of rhizomes not more than 3%;The organic impurity is not more than 1%, the mineral impurity is no more than 2%.
Chemical composition. Rhizomes with cyanotic roots contain 20-30% of triterpene saponins, readily soluble in water and in diluted alcohol. The hemolytic index of raw materials is 7,000, and in some cases reaches 11,000. In addition to saponins, resinous substances, organic acids, traces of essential oil are contained.
Action and application. Cyanosis in the form of infusion or broth from 6-10 g. Raw materials for 200 mg of water for 1 tablespoon 3 times a day after meals and in the form of tablets of dry extract - as an expectorant and sedative. It is 8-10 times stronger than valerian. The same decoction is prescribed along with the infusion of herb wothwood( 10 g per 200 ml of water) 3 tablespoons before meals to treat peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum. In this case, the soothing effect of the cyanosis is combined with the wound healing effect of the cudweed. Use and tablets containing extracts of these plants.