Useful and curative properties of motherwort penthouse
Synonyms: pustusolus volostist, furry motherwort, dog nettle, heart grass.
Description. Perennial herbaceous plant of the labiate family( Lamiaceae) up to 2 m in height, with a woody rhizome. Stem quadrangular, ribbed, hollow, straight, branched, red-violet, covered with long hairs. The lower leaves are ovate or rounded, palchate-five-lobed, opposite, from below light-green, from above dark green, covered with dense hairs. The middle and upper leaves are elongate-elliptical, three-lobed. The flowers are small, bilabiate, collected in whorls in the form of a long inflorescence. Corolla pink or pink-purple. The fruit is scattered into four nutlets of a triangular shape. The hairs covering the plant give it a gray color. Blossoms from June to September. Fruits ripen in August - October. Weight of 1000 seeds - up to 1 g.
Medicinal raw materials: grass( upper flowering parts of the plant).
Biological features. Motherwort can grow in different climatic and soil conditions. It occurs everywhere in groups and as a weed as a weed. However, the cultivated fields do not clog. Blossoms throughout the summer. Freshly harvested seeds have a decreased
germination( 30-35%) and a long period of germination. During the storage of seeds, their ripening takes place and after two months the germination rate is 80-85%.Seeds begin to germinate at a temperature of 2-4 ° C, the optimum temperature is 20 ° C.Under favorable conditions, the first shoots appear on day 4-5, and the total germination period lasts 15-20 days. Seeds belong to the group of meso-biotics and even for 4-6 years of storage their germination is 75-80% of the initial. Seeds retain their germination for 8-9 years.
Places of growth. The very name says that this plant grows mainly on vacant lots, in orchards, near houses, on the fringes of the forest.
Distribution. It grows throughout the territory of Ukraine, it is introduced into culture.
Chemical composition. In the grass contains saponins, tannins, glycosides, alkaloids, as well as choline, vitamins A and C, essential oil, stachidrine.
Application. Preparations of the motherwort are similar in their action to preparations of valerian officinalis. They have antispasmodic, sedative, hypotensive properties, slow the heart rate, increase heart rate, show a weak diuretic effect, regulate the menstrual cycle and the functions of the digestive system. They are used in cardiosclerosis, high blood pressure, angina pectoris, myocarditis, cardiovascular roses, excessive nervous excitability, especially in menopause and prostatic hypertrophy, in case of psi host and neurasthenia, accompanied by insomnia, a feeling of tension and increased reactivity, and with vegetogenesis.
Preparations of motherwort are indicated for epilepsy, hypo-menstrual syndrome, Graves' disease( slowed heartbeat due to increased activity of the thyroid gland, reduces nervous excitement), with gastrointestinal diseases( spasm of the stomach muscles, chronic diseases of the large intestine).It should be noted that with neuroses of the cardiovascular system and some other cardiac diseases, motherwort preparations work more effectively than preparations of valerian officinalis or lily of the valley. The herb of motherwort
is a part of calming tea, which is used for nervous system excitation and insomnia.
The plant is also used in homeopathy. With external application, motherwort preparations show anti-inflammatory and wound-healing effect.
Agrotechnics of cultivation. Site selection. Motherwort can be cultivated in one place up to 4 years. Therefore, in the rotation of medicinal herbs, it is recommended to place it on fields that are assigned to medicinal plants. If there are no such fields, it can be sown on the parental sites. The best predecessors are winter crops, legumes, beets and other row crops.
Soil treatment. The main autumn plowing is recommended to be carried out according to the system of autumn plowing as early as possible. In early spring, to harness moisture, harrowing is carried out, and before sowing is cultivated to a depth of 8-10 cm, followed by harrowing.
Application of fertilizers. Under the main plowing is recommended to make 25-30 tons of humus, 3-4 tons of superphosphate and 2 tons of potassium chloride per 1 ha.
Reproduction. Propagate by sowing seeds in the soil. Sowing can be done in early spring and late autumn. In the spring, seeds are sown stratified for 30-40 days at 0-4 ° C, and dry under winter. The rate of sowing in spring in the aisles is 60 cm-7-8 kg / ha, while in the sub-sowing season it is increased by 15%.Seed the seeds in the spring to a depth of 2-3 cm, and for the winter - 1-1.5 cm.
Care for plantations. Care for plantations of the first year of life consists in inter-row loosening after emergence. When the height of shoots reaches 4-5 cm, the plants are bunched according to a certain pattern: they cut out 30-40 cm, leaving a bouquet of 20-30 cm. In the transitional plantations of the second and subsequent years of life, in the early spring, they remove last year's stems. Then feed nitrate-phosphate fertilizers in a dose of 40-50 kg / ha of active substance and harrow the field. During the vegetative period 2-3 inter-row treatments are carried out with simultaneous removal of weeds.
Harvesting is carried out during the flowering period when two-thirds of the flowers of the lower part of the plant blossom. If the plant is not more than 100 cm and the grass is full, remove the motherwort
with the cutterbar at a high cut, and at a plant height of 150 cm or more, remove the sickles so that the upper flowering plant parts have a length of up to 40 cm and a stem thickness of not more than 5 mm.
Drying. Quality commercial raw materials are obtained by drying in a fire drier at a temperature of 50-60 ° C.If it is not, then dry it on the currents under the canopy, laying out the grass a thin layer. The yield of airy dry herbaceous motherwort in the first year of culture is on average 4-7 centner / ha, and from transitional plantations - 20-30 centner / ha.
Packing. The grass is packed in bales of 50 kg.
Storage. Raw materials store in a dry, well ventilated room.
Quality requirements. Raw materials must meet the requirements of State Pharmacopoeia XI( FS-54, pp. 327-328).