Рубрика: Wild Medicinal Plants

The species differ from Orchis by having only two broad-oval basal leaves; stem leaves are either absent or very small. The flower structure is similar, but the lip is entire, and the tuberous roots are oval. Two species are used.

Lyubka bifolia — Platanthera bifolia (L.) L. Rich. — has white, very fragrant flowers, hence its common name, «night violet.» It grows throughout the forest zone.

Lyubka chlorantha — Platanthera chloranta Cust. — has greenish, non-fragrant flowers and grows only in the Caucasus.

Kokushnik komarnikovy — Gymnadenia conopsea R. Br.
Leaves are linear-lanceolate; flowers are lilac-red; the lip is small, ovate, and the tuberous roots are palmate. It grows throughout the forest zone.

Anacamptis pyramidalis — Anacamptis pyramidalis Rich.
Leaves are linear, tuberous roots are ovate, and flowers are purple. It is distinguished by its large ovate-pyramidal inflorescence. It grows in Crimea and the Caucasus. The tuberous roots are collected during flowering and shortly after (June–July) while the flowering stalk is still visible, as the plant becomes hard to locate in dense grass later. Only young daughter tubers are taken, and old ones are discarded. The tubers do not dry in the air but instead sprout. To destroy enzymes, collected tubers are strung on a thread and dipped for a few minutes in boiling water, after which they are dried. Dried tubers are very hard, light in color, and odorless. The finished raw material is called «Tuber Salep» — Tuber Salep.

The tubers contain about 50% mucilage, composed of mannan, and about 27% starch.

The mucilage in salep tubers provides coating properties. Salep tubers, in the form of mucilage, are used in pediatric practice as a coating agent for gastrointestinal diseases (gastritis, enterocolitis), prescribed orally or in the form of enemas, as well as for poisoning by certain toxins.

Salep mucilage — Mucilago Salep — is prepared as follows: 2 g of coarse tuber powder is scalded with 200 ml of boiling water and shaken for 10–15 minutes. It is taken 1 teaspoon or dessert spoon 2–3 times a day.

The coating effect is due to the high mucilage content in the tuberous roots. The mucilage protects sensitive nerve endings in the stomach and intestines from irritation and prevents the absorption of toxins from the intestines.

FAMILY: SUMAC (ANACARDIACEAE)

Trees or shrubs, rarely herbs. Leaves are usually alternate, simple, or compound. Flowers are regular, polypetalous, and small, arranged in paniculate inflorescences; stamens are 5–10, with a superior ovary. The fruit is a drupe or nut.

Representatives of the family are few and grow in southern regions.

Many species are rich in tannins and tannic acid, often containing resins and essential oils located in resin canals found in the phloem of the trunk and along the leaf veins.

Among wild-growing species of this family, there are three genera: Pistacia, Cotinus, and Rhus. All have medicinal significance as sources of tannins.

PISTACHIO TREE — PISTACIA VERA
A low, dioecious tree with a broad crown. Leaves are pinnately compound, with three or more large, elliptical leaflets. The flowers are inconspicuous, with a single perianth. The fruit is a dry drupe. The seed is known as the edible nut, pistachio, with a green kernel.

Gall formations develop on the leaves, caused by aphids. Galls occur singly or in groups of 1–3, taking the form of hollow, blister-like, pear-shaped structures (0.5–3 cm in length) with a pinkish hue.

Pistachio trees form groves along the slopes of Central Asia and are also widely cultivated.

Galls, called buzguncha, contain 30–45% tannins and resins and have been proposed for use as an astringent. The leaves contain 13–17% tannins.

The Kev tree (Pistacia mutica F. et M.) forms pistachio woodlands in the Caucasus and Crimea. Leaves contain up to 20% tannins, while the drupes are inedible but yield 60% fatty oil. The trunk produces resin and up to 25% essential oil.

FAMILY — PINACEAE

Needles are shaped like spines, and seeds are contained in woody cones. The family consists of four genera: Abies (fir), Picea (spruce), Larix (larch), and Pinus (pine). The needles of larch fall off during winter.

Essential oils are found in all species in secretory canals in the needles, with pinene dominating the composition. In the wood of Pinus, Picea, and Larix, long resinous ducts containing resin and essential oil are present, while Abies lacks these ducts but has rounded resin-containing cavities in its bark. The needles of all species contain volatile phytoncides. Pine has the greatest medical importance.

A tall, slender tree with whorled branches and reddish-brown flaky bark. The needles are long, bluish-green, semi-cylindrical, stiff, and evergreen, arranged in pairs. The male cones are gray-yellow, appearing in spring on young shoots and quickly dying. Seed cones mature over 2–3 years, becoming woody.

Pine forests cover vast areas, accounting for 19.5% of the total area of coniferous forests in the European part and Siberia. A light-loving tree, it often forms pure stands. Its wide distribution is due to its ability to grow on various soils. Pine forests are usually associated with sandy or sandy-loam soils but can also grow on peat bogs, where growth is stunted, producing only weak trees.

Pine provides numerous products for medicine:

Pine buds (Turiones Pini or Gemmae Pini): Collected in early spring during swelling. The buds are cut with a knife in a crown shape around a central bud. The surface is covered with dry fringed scales glued together by resin. The buds have an aromatic, resinous smell and a bitter-resinous taste. They contain essential oils, resin, bitter and tannic substances, and are rich in vitamin C. They are used in diuretic and cough remedies.

Pine needles (Folium Pini): Fresh needles contain 80–300 mg% vitamin C, carotene, and vitamin K. Other coniferous trees with perennial needles—such as Siberian cedar, fir, and spruce—are also rich in vitamin C and can be used similarly. The vitamin C content peaks in winter. Needles are one of the most accessible raw materials for the vitamin industry.

Pine oil (Oleum Pini silvestris): Obtained from pine twigs (15–20 cm long) using steam distillation. The oil contains bornyl acetate (up to 11%), pinene (40%), and limonene (40%), among others. Pine oil is used to freshen air and as part of medications for kidney disease.

Turpentine (Terebinthina communis): Produced from resin (Terebinthina) extracted from cuts in pine bark. The resin contains essential oil and solidifies into colophony (Colophonium) after distillation. Turpentine oil (Oleum Terebinthinae) is used externally for rheumatism and respiratory conditions.

Pine extract: A byproduct of essential oil extraction, used in baths for its therapeutic properties.

Pine derivatives also have applications in veterinary medicine and the furniture industry (e.g., «Iglet» or «pine wool» as stuffing material).

FAMILY — ZYGOPHYLLACEAE

From this family, only Harmala has medical significance.

A perennial herbaceous plant with a long root and a low above-ground stem, strongly branched with leaves divided into linear lobes and white flowers. The fruit is a spherical capsule with numerous seeds (illustration). It grows in steppes, semi-deserts, and sandy areas in Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Crimea, and the southern part of the European region.

The roots and seeds contain alkaloids: the seeds have 3–4% total alkaloids, including up to 30% of the main alkaloid — harmine; the roots contain fewer alkaloids, but nearly pure harmine is present. In the herb, about 2% of total alkaloids is found, with a predominance of peganine; there is little harmine. Additionally, vasicine, desoxypeganine, and desoxyvasicinone are present. In the herb collected in early spring, a new alkaloid, pegamine, was discovered in trace amounts.

It is reported that harmine hydrochloride alleviates the condition of patients with Parkinsonism. The second valuable alkaloid is peganine, which, according to studies, increases motor activity and, with prolonged use, has a mild laxative effect.

SUBFAMILY PRUNOIDEAE

A shrub or small tree with white fragrant flowers collected in long racemes. The fruit is a black spherical drupe about 8 mm in diameter, with one large stone; the pulp is strongly astringent and sweet to the taste. When chewing the seed, a bitter almond flavor and smell can be detected.

Cherry bird is a plant widely distributed in the forest and forest-steppe zones of the European part, the mountains of the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Western Siberia. It is often cultivated in gardens as an ornamental plant. In Eastern Siberia and the Far East, it is replaced by a related species — Asian cherry bird — Padus asiatica Kdm.

The fruits of cherry bird — Fructus Padi (Fructus Pruni Padi) — are collected in August and dried in ovens.

The fruits contain tannins, sugar, malic acid, and citric acid in the pulp, while the seeds contain fatty oil and the glycoside amygdalin.

It is used internally as an astringent for intestinal disorders by brewing whole fruits as tea, either alone or mixed with dried blueberries. When brewed, tannins are extracted from the pulp, while the stones must remain intact to avoid extracting amygdalin.

Fresh fruits, flowers, and leaves have phytoncidal properties.

FAMILY ORCHIDACEAE

Small perennial herbaceous plants with tuberous roots or rhizomes. Leaves are simple with parallel venation. Flowers are solitary or arranged in racemes. Flowers are irregular, with a petal-like perianth consisting of 6 segments. Three outer segments are free and directed upwards. The middle of the three inner segments is distinctly different in size, shape, and often color, forming a «lip» («slipper»); in some genera, the lip extends into a long hollow spur. Due to the ovary’s twisting, the lip is oriented downward. There is usually one stamen (rarely two), fused with the style into a column, while the other two stamens are reduced to small staminodes. Pollen does not scatter from the anther but clumps into masses called «pollinia» within each cell. The ovary is inferior. The fruit is a capsule containing numerous very small seeds with underdeveloped embryos, so reproduction is predominantly vegetative. Flowers can only be pollinated by specially adapted insects, with the lip serving as a «landing platform.»

Small forest orchids of the genera Orchis, Platanthera, Gymnadenia, and Anacamptis have medicinal significance.

The tuberous roots of these genera are rich in starch and mucilage, with bundles of raphides in the mucilaginous cells. Leaves sometimes contain coumarin derivatives, and flowers have fragrant glycosides. The genus Cypripedium contains a caustic substance. No alkaloids or tannins have been found.

These small plants have fibrous roots, one of which stores nutrients and forms a juicy storage tuber. In spring and summer, the stored nutrients are consumed for the development of the aerial parts, causing the tuber to deplete and die off. However, a new storage tuber forms in the axil at the base of a leaf in spring, overwinters, and supports the plant’s growth the following year. The tuber’s shape is oval or palmate. Leaves are simple, basal, or stem-attached. The stem bears a terminal raceme. Flowers are lilac-colored with a three-lobed lip and a long spur. All species of orchids can be used for collecting tubers.

The Pharmacopoeia VIII includes the following species: Orchis latifolia L, Orchis maculata L, Orchis mascula L, Orchis militaris L, and Orchis morio L.

Orchids grow in moist areas of forest glades and edges, found throughout the forest zones of the European part, Siberia, the Far East, and the Caucasus. Similar tuberous roots are present in some other genera, which are also harvested.

Perennial herbaceous plant with a short, often multi-headed, dark-brown rhizome and a taproot, branching at the lower part. Stems are branched; lower and middle stem leaves are trifoliate, while the upper ones are simple. Leaflets are oval, with sharp-toothed edges, glandular-pubescent on both sides, sticky, and have an unpleasant smell. Characteristic are very large, paired stipules, broadly ovate, stem-embracing, almost equal in size to the petioles, and fused with them. Flowers, two per short pedicel in the axil of a leaf, form dense spike-like inflorescences at the ends of stems and lateral branches. Flowers are pink; one of the distinctive genus traits is the fusion of all 10 stamens by their filaments. The fruit is a pod, shorter than the calyx teeth, broadly ovate, pubescent, with 2–4 seeds. Blooms from June to August.

It grows in meadows, along field margins, among shrubs, and by rivers in forest and forest-steppe zones of the European part, in the Caucasus and Altai regions, reaching as far as the Yenisei River.

The roots of field restharrow—Radix Ononidis—are dug up in autumn, cleaned of soil, washed, and dried in the open air. Long roots are cut into pieces.

The chemical composition of the raw material is primarily similar to the roots of the Western European spiny restharrow—Ononis spinosa L. The roots contain triterpenediol onocerol, isoflavone glycoside ononin, an unstudied sweet-tasting glycoside called ononid, a small amount of essential oil (which resinifies in stored roots), minor quantities of resin, tannins, and other substances. Studies have shown that both decoctions and distillates containing essential oil have diuretic properties.

Field restharrow is used as a diuretic in the form of a root decoction and as a hemostatic agent for hemorrhoids. The decoction (30 g of root per 1 liter of water) is boiled until the liquid is reduced to 1/2 liter, strained, and taken in 1/2 cup before meals, 3 times a day.

A tincture of field restharrow roots is produced. Tablets and suppositories with the plant’s dry alcoholic extract, as well as rectal tablets and suppositories containing a purified polyphenolic complex (a new galenic preparation), and rectal tablets and suppositories with ononin glycoside, have been developed.

FAMILY — NYMPHAEACEAE

Aquatic perennial plants with thick rhizomes and typically floating, long-petioled leaves. The flowers are solitary, regular, and with free petals. There are 4–5 sepals and numerous petals. The stamens are abundant, and the ovary is superior, with a fleshy fruit.

All species contain alkaloids. The seeds and rhizomes are rich in starch.

WHITE WATER-LILY, WHITE LILY — NYMPHAEA ALBA L.

It grows alongside the yellow water-lily in water but differs in the shape of its leaves, which are nearly round, and in its large white flowers. A mixture of alkaloids has been found in the rhizomes and flowers, and their hypotensive effect has been established.

The rhizome is horizontal, thick, and long, green with black scars from fallen leaf stalks, white and porous (aerenchyma) inside, with numerous roots extending from the bottom, anchoring it underwater in silt. The lower leaves are submerged and translucent; the upper leaves are floating, long-petioled, oval, rounded at the tip, with a deeply heart-shaped base, dense, and entire-edged. The flowers are yellow, fragrant, and rise 5–6 cm above the water. There are 5 large, bell-shaped, yellow sepals resembling petals. Numerous petals are attached to the receptacle, shorter than the sepals, narrow, and yellow. There are many stamens. The ovary is oval-conical, multi-loculed, with a sessile, radiating stigma. The fruit is fleshy and green. Seeds are surrounded by an air sac, enabling them to float and disperse over long distances. Flowering occurs from June to September.

The yellow water-lily grows in thickets, usually in shallow, slow-flowing rivers, ponds, backwaters, and lakes. It is widely distributed throughout most of the Soviet Union.

The rhizomes of the yellow water-lily—Rhizoma Nuphari lutei—are harvested. The rhizomes are easily pulled from the water, roots and leaf stalks are removed, then cut into pieces or slices and dried.

A sulfur-containing mixture of alkaloids called nupharin has been extracted from the rhizomes, with nuphlein as the primary alkaloid. The rhizomes also contain tannins, sucrose, a large amount of starch, and metarabic acid. The seeds contain 44% starch, and the flowers contain a glycoside with digitalis-like action. The alkaloids have antitrichomonal, bacteriostatic, fungistatic, and spermatocidal properties.

The drug Lutenurin, containing a sum of alkaloids, is produced as a liniment in globules (0.003 g each) and tablets (0.003 g each). It is used as tampons for acute and chronic trichomonal diseases complicated by bacterial and fungal flora (a treatment course lasts 10–15 days). It is also used as a contraceptive in globules or gelatinous vaginal tablets.

A low shrub (up to 15 cm tall) that forms dense, cushion-shaped, rigid turf. The stems are woody, and the leaves are numerous, short, alternate, fleshy, cylindrical, and glabrous. Flowers are solitary in the axils of the upper leaves; the perianth is simple, composed of 5 almost fully dissected membranous segments. The fruit is vertical, somewhat fleshy, and hidden within an inflated, persistent perianth about 3 mm long. Fruiting occurs in August–September.

It grows in Central Asia and the Trans-Volga region. It contains about 0.1% alkaloids, derivatives of piperidine (dimethyl-piperidine, trimethyl-piperidine).

In medical practice, the ganglionic-blocking drug «Nanophin» is used to treat hypertension, hypertensive crises, itchy dermatoses, eczema, and neurodermatitis. It is administered orally, subcutaneously, and intramuscularly. It is prescribed in tablets of 0.1 g and 0.2 g, 2–3 times a day, and in 2% and 5% solutions in ampoules for parenteral use, 1 ml, 2–3 times a day.