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.