FAMILY — CHENOPODIACEAE
Herbaceous plants or shrubs with alternate leaves. The flowers are regular; the perianth is simple, 5-lobed, membranous. The ovary is superior. The fruit is a dry nut enclosed in the persistent perianth, rarely a berry-like fruit. The embryo in the seeds can either surround the endosperm in a horseshoe shape, or have spirally twisted cotyledons, with almost no endosperm. The embryo cells contain fatty oil, while the endosperm cells contain starch, which is absent in the second type of seed.
Alkaloids and betaine derivatives have been found in a number of species in this family. Saponins are also present; the saponin is oleanolic acid. Many species have an abundance of organic acids in their green parts. Essential oil is rare (for example, in Chenopodium ambrosoides); tannins are either absent or present in small amounts. A characteristic feature of the family is high ash content, especially among halophytes; besides calcium oxalate, potassium nitrate, sodium chloride, sodium sulfate, sodium carbonate, and calcium carbonate have been found. The survival of these plants in saline deserts is due to the high concentration of salts in their cell sap, which exceeds the concentration in the soil moisture, allowing these plants to absorb water from the soil.
Widely distributed in the Caspian Depression is the leafless saltbush—Anabasis aphylla. Its alkaloid, anabasine sulfate, has no medicinal value and is used as an agricultural insecticide.
RICHTER’S SODA, CHERKESS — SALSOLA RICHTERI KAREL
Among the saltbushes, which are typically herbaceous plants or semi-shrubs, Salsola richteri stands out due to its tall growth. This is a large shrub or small tree with gray bark and thin, milk-white twigs. The plant has a xerophytic appearance, adapted to life in the desert. The leaves are cylindrical, thread-like, 4–8 cm long, and develop in spring, but leaf drop begins in May, and by autumn, only a few leaves remain. The flowers are small, brown, with two semi-circular bracts, located at the tips of the twigs in the axils of the leaves, forming a broken spike-like inflorescence. The perianth is 5-lobed, with the lobes meeting at the center, and during fruiting, the base of the lobes extends into horizontal, winged, membranous protrusions that are pink or reddish in color. The fruit, along with the wings, is round and wheel-shaped, 1–1.5 cm in diameter, with two opposing blunt tubercles at the bottom.
Salsola richteri is a xerophyte, inhabiting sandy dunes and clayey takyrs. Its range is confined to the desert zone of Central Asia. It is commonly found in the sands of the Kyzylkum and Karakum deserts, throughout Turkmenistan, except in the mountainous regions. Along with Haloxylon species, Calligonum species, and Salsola paletzkiana, it is a characteristic landscape plant of the sandy deserts; it is often used for sand stabilization near settlements and along railways.
The fruits of Salsola richteri – Fructus Salsolae Richteri – are harvested by hand with the thin twigs from September to November before the frost, when the majority of the fruit has fully developed. The raw material is dried by laying it out in the sun on some kind of bedding. The winged protrusions of the fruit lose their color during drying. Occasionally, early-collected raw material in the form of twigs with flowers and leaves is used.
Alkaloids such as salsoline, salsolidine, and traces of salsomine have been isolated from the fruits. Salsoline is a derivative of isoquinoline (1-methyl-6-oxy-7-methoxytetrahydroisoquinoline) and has a free oxy group, while in salsolidine, it is replaced by a methyl group. The fruits contain about 18% ash; saponins are absent.
The raw material is sent to an alkaloid plant for extracting salsoline and salsolidine. Both alkaloids lower blood pressure and are mainly prescribed for hypertension. Salsoline is more active than salsolidine.
The pharmaceutical industry produces salsoline hydrochloride in tablets of 0.03 g and in combined tablets with papaverine, theobromine, etc.; the dosage is 1 tablet three times a day. It is also available in ampoules as a 1% solution, injected subcutaneously 1–2 times a day.
As an undesirable impurity, the fruits of Salsola paletzkiana may be encountered, distinguished by the shape of the bracts, which are noticeable from the underside and bear a horn-like projection 1–3 cm long. This species does not contain alkaloids, and its galenical preparations can raise blood pressure.