Name: Dried flower annual – immortals odnorichnі (harvesting and storage)
Dried flower annual – Xeranthemum annum L. Ukrainian name – immortals odnorichnі, folk names – skazhenyukha: cretaceous immortelle, semi-flower.
Compositae family – Asteraceae (Compositae).
Medicinal raw material is a herb.
It occurs in the southeastern regions of Ukraine, in the steppe and foothill parts of the Crimea. Grows on steppe slopes, pastures, outcrops, roadsides, dry forest edges and clearings, in rare thickets of steppe shrubs. In some places it forms thickets on tens and even hundreds of hectares. Stocks of raw materials
marsh and similar species are large. It is advisable to produce blanks in the Voroshilovgrad, Donetsk, Crimean regions.
An annual dried flower is a small plant with a taproot, poorly developed, slightly branched root. Aerial parts are whitish from adpressed hairs. Stem one, 10-15 cm high, ribbed, branched from the base. The leaves are alternate, linear, narrowed towards the base, almost sessile. Inflorescences – single baskets on the tops of the stem and its branches. Wrap inflorescences of membranous leaves: outer – pale, ovate, inner – linear-lanceolate, pink or pink-purple, twice as long as the outer ones. Marginal flowers are barren, middle ones are fertile, tubular, numerous (more than 100). The fruits are achenes with a tuft of five unequal lanceolate-awl-shaped bristles, which are slightly shorter than the fruit. Blooms in June-August. The fruits ripen in July-September.
Cylindrical dried flower grass – Xeranthemum cylindricum Siebth. et Sm. nc. closed – X. inapertum M i 11. With brownish-pink bracts that grow in the Crimea, it is not necessary to harvest.
Grass is harvested during flowering, pulling out plants with roots.
Dry in attics under an iron roof or under sheds with good ventilation, spreading a layer of 5-7 cm on paper or cloth and stirring occasionally.
According to FS 42 No. 50-72, the raw material consists of leafy plants up to 60 cm long. The color of the leaves is greenish-gray, the stems and baskets are gray, and the inflorescences are pinkish-lilac. The smell is weak. The taste is bitter. Humidity is not higher than 13%. In raw materials, no more than (percent) is allowed: darkened and browned parts – 4, crushed parts (passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 1 mm) – 2, organic and mineral impurities – according to D.
Dry grass is packed in bags weighing 15-20 kg. Store in dry, well-ventilated areas on pallets or racks. Storage period 3 years.
Dried annual flower contains flavones. It is used for gastric diseases, in the form of an infusion.