Name: Marsh sushi – dried flowers of marshes (harvesting and storage)
Marsh cudweed (marsh cudweed) – Gnaplialium uliginosum L. Ukrainian name – dried flowers of marshes, popular names – dried flowers; frog grass.
Compositae family – Asteraceae (Compositae).
The herb is used for medicinal purposes.
It occurs almost throughout Ukraine, but not often in the east and south. It grows in large quantities in the lowlands of the Carpathians, Transcarpathia, the Carpathians and Rostochie-Opole, also in the basin of the river. Dnieper on wet riverine sands and in depressions of the second terraces, less often in the basin of the river. Seversky Donets. It grows along the banks of rivers, ditches, swamps, wet meadows, roadsides, slopes with inflow of soil water, less often as a weed in fields and vegetable gardens.
Stocks of raw materials are large. Dozens of tons of grass can be harvested annually. Industrial blanks can be produced in Transcarpathian, Lvov, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhytomyr, Chernivtsi, Ternopil, Volyn, Rivne, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and other regions.
Marsh cudweed is an annual plant with grayish tomentose pubescence and poorly developed roots. Stem 5-30 cm high, prostrate branched from the base. The leaves are alternate, oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, narrowed towards the base, 1-5 cm long. Inflorescences are baskets, clustered at the ends of the branches and surrounded below by longish, radiant upper leaves. The flowers are very small, yellowish white. The fruits are achenes 0.5 mm long, smooth, glabrous, with a tuft of serrated hairs.
Blooms in June-August. The fruits ripen in August-September.
Other types of cudweed should not be harvested. It is necessary to distinguish some other pubescent plants from the Compositae family from the marsh cudweed.
Grass is harvested in the flowering phase, pulling out the entire plant and shaking off the sand.
Dry it in attics under an iron roof or under sheds with good ventilation, spreading a thin layer (3-5 cm) on paper or cloth and stirring occasionally. It can be dried in dryers at a temperature of 30-40 °. The yield of dry raw materials is 23-25%.
According to the Global Fund – X Art. 323, GOST 2236-51 raw material consists of grayish-felt, highly branched plants with roots, leaves and inflorescences (partially with fruits). The smell is weak. The taste is salty. Humidity is not higher than 13%. In raw materials, no more than 2% organic and 2% mineral impurities are allowed.
The total ash content should not exceed 20%, insoluble in 10% hydrochloric acid – 10%.
Dry grass, pressing, is packed into bales weighing 20, 40, 60 kg. Store in dry, well-ventilated areas on pallets and racks. Storage period up to 3 years. Raw materials are not subject to re-control.
The herb contains essential oil, alkaloid gnafalin, tannins, resins, carotene, vitamin C, phytosterols. An infusion of the herb is used as a hypotensive and wound healing agent for hypertension, gastric and duodenal ulcers.