A biennial thorny herbaceous plant. The stem is erect, branched in the upper part, up to 2 m high. The leaves are prickly, serrated; basal narrowed into a petiole, the rest are sessile, oblong, flowers in baskets, with a pitcher-shaped screwdriver. Baskets mostly solitary or several on the tops of the stem and branches. The flowers are light purple, tubular, collected in a large inflorescence – a basket, within 5 cm wide. The fruit is an achene with a tuft twice as large as the achene. Blooms from June to September.
It grows in damp meadows, along river banks, in roadside ditches, in weedy places in the southern regions, in the Caucasus, in the Baltic states, and Central Asia.
Medicinal raw materials are flower baskets, leafy shoots, leaves without thorns, collected during flowering, less often roots. The plant has a bitter taste. The raw material contains fatty oil, alkaloids.
Experimental studies have established that tatarnik products are of low toxicity and do not cause side effects with long-term use. In small doses they excite, and in large doses they depress the central nervous system. The drugs have a cardio-tonic effect, increase the strength of heart contractions, constrict peripheral vessels, and increase blood pressure. In addition, they increase the tone of smooth muscles, have a hemostatic and some bactericidal effect.
Tartar prickly (the aerial part during the flowering period) is officially used as a bactericidal, hemostatic, cardiotonic agent, in the form of a decoction – for the treatment of malignant tumors, in the treatment of tetanus and purulent wounds.
Doctors in some countries use it as a prophylactic after surgery – removal of malignant tumors, also in skin cancer, lupus and scrofula; in addition – in rheumatism, as a diuretic, in diseases of the bladder. colds, in the form of a decoction or powder – with pulmonary tuberculosis.
In folk medicine, tartar is used as a herbal decoction for uterine cancer and external cancers, as a decoction or powder for rheumatism, as an anticonvulsant for asthma, palpitations, as a sedative; as a diuretic – for diseases of the bladder, externally – for the treatment of purulent wounds.
Another species of this plant – Crimean Tatar – has a very active antibiotic effect. A decoction of the roots of this plant is used not without success in Russian folk medicine in the treatment of uterine cancer.
Application
Leaf decoction (thorns removed): 20 g per 200 ml; 1 st. spoon 3 times every day, with diseases of the bladder – 1 glass. A decoction of the leaves is sometimes used externally.
Leaf powder (without thorns): 1 teaspoon 3 times daily (with water).
Leaf infusion: 1 tbsp. pour a spoonful of leaves with a glass of boiling water, insist 4 hours. Take 1/2 cup 3 times every day.
The infusion is drunk with sore throat, inflammation of the larynx, wounds are sprinkled with powder from the leaves.